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The U.S. Coast Guard has announced that they want to remove the 4th order Fresnel lens that has been in Tawas Point Lighthouse in East Tawas, Michigan since 1901.
Even though the light has been more than adequate to mariners for 115 years, the Coast Guard wants to replace the light in the tower with a modern optic out on the point, which they claim can be better seen by boaters and that a light is no longer needed in the tower. But the real reason may be in their statement that “the Fresnel lens is antiquated and subject to environmental damage.”
However, officials with the State of Michigan which has owned the lighthouse since 2002, and operates it as a museum, would like to see the Fresnel lens stay in the tower. But, because of the Coast Guard’s overvaluations of Fresnel lenses and their extremely overly aggressive stance on how a Fresnel lens should be preserved that could be a losing battle.
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