When Tehkummah was first opened to settlement by non-indigenous residents in the late 1860s, how those settlers were supposed to get to the lots they'd purchased at the southeastern corner of the island from their starting point in southern Ontario became a major issue.
In those early days before the road to Tehkummah had been built, they could travel by steamer to Little Current at the island's north end then struggle southward along rustic paths or they could arrive at Michael's Bay in the southeast on the lumber hookers that travelled back and forth between the timber mill and the mainland on a regular basis.
By 1869, RA Lyon's lumber operation was doing significant business, some of which was actually legal, and was on target to ship over two million board feet of sawn lumber to markets in the south that year alone, making the mill at Michael's Bay not only economically important to the island but also to the settlers who were in desperate need of employment.
Lyon approached the government with a deal he felt they wouldn't be able to resist. There was no lighthouse within 80 miles of Michael's Bay and it was large enough to accommodate the arrival of all those settlers while also providing safe harbour to the multitude ships navigating Lake Huron. He would be willing to split the cost of the construction of a lighthouse on Michael's Point so that there would be a landmark marking the entrance to the bay, making it easier to find and increasing the rate at which the fledgling communities of Michael's Bay and Tekhummah could be settled. As an added incentive, Lyon offered to provide the salary for the lightkeeper.
The government agreed to pay half the estimated building costs ($195) based on an estimate Lyon had given them and construction commenced later that year. When completed, the Michael's Bay lighthouse, located 40 feet above the water, stood 28 feet high and was fitted with a fixed white catoptric light that contained a mammoth flat-wick lamp and two 30-inch reflectors. On clear nights, it was visible 13 miles away.
On October 21,1870, the lighthouse was lit for the first time and was in operation when all but the very first of the Tehkummah settlers set foot on the island just a few years later. The total cost of construction was $259.94 -- well below Lyon's initial estimate -- but there's no evidence that Lyon refunded the amount the government had over payed.
It would turn out that Lyon had left a few things out when he proposed the government help fund the building of the lighthouse at Michael's Bay, the most important of which was the bay being so shallow that only ships with moderate drafts could enter and even they had to navigate a narrow channel between Michael's Point and a small island which meant the bay was useless to large lake boats although the lighthouse could still be used by them as a navigational aide.
The first lightkeeper was 38-year-old Nova Scotia born Joseph Howe, who continued to be employed by Lyon in this capacity until 1876. A year earlier, Lyon had offered to sell the lighthouse and the structures he had built at its base to the government. However, they quickly determined that, in fact, they already owned the structures and the land they were sitting on. Lyon was, in essence, attempting to sell the government its own property.
The government took possession of the lighthouse, paying Lyon $589.90 to cover costs associated with maintaining the lighthouse between May 1874 to September 1876, this in spite of an inspection that showed maintenance efforts had been minimal at best. The inspector also noted that the lighthouse was only 22 feet high, not the 28 feet that Lyon had claimed.
Despite all this, Lyon would continue to control the lighthouse. Joseph Howe, however, was replaced by a cooper named John Chisholm who would live with his wife and four children in a house at the base of the lighthouse until 1883 when he was promoted to replace Lyon. Chisholm hired a new lightkeeper to take over his old job.
By the spring of 1899, the lumber operation had shut down, seemingly for good, and the Michael's Bay lighthouse was deemed redundant, partly because of the failure of the lumber operation, but mostly because it had been rendered obsolete by two range lights that had been installed at South Baymouth a dozen kilometres to the east. The government retired Chisholm and gave him a generous pension in recognition of his decades of service.
When the lumber operation sprang to life the following year, the lighthouse was recommissioned and run by a series of lightkeepers until 1907 when it was shut down for good. Derelict for decades, it finally collapsing in 1947. It would be reconstructed in its original location in 2006 by private citizens.
Photograph of the original Michael's Bay lighthouse courtesy of Library and Archives Canada.