1867

• Congress grants $18,000 for a light station on South Fox Island.
• The height of the tower from the base to the top of the ventilator is 45 feet. The revolving 4th order Fresnel lens was fixed red with a red flash. It was 68 feet above lake level.
• It was first lit on November 1, 1867 by lighthouse keeper Henry J. Roe.

Information on keepers can be found here.

1880

• To prevent drifting sand and snow, Keeper Willis Warner builds a board fence around the light station, 320 feet long and five feet high.

1890

• New landing docks are built, consisting of sunk cribs. The Boathouse is moved closer to the docks.

1892

• Keeper Louis Bourisseau builds 600 feet of wooden walkways, two feet wide to connect buildings,

1895

• After years of delays, a Fog Signal building is erected with a 10-inch steam whistle fog signal.
• A brick Oil House is built with a capacity of 360 gallons of kerosene to replace the prior lard oil.

1897

• A new Boathouse is built.

1898

• A well with Pumphouse is dug to provide a better water supply for the fog signal.
• New wooden walkways are built to connect the Boathouse and the Pumphouse to existing walkways.
• A new dock including a derrick is built next to the new Boathouse.
• A wood frame Assistant Keepers’ Quarters (five rooms for two keepers) is built
• The station was open year round the winter of ’98-99 at the request of ferry companies. The fog signal was in operation some 581 hours and consumed about 42 cords of wood and 43 tons of coal.

1900

• A steam launch replaces the open sailing skiff that had served as the station’s official craft.

1905

• A second well is sunk east-northeast of the original well dug in 1898.

1906

• A post office is built at the Plank farm on the southeastern side of South Fox Island.

1910

• The wooden Assistant Keepers’ Quarters is replaced with a two-story red brick building. The new building was built with indoor plumbing, quite a luxury in those days.
• The yellow bricks of the Light Tower are whitewashed.

1911

• The island’s post office is closed. Mail is delivered only once or twice a month.

1915

• Deer are introduced to the island.

1916

• The light is converted to oil vapor, increasing the intensity of the light.

1920s

• Farming on the island is abandoned.

1928

• Edward Guest, a construction engineer of the lighthouse service, and his assistant, Francis Kimball, build a dock in November.

1929

• The light is electrified. The steam fog signal is replaced with a Tyfon air fog-signal with duplicate horizontal air compressors and a gasoline engine-driven electric generator.

1933

• The Skeletal Tower on Sapelo Island, Georgia, a square pyramidal cast iron skeletal tower of the ’Sanibel’ class, built in 1905, is disassembled and the components are shipped to South Fox Island.

1934

• Workers from Northport reassemble the Skeletal Tower on the southern tip of South Fox Island, southwest of the old lighthouse, closer to the shoreline. The focal plane is 129 feet above the lake, sixty-two feet higher than the old lighthouse. The 4th order lens produced a white flash every thirty seconds.

1939

• The US Lighthouse Service becomes part of the US Coast Guard.

1954

• The Fog Signal is discontinued.

1958

• The light station is converted to an automatic light. Allen Cain, the last official lightkeeper of South Fox Island, leaves the island.

1959

• The last crew leaves the South Fox Island Light Station. The equipment of the lantern room, including a 4th order Fresnel lens, is moved to Old Presque Isle Light on Lake Huron.

1962

• The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) introduces more deer to the island.

1968

• The automatic light system is shut down. Electronic navigation has rendered it obsolete.

1971

• The U.S. Department of Interior transfers the southernmost 115 acres to the DNR for public park and recreation “in perpetuity.”

1975

• A DNR maintenance crew of five make a trip to the island to clean out and secure the buildings, repair the roofs, tear off old porches, kill poison ivy and sundry other projects.

1978

• The DNR Waterways Division acquired the property with the idea of developing it in the future as a harbor of refuge. The historical significance of the island could be used to advantage with tours through the buildings and area.

1982

• The DNR visits in May, finding a number of buildings have been broken into and that two panels in the tower had been shot out. Plans are made to secure things on a return trip.

1984

• The DNR engages the Traverse Bay Area Area Vocational Center to clean up and secure the station.   Bradley Boese supervises 10 members of the Michigan Youth Corp in doing the needed work.

The history of island land swaps between 1994 and 2003 can be found here.

1997

• Gordon Kiker establishes a website for the South Fox Island Lighthouse Project.  He proposes a 501(c)(3) to raise funds and begin restoration.

2000

• Inspired by a trip to the station, Catherine Allchin, Brad Boese, and friends call a meeting at the Leland Library and FIEA (Fox Island Education Association) is formed, the latest of several attempts to preserve the station.

2001

• In September, the DNR bans hunting on the southernmost 115 acres of South Fox to prevent vandalism to the historic lighthouse.

2004

• The Fox Island Lighthouse Association (FILA) is established. The organization’s history can be found here.