Spend a Weekend at DeTour Reef Lighthouse

For $170 ($150 for members of the DeTour Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society), you can become the keeper of the DeTour Reef Lighthouse for three days and two nights. From Friday to late Sunday you will be in charge of keeping the lighthouse clean and helping greet tour visitors. You need to be in good physical condition as multiple trips up and down the 20-foot pier ladder might be required. Sound like a lot of work? It is. Is it a unique experience? Definitely.

If you are a lighthouse lover, there are priceless sunsets and the opportunity to get a brief glimpse of what a lighthouse keeper faced at the DeTour Reef Lighthouse. Boat watchers are welcome, too. Over the course of the weekend you will see dozens of freighters passing by the lighthouse.

Susan Ager, Detroit Free Press Columnist, wrote an article of her personal account of staying a weekend at the DeTour Reef Lighthouse. It is an interesting read if you want to know more about lighthouses and the conditions that lighthouse keepers worked under. Also, if you are at all interested in becoming a keeper for a weekend it is a good primer in just how much work is required of you for those three days.

You can read her article here.

Keep tabs on all of Susan's summer travels at her blog.

I was intrigued by the isolation of the DeTour Reef Lighthouse and decided to see if I could find a satellite view of it at Google. Sure enough, I did. Check it out. After viewing this up close view, you should zoom out a little bit and see how the lighthouse appears to be bobbing and floating in Lake Huron.