Green Bay Harbor Entrance Light

The Green Bay Harbor Entrance Light is an offshore lighthouse near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Located from the mouth of the Fox River, it was erected to signal the entrance to Green Bay.The shipping channel approaching the Fox River in Green Bay was changed a number of times in order to accommodate vessels of increasing draft. The Army Corps of Engineers also modified the channel in the mid 1920's. The Green Bay Harbor Entrance buoy was established in 1927 to mark this point until the Bureau of Lighthouses could obtain funds for a more permanent solution. The acetylene buoy emitted a flash of 0.3 seconds duration every 3 seconds and had a wave-activated bell. The light is one of the few on the Great Lakes still powered by submarine cable. It is issued from a pair of 300 mm Tideland Signal ML300 acrylic optics mounted on the gallery railing. Because the light is too far out to be seen well from shore, the only good view of it is from a boat.HistoryUnlike its sister, which was intended for emergency use only, this light was constantly manned by Coast Guard personnel, after the Coast Guard took charge of the lighthouses in the United States in 1939, who served two-week rotating tours. These men lived in the circular portion of the lighthouse. The dwelling encompassed not only the superstructure, but also part of the foundation, as shown by the ring of portholes in its side.The light was automated in 1979. Today, the lighthouse displays an occulting red light with a four-second period, having a nominal range of 12 nautical miles. During the navigation season that runs from April 1 to November 1, the fog signal sounds a two-second blast every fifteen seconds.