Caseville is home to Michigan’s
newest commissioned lighthouse
Condo’s decorative tower actually will guide boaters
William Crane Demonstrates one of the many duties of the lightkeepers of old: Assuring that the light is burning to guide mariners safely into harbors.

By Molly A. Dando
The County Press
JUNE -- 2003

   Michigan’s newest lighthouse the Caseville Harbor Light lighthouse — has been performing its guiding task faithfully eveiynight since it went into service last summer.
    Coast Guard Capt. Mark L. Miller commissioned the unit June 30, 2001. The lighthouse stands 65 feet above water level and flashes half a second every 10 seconds from its site on the former Fisherman’s Cove condominiums (now known as Caseville Harbor Light condominiums in line with the lighthouse name).
    What appears at first glance to be a deco-j rative architectural accent, the tower with the red roof is actually an officially registered Class II private aid lighthouse.
    The decision to link a lighthouse with the condominium development can be traced to William Crane, a lighthouse enthusiast and board member of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Museum in Mackinac City. Crane, with James Murdoch, is behind the éondo project.
    Crane was one of the last civilians to visit White Shoal lighthouse 22 miles west of the Mackinaw Bridge. To get there, he had to use his 18-foot powerboat.
Crane loves lighthouses, and when he realized Caseville harbor didn’t have one, approached his architect with the idea of incorporating one into the condominium’s Phase One building design. As soon as he was told it could
 be done, the lighthouse was born.
    Access to the lighthouse is through one of the units.

    "I patterned its design after Point Leelanau Lighthouse. Its dimensions are the same,” Crane said. " it gives off a 5 1/2 mile beam into the Lake and serves as a range light for the channel. It lines up with the green navigational. light at the tip of the Caseville breakwall.”
     “That was purely an accident,” said his lifetime partner. “The Lord knows more than we do,” she added.
      Eager to describe his pride and joy in detail, Crane is quick to point out that it boasts an eight-sided cupola. Most are six-sided. The red roof is traditional.

       Crane explained that the traditional red roof of the lighthouse was always equipped with a smokestack to allow fumes from the whale oil lamps to escape. The Caseville lightouse didn’t need that detail, he said.
      It is complete with a “bird beak,” a 12-inch ball topped by a cone resembling a bird beak. Its purpose remains the same as those found on older lighthouses: to keep seagulls from perching and soiling the lighthouse’s roof and windows.
        Phase One of the now renamed Caseville Harbor Lights condominiums contains six units, two more have recently been sold and closing for another is scheduled in the coming days.
       Plans are under way to add a swimming pool this summer and to begin taking reservations for Phase Two, which will include another 10 units, some of which will have single story/ranch style layouts, and a connecting elevator to service both buildings.
      The complex also includes a 20-slip boat marina, which the developers believe adds to the attraction for boaters who want to spend more time enjoying the water than maintaining a home.

Murdoch and Crane are now handling future condominium unit sales directly. 
 More information is available via either website:

www.CasevilleHarborLightCondos.com or CasevilleHarborLight@CharterMl.net or 
calling (989)245-1339 or (989)793-1914.

Stepping out onto the deck of his cherished Caseville Harbor Lights lighthouse, William Crane, sporting a lighthouse keeper’s uniform, waves to passersby in between taking in the view. Access to the lighthouse is through one,of the condominium’s units.