Big Red 103

This photograph was taken by Brad Cavanaugh. It is of Big Red Lighthouse located in Holland Michigan. During the resort heyday, a Life Saving Station was opened on Lake Michigan in 1893. Ten years later it was replaced by a U.S. Coast Guard Station. The first lighthouse was erected with $4,000 of federal funds in 1872, twenty years before the harbor was complete. It was a small, square, wooden structure that stood on an open platform on legs above the deck of the pier. So after the turn of the century, when the harbor was finally finished, a breakwater was built and the wooden tower was replaced by a taller, steel structure which housed the lamp. The last active lighthouse keeper was Joseph M. Boshka who served until 1940.