Eerie Remote Lighthouse - Lake Michigan | Restless Viking
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- I set out to explore Skillagalee Island (Ile Aux Galet) in Northern Lake Michigan. The island is basically a gravel bar with an (over) 140 year old lighthouse. It is 7 miles from the mainland.
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The birds and bugs are an absolute nightmare! Lol
What a cool adventure! I'm glad I found this channel.
When you got to the island my first thought was, great, he landed where the movie The Birds retired! Thanks for the video!
This was such a great video. We were just watching "Somewhere in Time" last night filmed at Mackinac Island and when I panned out to see where The Grand Hotel was on Google maps I noticed I had Skillagalee "starred". My husband's dad was stationed there in the coast guard about 75 years ago and told stories about it being haunted and we always wanted to get out there and walk the ground where his dad had such vivid memories of. Thank you for the virtual trip out there and thanks for your humor, you had us laughing quite hardily.
I would have loved to hear his stories. I am glad you had a chance to tour the grounds! Happy new year!
“Fly Fairly” that was a great one. Plus the look on your face was priceless.
Think he said 'fly fairy' which is even better :^)
Mmmmm! Cross Village! I can almost smell the heavenly delights of Legs Inn!
Where might I pick up a steady and sure vessel like your Thor! It seems to be the right fit for many an adventure. We’re over on Black Lake and it would be the perfect vessel to recreate the very adventures you take. I would need to turn in my 1970’s aluminum StarCraft.
Thor is for sale! At least in a month or so when the new boat finally arrives. He doesn't have a lot of hours and the engine is in top form. Shoot me a message if you're interested in Thor chuck_at_restless-viking.com . Otherwise, they pop up every once in a while in boat trader, etc. I have purchased a couple of Zodiacs from Reed Yacht Sales in Spring Lake, MI.
@@RestlessViking I read your profile. AATW! I sent a message, waiting for your response, the boat dealer is less than a hour from us.
@@MrBradleyDavid ATW!
Legs Inn is allllll smoke n mirrors. The restaurant is iconic 😮super cool Michigan wood work and beams and stuffed beasts and iconic "up north" shit shit.
The back garden, gotta say, is perhaps *THE ONLY* reason to stay for any length at this weird ass place.Just buckle up and buy one of their overpriced, watered-down drinks and waddle out to their back garden patio overlooking Lake Michigan's Sturgeon Bay. That's really the only reason to go to this place.
Despite these restauranteurs touting a "Polish Heritage", I am also of Polish descent, and I'ma say my Chihuahua could make a better pierogi! Stupid overpriced. If clickbait was a restaurant, this is it!
But it's been there for years and people (aka, tourists!!🤣) with no discernment and no taste who are easily dazzled by the bells and whistles and such is what makes this place....what? A freakin' tourist trap. 😉
I've driven around Lake Michigan and Huron and Erie, visiting all the lighthouses I could get to. This is one I missed, although I think I sighted it with binoculars. Thanks for the tour.
Yep. You can see this one with binoculars from shore. It is a little speck on the horizon.
Abandoned places have the coolest vibe. You can kinda tell those gulls haven’t seen a human in a really long time! (awesome vid brotha)
Agreed!
love your boat so cool.that was a pile of birds fairly aggravating I'm sure.Way to hang in there awesome adventure.Missed Poppins,I think yall make a great team.
Thank you for putting up with all them bugs and birds to share this with us. Great video!
There's so much history to check out up on the northern end of Lake Michigan. I commented something similar on another one of your videos but had to say again how much I appreciate this stuff, basically impossible to find anywhere else. Spent a good portion of my life on Beaver Island and also a good number of years living in the Soo.. Thanks for these videos. I've always loved these spots and thought it was sad that so many people will never get to see them due to their remoteness. Especially since a lot of these places won't be around too much longer without a massive preservation effort. I was lucky enough to have a little 17 foot Bayliner that I actually bought before my first car. So my teenage years were basically spent doing exactly what you're doing here... Back in the years before it was easy to take videos though, haha. I really can't thank you enough for the nostalgia trips. Keep it up man, amazing work!
Wow that was fascinating I didn't know this little tiny Island existed in lake Michigan and the water lake Michigan is so clear up north there amazing keep up the great work thank you
Thanks for watching
Lake Superior is even clearer, bluer, cleaner and deeper and colder!
