Welcome to the Granite Island Light Station Web Site

Over a decade now, since becoming the Lighthouse Keeper at Granite Island, I am Scott L. Holman, born and raised in Ishpeming in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the first in the U.P. to have had a SCUBA diving shop which was located in Marquette, then known as "Lake Superior Skin Diving Company". While a student at Northern Michigan University I would take divers out to explore shipwrecks and visit Granite Island. By then, the light station had been shut down for over 20 years. My "Assistant Keeper" and spousal companion of 45 years, Martine (Biancardini), was born and raised in Paris, France and arrived in Ishpeming in 1965.
Your "keeper" has served as director for 12 years of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society at Whitefish Point, as well as a former Chair and member of NMU's Board of Trustees, Past President of the Steel Founders Society of America, and Regional Vice Chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Oh yes, I am now retired from making the worlds finest STEEL CASTINGS at Bay Cast, Inc. and TEST SUPPORT SYSTEMS at Bay Cast Tech. in Bay City, Michigan now in the able hands of my 3 sons, Scott, Max and Jason.

April 27th, 2000 marked our first visit as new owners and the first for me since 1963. Detailed photo documentation was made of conditions as we found them. The stone structure was in good shape, however the roof had caved in and the elements virtually destroyed the interior. One major repair job!! Logistics and access were the biggest problems, as no docking facility existed until we constructed a suspended steel dock and stairs on the South side and rebuilt the 1903 derrik. The Granite Island "Navy" consists of a Zodiac which logged over 3000 miles in 2000 and another combined 4000 miles in 2001 with the addition of a 30' Zodiac 920 with enclosed cabin and an old 1946 gillnet commercial fishing boat, the Oluf Mechelson. These work boats provide transportation for guests, researchers, maintenance crews from the mainland in the lower harbor. In the last decade, the Island has been visited every month in the year at some point.

Impressions? The "rock" has a lot of dimensional character with its cliffs and cravasses, "tide" pools and rocky bays. Approaching the island by boat from a distance reminds a little of St. Michaels Mt in Cornwall. The building is a 2,408 sq. ft. stone dwelling circa 1868 with: oil house, out-house, fog-bell tower and steel light tower. The 2.49 acre island, and light-house quarters is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (P24163).