Windmill Point Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The point takes its name from a stone windmill built by the French, who settled the point in the 1740s. During the Revolutionary War, the radeau Thunderer sunk off Windmill Point in 1777, while carrying wounded British soldiers from the defeat the British had suffered at The Battle of Saratoga.

A private light was established at the point in 1830. The government stepped in to establish an official light in 1858. Contractors Ellis and O'Neil of Malone and Champlain, NY constructed a 44-foot octagonal tower using rough-hewn blue limestone from the quarry of Ira Hill on Isle La Motte. A sister to Point Au Roche Lighthouse and the original Crown Point Lighthouse, the Windmill Point Lighthouse was equipped with a sixth-order Fresnel lens, which shone a fixed white light at a focal plane of 52 feet, making it visible for thirteen miles. A passageway connects the tower to the Cape Cod style keeper’s quarter, made of rubble stone.

The Windmill Point Lighthouse is the northernmost of the Lake Champlain Lighthouses. By drawing a line between the light at Windmill Point and the light at Isle La Motte, a mariner could guide his vessel through a clear channel in the upper narrows of the lake, avoiding numerous reefs and rocks.

Skeletal tower that replaced lighthouse

The Windmill Point Lighthouse was replaced in 1931 by an acetylene light displayed from a steel skeletal tower that was relocated from Crown Point, New York. The lighthouse property, minus the half-acre surrounding the skeletal tower, was transferred to the U.S. Customs Service for use in the battle against rum-runners on the Lake Champlain during prohibition.

The Windmill Point lighthouse was subsequently sold to the public and eventually purchased by Lockwood "Lucky" Clark in 1963, after he stumbled into the owner while walking on the point with his bride-to-be. At that time, it was just another house. The modern enthusiasm for lighthouses was still years away.

Although the Clarks had informal exchanges with the Coast Guard, they had never suggested moving the light back into the tower. Then, during the summer of 2001, a Coast Guardsman visited the lighthouse, and the idea of restoring the light to the tower was born. For nostalgic and historical reasons, the return of the light to the tower is important, but it will also save the Coast Guard money. Tens of thousands of dollars would be required to replace or refurbish the skeleton tower, while moving the light would cost just a few thousand dollars. Maintenance costs are also reduced as the owners are responsible for maintaining the tower.

Lucky and his son Rob spent many hours readying the lighthouse to receive the modern optic. Then, on August 7, 2002, National Lighthouse Day, the Windmill Point Lighthouse was returned to service after seventy-plus years of darkness. The relighting was the first on Lake Champlain. Shortly thereafter, the light was also returned to the tower at Isle La Motte. Similar relightings have since occurred at several other lighthouses on the lake.

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References

1. “Bringing New England’s Little Known ‘West Coast’ Lighthouses Back to Life,” Jeremy D’Entremont, Lighthouse Digest, December 2002.
2. Lake Champlain Lighthouses, George Clifford, Clinton County Historical Association, 1999.
3. “The Lighthouses of Lake Champlain,” Morris Glenn, The Keeper’s Log, Winter 1994.
4. "Enlightening the public to 'monuments of maritime history'," Waterfront News, November 2002.

Views of the lighthouse from the New York Shore are also possible. From Highway 9 just south of Rouses Point, turn east onto Stony Point Road. Near the end of the road you will find a breakwater, which affords fair views of the lighthouse.