😊
Glad you went there so i don't have to. Those birds, and bugs, where insane looking.
Great to see the Viking is still exploring.......love the video!!!!
Patty! Great to hear from you again. It’s been years!
What an awesome adventure chuck 😮
Thanks for taking us out to the light house.
Thanks for joining the trip!
New to your channel. Awesome video. Oh my goodness those bugs was crazy.. Thanks for sharing
Our place was across from the lighthouse on Island View Rd. I remember when the buildings were still there. Been going there since 1949.
Did you know what that sewer was for?
Great video. Thanks for the tour
excellent! love your vids. born and raised here in MI ... living in da U.P. since 07.
love it. thanks for inspiring me to get out there and check stuff out.
Subscribed a little while ago and am going through some of the older stuff now. Love your content! On this episode - dang that's a lot of bugs and birds!
Crazy bunch of birds and bugs!!! Thanks for stopping by!
New to your videos nicely done and enduring all the bugs and seagulls! Will continue to watch ⌚
Thanks and welcome aboard!
Hi Wrestless my name is Terry Larkin my buddy Gary Haile and his wife Sheryl had dinner on Washington Island in there Scamp about 2 months ago. Gary and I were Photographers Mate's on the USS TICONDEROGA during the Apollo 16-17 recoveries. I'm at there home in Seattle I'm on my way to Alaska via Canada in a few days in my Cirrus 820 camper on top of my F350. I just subscribed to your channel maybe we'll cross paths at some point. I'm from Minnesota my wife and I live in Florida now.
Nice to meet you Terry. I remember the visit! Good luck on the way to Alaska and I look forward to running into you.
Very cool place, bugs are crazy in spring
Man, you picked a day for that video!!!
The plan was the next day, actually. But once I saw the lake, we moved up the launch time! ;-)
In these covid-crazy times - out there IS the perfect place to be 'social distancing'... I would like to visit Stannard Rock Light, myself. Thanks for the tour.
Nice video and very beautiful. I won't be visiting there I'm afraid of water that's too deep. Thanks for sharing. Nice piece of history there.
nice little adventure for a day, looks like a blast
Hello from the southern tip of lake Michigan. Cool video!
Hey, thanks!
Great video! Love the shoals in lake Michigan! Our favorite in the Bay of green bay, is Whale back shoal, now under water, but on lake low water this peak of a gravely mountain top is a fun visiting in summer as 1000' freighter's pass by as you stand on the 200' strip of gravel!
Awesome video! What a fabulous piece of history!
Really cool vlog. As a lighthouse enthusiast I was completely absorbed. TY for your efforts. What with the smooth glass ride out in your RIBy, the circling gulls completely engulfing the island and to walk amongst it all, just spectacular. My only concern was that you were alone. No doubt you’re quite competent but why chance the roll of the dice?! Bring a partner Bro, we need you as RV to stick around OK?! Stay Safe. New subber here.
That lighthouse is in great shape for being 130 years old!
Those bugs remind me of Mayflies.
A few years ago on a windless day in early June we motored past Ile aux Galets and the midges almost drove us to jump overboard. We put the screens in the companionway and wore beekeeper-style hats with screens to keep from inhaling them. That's one island I'm pretty sure we'll never actually visit, thanks for showing us what it's like... though the chart shows 8 feet just north of it so who knows, on a calm day we could anchor and take the dinghy ashore, just to say we went there too. This past year, in September (no midges!) we sailed past it to the west, just outside the green buoy "9", and then past the green buoy "11" off Dahlia Shoal before heading to Charlevoix... there's no place like the northern Great Lakes!
The midges don't seem to last very long. I've notice they are pretty much gone by the end of May. The northern Great Lakes are a great place!
Beautiful views and Trip👍🏼👍🏼 maybe Elon would be interested in that self driving tech 🤨 subbed.
LOL. Thanks for the sub!
Thank you for the ride and tour.
I used to rent a cabin near there and always wondered about that light house. I used to stay up at night dreaming I could make it there someday. Neat to find a video about it.
Great video. That part of Lake Michigan was not nearly as pleasant when I went through there in October 2020. Nearby bouys reported wave heights of 13 feet. Sure got my attention.
