Spectacle Reef

Latitude: 45°46'32.916" N
Longitude: 84°8'9.2904" W
Site Elevation: 177 meters above sea level

Construction of the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse began in 1870 on top of a submerged limestone reef off the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinaw and the 86 foot tall lighthouse was finished in 1874 at a cost of $406,000. After the first winter of construction, the keepers found ice piled against the lighthouse at a height of 30 feet, or 7 feet higher than the doorway, and they could not gain entrance until they had cut away the ice. The Coast Guard removed the last keepers from Spectacle Reef Lighthouse in 1972 and automated the light. In May 2014, the lighthouse was deemed excess by the Coast Guard and was available for purchase under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The lighthouse was auctioned off in 2015 to the owner of Borden Flats Lighthouse in Massachusetts.

An eddy covariance station was placed at the top of Spectacle Reef Lighthouse in 2008 by Dr. Peter Blanken from the University of Boulder-Colorado. The eddy covariance station along with other ancillary meteorological instrumentation are 30 meters above the water level. Meteorological data from the lighthouse are sent to the National Data Buoy Center where they can be viewed in real-time at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=srlm4