By Jeremy Witt
West Michigan Tourist Association
Lighthouse lovers, get ready to plan your next lighthouse adventure! The West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA) is excited to announce the release of the 2018 Lake Michigan Lighthouse Map & Circle Tour. This is a free poster-sized publication which details all of the lighthouses located on the shores of Lake Michigan, as well as the Circle Tour driving route to guide motorists around the lake.
To celebrate this year’s 30th anniversary edition of the Lighthouse Map, WMTA has partnered with the Sable Point Lighthouse Keepers Association to offer one lucky winner the chance to win a two-night stay at Big Sable Point Lighthouse in Ludington. Interested parties are invited to enter to win this prize at the WMTA website: https://www.wmta.org/lake-michigan-lighthouse-map-circle-tour/win-a-stay-at-big-sable-point-lighthouse/
The full circle tour driving route around Lake Michigan is available online, and website visitors may also download a PDF of this year’s Lighthouse Map, or request that a free copy be mailed to them. https://www.wmta.org/lake-michigan-lighthouse-map-circle-tour/
Vacationers have been looping the lake for generations, but the official “Lake Michigan Circle Tour” route was not established until the 1980s when the Michigan Department of Transportation teamed up with West Michigan Tourist Association to create the route and its official guidebook. Along the way, travelers will find more than 100 lighthouses, countless islands, unique attractions, parks and natural areas, miles of glorious beaches, quaint harbor towns, and one “modern marvel” – the Mackinac Bridge.
While a loosely-organized “circle route” around Lake Superior was promoted by local tourist organizations as early as the 1960s, the first official (and signed) Great Lakes Circle Tour was the Lake Michigan Circle Tour. The only single-nation Circle Tour (Lake Michigan being the only Great Lake completely within the US), the Lake Michigan Circle Tour also has the most mileage of any Circle Tour in the state.
Working in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Transportation, the West Michigan Tourist Association helped to make the first of the official Great Lakes Circle Tours a reality and the first publication was released in 1988 as a 52-page guide book. The guide book was transformed into a map in 2007, and the Circle Tour driving route can now be found online.
Lake Michigan Lighthouse Map & Circle Tour publications are also available in bulk quantities; please contact Travel@WMTA.org for more information. The Lighthouse Tour Map also is available at the WKTV station, 5261 Clyde Park SW.