No doubt.
Thanks for the boat ride. Great video
Thanks!
Great video. Thanks for sharing it.
Great video! I'd make a trip out at some point with you here.
Crazy calm
Really liked this.Thanks👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Awesome video. Beautiful and seriously creepy.
Thanks for this!
Amazing.
The mayflies are awful. Thanks for the video. Great area with The Tunnel of Trees too.
Hoping to visit this place sometime (if the seas allow) totally lost when you swallowed the "midge" not from cruelty the same thing happened to me at a very awkward time! 😂
😂🤣
😊Thank You, very nice I didn't know about this
Lighthouse, It looked like you went there by yourself, did you? I collect lighthouses & Belong to the U.S. lighthouse Society & I have yet to see this lighthouse. So sad it's forgotten about. My car license plate I buy helps to take care of the Lighthouses but I don't think they're doing a very good job...Thank You very much for showing us this lighthouse. ❣️
So you managed to pick days where lake michigan is like glass. Did one from sleeping bear dunes to green bay like that.
Hey cheif great vid only one issue I had your pinnacle subject the " Lighthouse " was locked ! Takes alot of guts to go out on that little blow up fishing lure your trucking around in but your main character needs to be seen inside ! Part of your tube satisfaction is seeing the unseen opening the box to find out whats old or what's new thats old ? Keep on trucking!
Great. I enjoy it.
Fun stuff!
👍👍😎
Cross Village, home of the Legs Inn.
Legs Inn would have been in the video, but it was closed due to Covid. :(
I feel sorry for the keeper of that lighthouse! Birds and bugs would make you go 🤪
Check out gull island lighthouse and the other island lighthouses. Our family moved to Florida from Michigan, I try to make it up every 2 years. Love the wilderness, great lakes.
In case anyone was wondering, the object embedded in the ground with the line leading up the lighthouse is a lightning ground electrode.
I'm betting the manhole cover was for the septic system that was there. You were probably better off not opening it....
hey brother, great vid.. i surf lk michigan,,,, any wave action up there?
Never knew seagull eggs were that big!
Agreed!
This was really a neat video, but I was stressing myself out watching you go out there alone (irrational, I know). I saw you had a PFD and EPIRB on and were tethered, but it is the temperature of the water that had me worried the most if you fell overboard. Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing, just stressing, lol.
I understand, it is always a risk to go solo. Actually, it is always a risk to go out on a Great Lake, LOL. I get it.
BEAUTIFUL PLACE BUT I'D HATE TO HAVE TO LIVE RIGHT THERE AND HAVING TO LISTEN TO THOSE SEAGULLS CONSTANTLY,THAT WOULD MAKE ME CRAZY.
Living there would be lonely for sure. Fortunately, I don't think the gulls would be there if someone lived there.
Wtf are those gulls going so batshit CRAAY CRAAY!!? Dude, there's something up!
😂
I dont think Skillagalee will ever be restored. It's an epic part of history. It's a good thing you were able to get some good video of it before the lake claims her.
Beautiful
Great video! One question: why were the outbuildings destroyed? Glad you survived the gulls and bug swarms.
Good question. They actually intended to level the entire island, because (their reason) they did not want the cost of maintaining the buildings. This originally included the tower. But, for whatever reason, they spared the tower. I can’t speak for the Coast Guard decisions, but back during that time, they were cutting costs. They spared a lot of sites, demolished others. There was really no criteria, except command decisions at each area of operation. By the 70s and 80s they didn’t have the resources to demolish buildings. Also during that time, a movement to spare the lighthouses started. Then, they began selling them to organizations that intended preservation. Selling them became the standard by the 1990s and 21st century.
Winter storms?
almost Hitchcockian!.
Are the "seagulls" true seagulls or a variety of waterbird that resembles a seagull? Do they winter in place or migrate south? It's hard to believe how clear the water is. I live near the gulf of mexico and its only that clear far from shore. Thanks for posting.
It is an American Herring Gull, a bona fide seagull, one of 40 varieties world wide. It is a stout bird with webbed feet. The Herring Gull actually lives year around in the Great Lakes and southern coast of Alaska. It's breeding range extends to the Hudson Bay, Alaska, and Russia. Its non breeding range extends down to the gulf, Central American, California and West coast and over to Asia. Also about the island was an invasive sea bird call a Cormorant.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_herring_gull
If those bugs only live for a few days i would have taken this trip a few days later 😆
I could not imagine seagulls nesting there, one good storm would was over the island.
