By James Heinz
Over the years the U.S. Coast Guard has decommissioned many of its lighthouses. Many of these structures have been turned over to nonprofit organizations or individuals, such as the one written about here: https://wmhs.org/the-manitowoc-lighthouse-is-now-open-for-tours/
Some of them have a functioning light and are still active aids to navigation, like the Chicago breakwater light https://wmhs.org/a-lighthouse-tour-on-national-lighthouse-day/
But there is one privately owned lighthouse with a functioning light that came to exist in an unusual way.
The owner built it himself.
The original builder was a Serbian Orthodox priest named Brana Kevich and his wife, who built a private lighthouse connected to a private home along the lakeshore in Grafton, Wis. It is listed in the USCG Light List as light #20765 and was registered a class II private aid to navigation in 1990.
The light has a focal plane of 163 feet above the surface of the lake and is mounted on a white cylindrical tower 50 feet tall. This is the highest focal plane of any lighthouse on the Great Lakes. It is also the newest lighthouse on the Great Lakes. As far as I know, the next oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes is the Port Washington breakwater light, which was built in 1935 and is located in Wisconsin.
Every lighthouse has properties of its light that uniquely identify the light, they are called a “characteristic”. The Kevich lighthouse characteristic is an isophase light, which means a light with alternating light and dark periods of equal length, in this case eight seconds of white light followed by eight seconds of darkness.
The light itself has a 400 watt metal halide lamp mounted above a 1,000 watt metal halide lamp, and a metal shield that rotates around the fixed light to produce alternating the periods of light and dark. To confirm that this is so, I visited the lighthouse one evening and found it sending its bright beam out onto the Lake.
In 1996 the lighthouse was sold to another couple. The light is not open to the public, so do not go there and traipse around the grounds because of this article.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
