Presque Isle Breakwater Lighthouse

Between 1897 and 1902, a 1,216-foot breakwater was extended from the southern point of Marquette’s Presque Isle in a southeasterly direction. In 1938, the Lighthouse Service announced a project for placing an unattended light at the end of the planned extension of the breakwater at Presque Isle Harbor. A contract for extending the breakwater 1,600 feet and building the lighthouse was awarded to Polaris Concrete Products Company of Duluth, who had the low bid of $596,000. Presque Isle Harbor Breakwater Lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. The nomination form noted that Presque Isle Harbor is the ninth busiest port on the Great Lakes and is home to Michigan’s last operating iron ore pocket dock, which is responsible for shipping around nine million tons of taconite pellets each year.