The Baileys Harbor Range Lights

The Baileys Harbor Range Lights. Hidden Brook Boardwalk. In 1848, Captain Justice Bailey was sailing his ship southward on Lake Michigan when a storm caused him and his crew to seek refuge in a nearby bay. When he stepped foot onto the sand to explore this bay, he realized he could profit from harvesting lumber from the boreal forest he found. Thus,, Baileys Harbor became the first town in Door County, and a port for shipping lumber down to Milwaukee and Chicago. , In 1869, The Upper and Lower Range Lights were built. They worked in tandem to steer ships safely into the harbor. It was a difficult task, seeing as Baileys Harbor is horseshoe-shaped, with shallow, rocky shoals at the mouth of the bay. The white light of the Upper Range Light is 17 feet higher than the red light of the lower range light. About 4 miles out into Lake Michigan, ships would line up the white and red lights vertically, ensuring they were "on range," and staying safely on course to come into the harbor. , The Range Lights remained active until 1969, when they were replaced with a day shape on the south side of Ridges Road. After a restoration of the Lower Range Light in 2013, volunteers of The Ridges petitioned the Coast Guard to reactivate the Range Lights. In 2015, they were granted permission to reactivate the lights and the day shape was removed. Today, the Baileys Harbor Range Lights can be used to navigate into Baileys Harbor when modern navigational aids are unavailable.