Marblehead Lighthouse celebrates its 200th anniversary, May 21, 2022

MARBLEHEAD, Ohio -- Before there was a road, before there was a town – before there was Cedar Point, across the bay – there was a lighthouse, rising from the rock, warning incoming boaters about the dangers nearby.

For 200 years that lighthouse has stood sentinel on the south shore of Lake Erie, lighting the way.

Today, the Marblehead Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the Great Lakes, is as much tourist attraction as navigational aid, due to GPS and other on-shore landmarks.

“At this point, the lighthouse is probably as much romanticism as necessity,” said Dennis Kennedy, president of the Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society, which is spearheading a summer-long bicentennial birthday bash for the 65-foot-tall stucco-and-stone beauty.

Still, every evening at dusk, the green LED light atop the structure illuminates, a beacon for the region.

It almost didn’t make it this far.

Back in the 1980s, the U.S. Coast Guard, which operates the lighthouse, put the elegant structure on its list of “excess property,” proposing to replace it with a light-topped steel pole.

The community objected and helped broker a deal between the federal government and the state of Ohio. In 1998, the lighthouse and its 9 surrounding acres became Ohio’s newest state park. Today, it is one of the state’s most popular, drawing as many as a million visitors a year, who come to climb the 77 steps to the top for tremendous views, search for fossils hiding in the ancient rocks or picnic on the scenic grounds.

The park is located about 80 miles west of Cleveland, on land formerly known as Rocky Point, now the Marblehead Peninsula (which is made out of limestone not marble, despite its name).

The lighthouse helps guide traffic through the tricky southern passage of Lake Erie at the western edge of Sandusky Bay, one of the busiest and most treacherous stretches of the Great Lakes, with shoals and shallow areas, particularly sensitive to inclement weather.

On glorious summer days, the waterway is filled with recreational boaters dodging freighters, fishing charters and the Kelleys Island Ferry.

The area is an easy day trip from Cleveland, or, better yet, a lovely overnight, with easy access to some of Ohio’s top attractions, including Cedar Point, the Lake Erie Islands and Lakeside Chautauqua.

Read more: Make it a weekend: Kelleys Island, Lakeside Chautauqua, Cedar Point all within easy reach of Marblehead Lighthouse

Leave some time, too, for the village of Marblehead, founded in 1891, 70 years after the lighthouse was constructed, largely inhabited at the time by workers at the numerous limestone quarries in the region.

There’s still one quarry operation here, operated by France-based Lafarge. Locals have long become accustomed to periodic loud quarry blasts coming from the interior of the peninsula, as well as the elevated conveyor that transports aggregate rock across Main Street to awaiting ships docked on the lake.

The town has a year-round population of fewer than 900, but swells to much higher in the summer. It’s an interesting mix of fishing village, company town and tourist town, with a Main Street lined with restaurants, a winery, gift shops and ice cream parlors.

The town’s best known attribute, however, is its iconic lighthouse.

Constructed in 1821 and first lit in 1822, the lighthouse was the fifth to operate in the Great Lakes, following beacons in Buffalo, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; and two in Canada on Lake Ontario. None of those first four, however, is still operating.

Also on Marblehead park grounds is an 1880s-era keeper’s house, which replaced the original stone abode built for first keeper Benajah Wolcott, who managed the lighthouse from 1822-32, and who was succeeded after his death by wife Rachel, the first female keeper on the Great Lakes. (There’s a second keeper’s house in Marblehead, built in 1822, located about two miles southwest of the lighthouse, which was the Wolcotts’ personal home; see ottawacountyhistory.org for tour information.)

In total, there were 15 Marblehead Lighthouse keepers, including two women, from 1822 until 1943, when the U.S. Coast Guard took over.

The keeper’s house in the park now houses a gift shop and small museum, which details lighthouse history. On display is the large Fresnel lens installed at Marblehead in 1903, which directed light through a series of prisms, making it brighter and able to be seen farther away with less fuel.