So manny midgeflies!
A large McDonalds French fry would have really made this an interesting video.
Very cool! What a great day for a trip (minus the bugs). Is the lighthouse dormant, or was it automated?
Keep it up!
Good question. I know the lighthouse is in the hands of a private owner. I don't know if it is still automated or not.
Yes, automated and lit every night. I’ve been thru there hundreds of times day and night, all kinds of weather. It’s a beautiful passage.
Sheesh, one would think I never learned how to spell(corrected)
Does it come uo from hundreds of feet as you aproach the lighthouse
On the path from the mainland, it drops to about 200 feet then slow rises to the shoal and lighthouse.
Oh I wanted to see inside
So did I! But, no key.
I missed you if you said, but are those mosquitoes? Looks like it was all the way to there! Is it like this during all the fair weather days?
They are Midge Flies and don't bite. They are only around in early-mid spring - late April to early May - for a few days then they disappear. They are much more noticeable on fair weather days. Toward the end of May, they are no more.
You didn't brake out the picnic basket and have lunch? you would not have had to worry about leaving any scraps
Ha! No doubt!
Great vid of MI history
11:24 was that a nest with eggs next to the sink?
Wonderful location for the State to build a executive office for Gretch.
You didn't see if the door was open 😢
Great video.
Are the gulls there year round?
Good question. The ring billed gull tends to hang out as long as there is open water. I don't believe they nest on the island in the winter. Most do tend to head south for open water in the winter.
I just didn’t know if they were there for nesting season or year round. Would be neat to go to if no birds or midges. I appreciate the reply.
The midges are usually gone by now. The gulls usually nest from April to June. July to September would probably be best for a visit.
Elfred Hitchcock's The Birds 2 movie for sure 👍
That boat is dope what model is that?
Zodiac Futura Mark III.
Next time bring fishing pole and catch some fish was nice clear water👍🦅
Are those mayflies flying around you?
Would be great to see in the colder months without all the chaos haha
Yeah those seagulls are literally pissed you’re there! Scary...
Makes you wonder why they’re so stirred up? Ghosts maybe...?
Nesting explains it, I guess 😬
I noticed a nest with eggs in it on the cement slab. Nesting, I would agree
When you say "Northern" Michigan, do you mean the top of the LP which is still the LP of Michigan, or do you mean somewhere in da U.P.?
When I say "Northern Lake Michigan" I usually mean the northern half of "Lake Michigan". I rarely say "northern Michigan" (if ever). UP or LP.
Eerie Remote Lighthouse - Lake Michigan, not to be confused with a Michigan Remote Lighthouse - Lake Erie.
Cool video! Does the lighthouse still light up at night?
I don't believe it does. But, I'm not sure.
Yes, it does.
@@tedc4488 that's good to hear!
What's the harness attached to?
The seat in the boat (wrapped completely around it). When solo traveling, just a safety thing.
@@RestlessViking What if it gets a hole and drags u down?
@@ooigfgnnkhjjnc It’s a quick release PFD.
'They create babies and then they die'
Well, it's been 21 years since our babies. Luckily we had some time after having them. But yeah, seems like the main event on planet 🌎.
Does cg maintain electronics on site for navigation yet?
I dont believe they do. There wasn’t an solar panels or power source that I could see and haven’t found any reference yet from the cg.
Thank you didn't know about that light!!;
The light is currently powered by batteries charged by a solar panel array. It was up for “surplus” auction about ten years ago, I believe a foundation owns it now.
Just needs solar panels and a big greenhouse and a ton of bug zappers
Definitely the best and only fly ferry I know and if I fly into a fly that needs a ferry I’ll send them ur way
I've actually been there in 1997.
when you have to go pee do you just go while the boat is going and let the nuts breath?
Yep.
More men overboard in the Great Lakes from peeing off the boat than any other cause. Wear your pfd!
Those seagulls suck
But thanks for uploading, that was cool
Thanks for the view!
Oh those pesky, unrelenting bugs! And the birds...
That would be a steam house!