Eagle Harbor Entrance Channel and Range Lights

Eagle Harbor Entrance Channel and Range Lights. . Eagle Harbor was an important port of refuge on this North Shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula during the last half of the nineteenth century., Settlers, speculators and miners arrived at the two docks, and large boats were loaded with unprocessed copper destined for the lower lakes., However, early shippers found Eagle Harbor to be hazardous due to shallow water and rock obstacles that often inflicted damage and delay on their craft., The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dug a 13½ ft. channel into the harbor in 1877 and marked it with cribbed rock. The rock cribbing, filled with rock blasted from nearby outcroppings and sunk on either side of the channel, is visible about midpoint across the entrance to the harbor. The channel is still in use today., Range lights were also established in 1877 by the U.S. Lighthouse Service to guide boats safely through the channel. The rear light was displayed on a range lighthouse while the front light was on a tower on the shore., Contemporary range lights on steel towers are now in use in the same positions.