You are a Great Lakes sailor 100 years ago. Lighthouses warn you away from rocks and reefs and shallow waters. But they do more than that. They let you know where you are. You follow the coastline as you travel from port to port. And you follow the lighthouses.

Blink, blink! How do you find your position during at night? You look for the flashes of light. Each light has its own pattern, called its characteristic. One light may flash slowly, another quickly, another in groups of two or three flashes with a pause in between, another with a red or green light flashing after the white light. In a flashing pattern the dark pause between the flashes lasts longer than the flash of light. Some lights have an occulting pattern. In an occulting pattern the flash of light lasts longer than the dark pause between the flashes. You know the pattern of the different lights, so you always know where you are along the coast at night.

How do you find your position during the day? You look for the lighthouse. Lighthouses have different shapes. Some are free-standing towers. Others are attached to a keeper's house. They are painted in different colors or patterns. White paint helps them stand out against the trees and sky. Some towers are all white. Some have alternating stripes of white and black or of white and red. On some, the stripe has a spiral pattern like a barber pole. The pattern or color of a lighthouse is called its day mark. You know the day mark of each tower, so you always know where you are during the day.

You can make paper models of four Michigan lighthouses that each have a different day mark. This activity has patterns for these lights:

• Detroit River, Lake Erie
• Fort Gratiot, Lake Huron
• Stannard Rock, Lake Superior
• White Shoal, Lake Michigan
  

You will need these things:

• The paper lighthouse patterns [PDF, 4 pages]
• A piece of tabloid-size (11" x 17") plain white paper for each tower you want to make
• A way to enlarge each pattern 2x. (Use a copy machine or redraw the pattern.)
• Crayons, water-based markers or water paint
• A 10 oz. clear plastic drinking cup for each tower
• Tape
• A flashlight 6-8" long that can stand upright on the end opposite its light

Directions:

• Copy or trace each pattern onto a sheet of the large paper. Make the new pattern about two times bigger than the original.
• Color the lighthouse walls according to the directions on the pattern page.
• Cut out the pattern.
• Tape or glue the side edges together so that the plain strip is underneath the opposite edge. You now have a cone-shaped tower with a wide base and a narrow top.
• Insert the plastic cup—bottom first—into the base of the tower as far as it will go. Use a few pieces of tape on the inside of the tower to keep it there.
• Place the flashlight on a tabletop and turn on the light. Put your lighthouse over the flashlight.
• Turn off the lights in the room to see your lighthouse shine! (Important: do not use a candle or any type of flammable light near your paper lighthouse!)

(NOTE: If you cannot enlarge the pattern, you can make a mini-lighthouse using a clear 3-5 oz. bathroom-size plastic cup and a pen-size flashlight.)

Updated 06/23/2004

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
Use and Reproduction Information [PDF]
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