I was joshing with a relative of mine about the ugly pictures I post, and she stated none of my posted pictures were ugly. Well today I will prove her wrong as today’s picture is about as ugly as a photograph can be and about the sorriest looking lighthouse and ugliest island that exists.

No one would vacation on this 3.51 acre island as there wouldn’t be a dry spot if a big wave rolled in and the lighthouse wouldn’t be turned into a bed and breakfast. Even the cruise ships taking people to tour the other nearby lighthouses, don’t pass by this lighthouse even though near the northern point of Michigan Island which has two pretty lighthouses (except under certain circumstances which might change the boat’s course as was the case for me since it did go by this ignored lighthouse).

As as the name suggests, Gull Island has thousands of nesting gulls and even those servicing the fifty foot lighthouse don’t like to visit due to the dive bombing birds and the stench from all the bird droppings. There wasn’t many gulls on the island the late fall day as I passed by but other birds like the cormorants were resting on the shore.

But since this skeleton tower, which originally serviced a light in Pennsylvania, was first place in service on Gull Island (the smallest of the Apostles Islands in Lake Superior) on September 30, 1929, I will post an ugly picture for today as it did serve to protect boats with an acetylene light which could be seen for thirteen miles as it displayed a white flash every ten seconds to warn sailors of the three and half mile underwater ledge protruding from the tiny island.

Gull Island Light