Built in 1870, the Mission Point Lighthouse is located at the end of the Old Mission Point, a peninsula jutting into Grand Traverse Bay some 17 miles north of Traverse City, Michigan.

For 67 years the light served to warn mariners about the shoals off the point. However, new techniques in offshore construction and the automation of lighthouse illumination made it possible to build a navigation aid on the shoal itself. And so, in 1933 the old lamp was decommissioned.

Famously, the lighthouse stands a few hundred yards south of the 45^thparallel north, halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.

Apologies for the standard of photographs but the day Mike and I visited, a wedding was just about to commence on the beach right in front of the lighthouse. It was impossible to get down onto the beach and take pictures from the front as bridesmaids awaited the bride, a band was setting up and family and friends were milling around, hence the views of the lighthouse from the side and back!

If interested, there is currently a vacancy to “Be a Keeper” living in the Lighthouse and becoming part of Michigan’s Lighthouse Keeper Programme. It is a “wonderfully unique volunteer” opportunity, the job advert reads, whereby you will live in the lighthouse, meet and help visitors from all over the world and run the small gift shop and museum! Not sure about being in this remote spot in winter, regardless of the free WiFi they are touting!