There’s also a replica of Marblehead’s 1876 U.S. Lifesaving Station on park grounds, a precursor to the Coast Guard. The original station was located about a mile away, on the site of the current Coast Guard station, one of the busiest in the Great Lakes. Inside the replica station, visitors can learn about early efforts to save passengers and crew and view a complicated contraption called a breeches buoy, which used a cannon ball to launch a rescue line to capsized boaters.

The lighthouse, however, is the star of this show.

Built in 11 weeks with walls that are 5 feet thick, the lighthouse was originally 50 feet tall. It was lengthened in the late 1800s in an effort to extend its reach to larger boats sailing farther out, and now measures 65 feet to the top.

In order to support the extra height and weight, a second column was constructed, this one made of brick, inside the original limestone structure. At the same time, a wrought iron spiral staircase was added inside, replacing wooden ladders, making it easier to climb -- then and now.

The lighthouse was initially illuminated via 13 whale-oil burning lanterns that required 80 pounds of oil per night. (“That’s why there are no whales left in Lake Erie,” joked Kennedy.) The oil was replaced by kerosene and finally, in 1923, electricity.

Today, a green LED light flashes every six seconds, from dawn until dusk, and during inclement weather.

Tours are offered noon-4 p.m. daily, May 28 through Labor Day, Sept. 5. Cost is $3. Tours last 20 minutes and can accommodate 30 visitors – and frequently sell out, so get there early in the day, if possible. (Advanced sale tickets are not available.)

The view from the top is spectacular – with Cedar Point to the east, Kelleys Island and Put-in-Bay to the north and Ohio’s Great Lake (almost) all around.

Whether admired from the ground or 65 feet up, the Marblehead Lighthouse has become a symbol of Ohio and Lake Erie, a marvel of historic preservation and a top tourist attraction. Happy birthday, Marblehead Lighthouse, and may you shine as brightly for the next 200 years.

Marblehead Lighthouse at dusk, with its green light illuminated.

IF YOU GO: Marblehead Lighthouse State Park

Where: 110 Lighthouse Drive, just off Ohio 163 in Marblehead, about 80 miles east of Cleveland

When: The park is open 6 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. Tours to the top of the lighthouse are offered noon-4 p.m. daily May 28-Sept. 5. Cost is $3.

Where to stay: The Red Fern Inn, inside a 1893-era schoolhouse, offers four well-appointed suites in downtown Marblehead, with a fifth room opening this summer. Rates start at about $190 and fill up quickly on weekends (information: redferninn.com). Nearby is the historic Hotel Lakeside, with 70 rooms inside Lakeside Chautauqua, the Victorian-era summer resort (see lakesideohio.com). Also nearby: East Harbor State Park, with Ohio’s largest public campground and a mile-long, sandy beach. Information: ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/east-harbor-state-park

Where to dine: Marblehead Galley serves what many rank as the region’s top perch, lightly breaded and fried, served solo or atop a bun. The restaurant, at 113 W. Main St., also offers daily specials that locals rave about (see marbleheadgalley.com). Also in town: Rocky Point Winery, on the first floor of the Red Fern Inn, which serves housemade wines and upscale snacks in a lovely outdoor setting; Latitude Café (facebook.com/mrblhead) and Victory Coffee & Company (victorycoffeeandcompany.com) for breakfast and lunch; new bakery Pickle and Chip’s Field Trip (pickleandchipsfieldtrip.com); and Brown’s Dairy Dock, for ice cream cones and other concoctions (facebook.com/Browns-Dairy-Dock-131796494312). For a list of Marblehead shops and places to eat: facebook.com/MarbleheadMerchantsGroup

Bicentennial events: The Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society has planned a summer filled with special events, including concerts, plein air painting, scavenger hunts and more. For a complete calendar: marbleheadlighthouseohio.org

More information: marbleheadlighthouseohio.org, ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/marblehead-lighthouse-state-park, shoresandislands.com

Read more: New in Ohio tourism for 2022: Hocking Hills State Park Lodge, Kings Island’s 50th birthday, Marblehead Lighthouse bicentennial

A replica of Marblehead's 1870s-era U.S. Lifesaving Station was constructed near the Marbehead Lighthouse in 2015, funded by the Marblehead lighthouse Historical Society.

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