About Us
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The Huron Island Lighthouse Preservation Association (HILPA)
is an IRS designated 501(c)(3) Michigan non-profit corporation whose mission is to maintain the buildings, history & cultural significance of the Huron Island Lighthouse and associated buildings. As such all of our members and directors are volunteers and receive no salary so 100% of any donations or purchases are used to fulfill this mission.
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The Huron Island Lighthouse is a historic structure located on West Island (aka Lighthouse Island) in the chain of Huron Islands. Construction of the lighthouse was complete in 1868 and various other support buildings were constructed and still exist on West Huron Island today. These support buildings include an assistant light-keeper's residence, boathouse, privy, oil house, rail tram with turnstile and a fog horn signal building.
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The islands have a very rich history in that the Native Americans gathered eggs as a food source from these islands for centuries. In 1868 it became an active lighthouse guiding mariners around the dangerous islands and into Keweenaw Bay to support the mining and logging industries. The very first lighthouse keeper was a man by the name of Able Hall. Able Hall married Mary Clark the adopted Ojibwa daughter of Reverend John Clark, the first white Methodist missionary at L'Anse Bay. Together Able and Mary raised 3 children. On October 20th 1868 Able Hall was appointed as the lighthouse keeper and two of his sons, Charles Francis and Frank, were chosen as his assistant keepers. In 1905 Theodore Roosevelt designated the islands as the 1st wildlife refuge in the Midwest (and the 5th in the nation) to protect the nesting Herring Gulls. Today the islands are managed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and were designated as the Huron Island Wilderness in 1970 under the Wilderness Act of 1964. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Lighthouse Island is the only island where visitors are allowed to visit without permission from the US Fish & Wildlife Service
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We are working in conjunction with the US of Fish & Wildlife Service to insure that this special place called the Huron Islands remains as a reminder of days gone past to all who have a chance to visit them.
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