Duluth North Pier Lighthouse Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

The piers each have a length of about 1,700 feet and project roughly 1,150 feet beyond the shoreline. The foundation cribs extend twenty-two feet below low-water, and the concrete superstructures rise to a height of ten to eighteen feet above low-water. The lake entrance, between the piers, is 300 feet wide.

In 1908, the Lighthouse Board acknowledged the need to mark the north pier:

The approach to Duluth Harbor is one of the worst and most dangerous on the whole chain of lakes. The entrance piers are only 300 feet in width, and the north pier is so close to the shore that a vessel making a mistake in judging the width would be immediately on the rocks. The Lake Carriers' Association considers this a matter of such importance that it has made arrangements for the exhibition of private lights for the balance of the season of navigation in 1908.

The local officers of the Eleventh district, after careful investigation, state that navigation will be very decidedly facilitated by the establishment of a light on the north pier, and the Board therefore recommends that such light be established, at a cost of $4,000.

Congress appropriated $4,000 on March 4, 1909, and after plans and specifications were prepared for a metal tower, the lowest bid for furnishing and delivering the metalwork was accepted. A conical tower consisting of latticed steel columns covered with a 5/16” steel shell was erected on the outer end of the north pier and lit for the first time on April 7, 1910. The lighthouse stands thirty-seven feet tall and tapers from ten feet six inches at its base to eight feet at the base of the octagonal lantern room.

A fifth-order, Henry LePaute Fresnel was mounted on a pedestal in the lantern room, and a motor connected to the city’s electric lighting system was used to drive a clockwork that produced the light’s characteristic of fixed white two seconds, eclipse two seconds. Three keepers were assigned to care for the range lights on the south pier along with the pierhead light on the north pier. The head keeper lived in a frame building that had been built in 1874, when the first light on the south pier was established, and the two assistants rented houses in the city until a redbrick duplex was built across from the old keeper’s dwelling in 1912/1913.

The Duluth Canal piers are a dangerous location during a storm. On the night of April 30, 1967, two sixteen-year-old twins and their seventeen-year-old brother were challenging ten to fifteen-waves on the north pier, when witnesses observed a huge wave sweep one of them away. Boatswain’s Mate First Class Edgar Culbertson, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Richard R. Callahan, and Fireman Ronald C. Prei from the local Coast Guard base braved the storm and ventured out on the pier to rescue the two boys reportedly stranded at the pierhead light. The men tethered themselves together, with a spacing of twenty-five feet, and by the light of hand lanterns, proceeded to the end of the pier.

After finding no trace of the boys at the lighthouse, the coastguardsmen headed back. While making their way along the pier, a twenty-foot wave swept Culbertson off his feet and carried him over the breakwater wall and into the turbulent Lake Superior waters. Despite a valiant effort by his crewmates, Culbertson perished. Culbertson was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Medal, and a plaque on the north pier commemorates his sacrifice. Photo Gallery: 1

References

1. Annual Report of the Light-House Board, various years.
2. Report of the Commissioner of Lighthouses, various years.
3. Lighthouse Inspection Report for Duluth North Pier Light Station, 1910.