Situated on a reef in twenty-four feet of water, the lighthouse rises eighty-three feet above the water with its sixty-three-foot-tall Classical Revival-style architect structure sitting on a concrete pier that is sixty feet square and twenty feet tall. The reinforced concrete pier rests atop a unique sixty-foot-square, twenty-two-feet- tall, box-like wooden crib. The lighthouse is painted white with a red roof. The lighthouse basement is a 48’x48’ square by 10’ deep recessed room located in the center of the concrete pier beneath the keepers’ quarters, and was used as the lighthouse’s machinery room and storage space.

The keepers’ quarters is a 30’x30’ square, 20’ tall two-story structure. The interior floor surface at the entry level consists of open metal grating on three sides supported on structural steel members, and held smaller mechanical equipment including the radio beacon transmitters and clock controls. A flight of stairs takes you to the kitchen, dining room, office, bathroom, two bedrooms, closets, and the stairway access to the light tower. The stairway rising from the keepers’ quarters’ second story level leads to a 10’ x10’ room at the base of the tower where a 32-step cast-iron spiral stairway, which is housed inside a 6’ diameter cast-iron cylinder, leads upward from the center of this room to the 7.5’ diameter 7’ tall ten-sided watch room. A short ladder leads from this room to the lantern. A door opens from the watch room to a 14’x14’ rectangular outside gallery bounded by a 3’ tall railing.

Note that the spiral stairway and cylinder, watch room, lantern, and 1908 3-1/2 order Fresnel lens, were removed from the onshore 1861 DeTour Point Light Station and installed at the DeTour Reef Light. The lens is currently on display at the DeTour Passage Historical Museum in DeTour Village.

The DeTour Reef Light Preservation Society was established in 1998 as a nonprofit 501c3 volunteer organization to restore and preserve the DeTour Reef Light. Major restoration was completed in 2004 with funding from federal, state, and private grant entities, and public donations. Public tours of this unique historic offshore Michigan maritime monument are now being offered for the first time in the 74-year history of the lighthouse.

In 2004, the De Tour Reef Lighthouse, deemed excess by the Coast Guard, was offered at no cost to eligible entities, including federal, state, and local agencies, non-profit corporations, and educational organizations under the provisions of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. The DeTour Reef Light Preservation Society submitted an application for the lighthouse and was awarded ownership in 2005.

In 2005, the DeTour Reef Light Preservation Society started offering lighthouse tours and an overnight keeper program. Visitors to the lighthouse must be physically capable of climbing and descending a 20-foot ladder to reach the lighthouse deck. During ascent and descent of the ladder, each person will wear a safety harness which requires visitors to be at least 50 inches tall and weigh less than 300 pounds. Please note for safety reasons, children under 12 are not allowed on the tour.

The Fresnel lens from the lighthouse is on display at the DeTour Passage Historical Museum in DeTour Village.