Hike heads to haunted Midwest lighthouse

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse and keeper's quarters.

Trail map to lighthouse. Click for larger version.

Day hikers can walk to a haunted lighthouse in Wisconsin’s scenic Door County.

The 1.5-mile round trip Trail Tramper's Delight heads to the famous Eagle Bluff Lighthouse at Peninsula State Park. Many lighthouse aficionados consider it the best in the state.

To reach the trailhead, from Wis. Hwy. 42 enter Peninsula State Park on Shore Road. At about 2.75 miles, turn right/east into the boat launch/fishing pier for Nicolet Bay. Park there. Walk back to Shore Road and go left/south, walking just off the street. In short order, you'll reach the trailhead on the right/west side. Go onto it.

The trail soon crosses the Nicolet Bay Trail. Continue straight/west on Trail Tramper's Delight.

When crossing the Sunset Bike Route, you’re almost there. Continue straight and cross the looping Shore Road into the parking lot for the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. (Sure, you could drive right up to the lighthouse, but then it wouldn't be a hike, would it?) The lighthouse is to the right/north of the lot.

Constructed of cream-colored Milwaukee brick, the lighthouse rises 43 feet atop a cliff overlooking shimmering Green Bay – the water body not the city – with islands in the distance. A tower built at an angle into the lighthouse boasts a spiral, cast-iron stairwell that heads to the lighthouse’s three floors and ten-sided lantern room.

The neighboring two-story keeper’s quarters is 26 x 30 feet with an adjoining kitchen. Also on the 1.21-acre site is an oil house. With a beautiful vista, the grounds is a perfect site for a picnic.

Constructed for $12,000 following the Civil War, the lighthouse guided ships past the Door County Peninsula and Strawberry Islands for decades. Other structures, such as a barn, were added during the half-century after the lighthouse was erected, but after falling into ruin were torn down.

The lighthouse was automated in 1926. Except for Fruit Growers Union Cooperative’s brief rental of the keeper’s quarters as office space in the 1930s, the light station largely went unoccupied after automation.

Well, at least not occupied by the living.

A number of visitors to the site over the years have reported seeing the ghost of a young boy playing on the lighthouse grounds. For believers in the spirit world, this was quite the mystery, as no children have died in or near the lighthouse.

Once theory is that the ghost is of Huey Melvin who lived in nearby Fish Creek at the beginning of the 20th century. Just before his sixth birthday, Huey died of tetanus and was buried in Pioneer Cemetery, which also sits in the state park. In fact, you can visit his grave today – a stone lamb tops the tombstone, which includes the epitaph, “Our darlig [sic] one has gone before, to greet us on the blissful shore.”

When healthy, Huey loved to visit the lighthouse. The thought is that the young boy, taken too early from this world, still goes there to play to this day.

Unlike Huey’s ghost, modern visitors can only go inside the lighthouse if on a tour, which typically run mid-May through mid-October for a fee.

Once you've taken in the lighthouse and grounds, retrace your steps back to your parked vehicle.

Trail heads along 430-million-year-old cliff

Peninsula State Park's Eagle Trail winds along the Niagara Escarpment and makes
for some spectacular view. Photo courtesy Wisconsin DNR.

Day hikers can explore ancient 150-foot cliffs that offer fantastic views of Lake Michigan at Wisconsin’s Peninsula State Park.

The 2-mile looping Eagle Trail sits on the beautiful Door Peninsula at the edge of the state’s second most visited state park. A popular trail, it will be busy during the park’s peak season.

Map of Eagle Trail, courtesy Wisconsin DNR.

To reach the trailhead, from Sturgeon Bay take Wis. Hwys. 42 and 57 north onto Door Peninsula. When the roads split, take Hwy. 42 to the peninsula’s northeast side. Once past County Road A (northeast of Fish Creek), turn left/north onto Shore Drive for the park entrance. The road passes through a golf course and then a beech forest. After the entrance station, park in the Eagle Panorama lot.

The trail begins a steep descent from the lot atop Eagle Bluff down to the cliff’s base. When you reach the bottom, go right/east.

Niagara Escarpment
Stretching beyond the rocky shoreline is Green Bay, a narrow triangle of water that on a map looks like the empty space between a thumb and the main part of a mitten. The bay is part of Lake Michigan.

Equally impressive is the limestone cliff to the trail’s right/south. Part of the Niagara Escarpment, the massive bedrock formation forms the Door Peninsula as well as cliffs in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and even Niagara Falls hundreds of miles to the east.

The bluffs began to form about 430 million years ago as sediment from the surrounding land settled as mud, trapped beneath algal mats, on the tidal flats of a saltwater sea. Over the eons, this sediment tuned into limestone piled more than 150 feet high. The cliffs along the trail are so high that as afternoon arrives, they cast a shadow over the forest and waters below.

We can see the erosion-resistant cliff thanks to the power of glaciers during the last ice age, which dug out softer sediment in the basin that now forms Lake Michigan. Wave action from a much higher lake, swollen with glacial meltwater, cut caves into the cliff wall.

As walking, watch for springs that come out of the cliff walls. The water finds fractures leading to the cliff’s side are easier to flow through than the hard limestone below it.

These springs help nourish a vertical forest of northern white cedar trees. Common in eastern Canada, these fragrant trees can grow up to 50 feet tall and two feet around.

Eagle Tower
The shady cliffs harbor a number of microhabitats alive with rare crustaceans and snails. Some of the snail species are rare. Because of this, you’ll want to stay on the trail, even though at times it is narrow, rocky, or laced with tree roots.

In addition to the white cedars, ferns, thimbleberry, and several flowers, especially trilliums, can be found trailside. You’ll also spot cranberry viburnum.

As the trail near Eagle Harbor, it begins a steep ascent back to the clifftop. Once there, it runs north a little off of Shore Road then turns west as it crosses the park road just in front of the entrance station.

Next it runs through the beech forest, crossing the Sentinel Tail along the way. Taking the Sentinel Trail right/north heads to Eagle Tower, a 75-foot observation post atop Eagle Bluff. As of 2015, the tower was closed to the public.

Continuing straight on the Eagle Trail heads to Shore Road. Cross it, and you’re back at your parking lot.

Learn about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.