White River Light Station

Local officials began requesting a lighthouse at the entrance to White Lake in the early 1850s and the Michigan Legislature officially requested a lighthouse at this location on Jan. 19, 1853.

Mill owner Charles Mears and Giles and Elliott Slocum, local land owners and merchants, began urging the government to build a new channel from White Lake into Lake Michigan in the early 1860s. The U.S. Congress appropriated $67,000 for the project in 1866.

The Congress also appropriated $10,000 on July 28, 1866, for "A new lighthouse at the harbor of White River, Muskegon County, in the State of Michigan: Provided that no expenditure shall be made upon the aforesaid works at White River, until a careful survey shall have been made, and the character of the structure required shall have been thus determined."

The building of the new channel and the major harbor improvements began, but were implemented at a very slow pace and an additional appropriation of $45,000 was made by the U.S. Congress in 1869.

The new channel construction was in its final stages in 1870 and was completed in early 1871. Later in 1871, $1,059 was spent to set up a beacon light on the South Pier. In early 1872, a local man and former seaman, William Robinson, became the first Lightkeeper for the beacon light.

Nothing was done about the request for $4,000 for a keeper´s dwelling and the Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board for 1873 states:

The new lighthouse site was initially surveyed by J. F. Tinkham on Aug. 26, 1874. The jurisdiction of the land for the new light station was ceded to the U.S. government by an act of the Michigan Legislature approved on March 24, 1874, and was approved by the U.S. Attorney General on Oct. 14, 1875.

There were two deeds to the property signed over to the State of Michigan, one from Charles and Carrie Mears dated March 8, 1875, and one from Edward P. Ferry executor for the will of William M. Ferry dated Sep. 21,1874.

The request for the land appropriation was signed by President U. S. Grant, and consisted of 2.9 acres deeded at no cost from the state of Michigan to the United States.

Excerpted with permission of the author from:
  White River light Station
  by Thomas A. Tag
  Copyright @ 1996

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