4 Michigan Lighthouses Are Up For Sale

If you’ve ever dreamed of taking up residence in an abandoned lighthouse and living out your days watching passing ships and gliding gulls, you might want to consider relocating to Michigan. The state currently has four offshore Lake Michigan lighthouses up for sale.

The White Shoal Light, Minneapolis Shoal Light, Gray’s Reef Light, and North Manitou Shoal Light are all on the market, with opening bids in the $10,000 to $15,000 range. The beacons are being auctioned off—a process that occurs only after the properties have been shopped to federal, state, and local government agencies, and nonprofits by the U.S. General Services Administration. If no qualified buyers are found, the lighthouses go up for public auction.

The North Manitou Shoal Light has four bedrooms, plumbing, and generator-powered electrical service. A group visit for registered bidders is planned to the lighthouse on August 30, but it’s no casual affair: you need to put down a $10,000 deposit first.

While owning a lighthouse might seem pretty romantic, it does involve a certain amount of official duties. Though the locations aren’t considered critical, most are still active and will remain the property of the U.S. Coast Guard, who will need regular access to maintain them.

Check out the four lighthouses up for grabs below, and if The Great Lakes State isn’t your style, there are currently other lighthouses for sale in Connecticut and Wisconsin.

North Manitou Shoal Light // Mark Breederland, Michigan Sea Grant via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Grays Reef Lighthouse // cmh2315fl via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

U.S. General Services Administration

White Shoal Light (sorry we had to remind you about, you know, winter) // Wikimedia Commons

[h/t Detroit Free Press]

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