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Page 92 Saving the South Channel Lights by Arthur M. Woodford From March 2009 through April 2010 the Dossin Great Lakes Museum hosted a fascinating exhibit, "L is for Lighthouse" which told the story of the lighthouses of the Great Lakes. One segment of the exhibit looked at the many types of lighthouse structures around the Great lakes. Another described how lenses were designed and adapted for diverse locations. Finally, the exhibit focused on local lights - those unique and historic structures scattered strategically up and down the Detroit and St.Clair Rivers. Interestingly, several of these lighthouses are within a short distance of the museum. One of the oldest of these, and yet one of the least known, is a pair of lighthouses, or more correctly range lights, located about half a mile southwest of the tip of Harsen's Island at the head of the "Old Cut," where the South Channel of the St. Clair River flows into Lake St. Clair. This is the story of these two range lights and the dedicated group of volunteers working to save them. By the 1850s, commerce between the upper and lower Great Lakes was beginning to boom. The only connecting waterway between Lakes Erie and Huron was up the Detroit River, across Lake St. Clair and on up the St. Clair River to Port Huron. Navigation up the rivers at night was a challenge, but not impossible. However, navigating the St. Clair Flats region of the St. Clair River Delta was only possible during daylight hours. The "Flats", as the area is still known to this day, consist of a series of channels, islands, marshes and bays at the mouth of the St. Clair River where it flows into Lake St. Clair. In the 1850s this shallow area of the St. Clair River was a major navigational obstacle to shipping and a source of significant loss through accidents and delays. In fact the bay on Lake St. Clair's northern shore takes its name from the many schooners that had to "heave to" for the night and resume their voyages in the morning - it is still called Anchor Bay. To help alleviate this bottleneck, the federal government in 1858 authorized the construction of a pair of range lights at The Flats to mark the way into the South Channel, the deep channel, of the St. Clair River where the schooners could head north. Construction of the St. Clair Flats South Channel Range Lights, as they were officially named, began in early July 1858. Construction was completed the following fall and the lights went on line for the first time on November 1,1859. The lights are of a unique design. Both were built on filled wooden timber cribs. The front light was a 23 foot brick tower with a small View of the Front and Rear St. Clair Flats South Channel Range Lights, circa 1898.