Port Clinton Lighthouse
41.5150° N, 82.9344° W · Ohio · built 1896[1]
- Tower climbs
- Last verified 2026-10
Not an active aid to navigation.
A 20-foot wooden 'pepperpot' tower, the Port Clinton Lighthouse marked the Portage River entrance from 1896 until 1952. Saved by a local marina and restored by volunteers, it has stood since 2016 in Water Works Park, where it is lit again at night as a landmark.
History
Port Clinton had a light from 1833, when a stone tower about 40 feet tall went up at the harbour.[1] Traffic was light for years, and the lantern was taken off in 1870. When the harbour piers were pushed out into the lake in the 1880s, Congress paid for a new light, and in 1896 a small wooden tower went into service at the end of the west pier.[1] The old stone tower was pulled down in 1899.[1]
The 1896 tower is the kind lighthouse fans call a 'pepperpot': a short, square, tapering wooden structure with a lantern on top. The Lighthouse Directory notes that many similar lights once stood on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes and that this is one of only two U.S. examples left; the other is at Two Rivers, Wisconsin.[2] At about 20 feet it is often described as the shortest lighthouse in Ohio.[1]
The light was automated in 1926, and in 1952 the wooden tower was replaced by a steel skeleton tower. Rather than see it scrapped, the owners of a marina on the Portage River moved it to their property, where it stood for some sixty years.[1,2] The family offered it to the city in 2011, and a volunteer group, the Port Clinton Lighthouse Conservancy, took on the restoration.[2] Arguments over where to put it dragged on for years. The tower was finally set on a new foundation in Water Works Park in August 2016, fitted with a replica fifth-order Fresnel lens, and relit at a dedication that September.[2]
Today it shows a light after dark but is not a working aid to navigation.[1] The Conservancy runs the site and has opened the tower for seasonal tours.[3,4]
How to see it
Tower climbs The operator has offered public tower climbs, usually seasonally.
- Best public viewpoint
- Water Works Park on East Perry Street in Port Clinton, where the restored tower stands at the north end of the park beside the lake.[3]
- Tower climbs
- Seasonal tours of the restored tower have been offered by the Port Clinton Lighthouse Conservancy.
- Operator
- Port Clinton Lighthouse Conservancy
- Last verified
- Last verified 2026-10
Access details last verified 2026-10. Hours, tours and ownership change. Check the operator before you go. Pier and breakwater lights can be dangerous in wind and waves; obey posted closures and never enter private or Coast Guard property.
Questions people ask
Can you go inside the Port Clinton Lighthouse?
The Port Clinton Lighthouse Conservancy has offered seasonal tours of the tower. Check the Conservancy before you go.
Where is the Port Clinton Lighthouse now?
At the north end of Water Works Park on East Perry Street in Port Clinton, Ohio, where it was placed in 2016 after restoration.
Is it the original lighthouse?
It is the original 1896 wooden tower from the Portage River pier. It spent six decades at a marina after 1952 before being restored.
Nearby lighthouses
- South Bass Island Lighthouse Tower climbs
- Green Island Lighthouse Ruin or relocated
- Marblehead Lighthouse Tower climbs
- Cedar Point Lighthouse View from shore
- Middle Island Lighthouse (ruin) Ruin or relocated
Nearby shipwrecks
Nearby · Sponsored
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Sources
- Port Clinton Light, Wikipedia. Accessed .
- Lighthouses of the U.S.: Ohio, Russ Rowlett, The Lighthouse Directory (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Accessed .
- Port Clinton Lighthouse, portclintonlighthouse.org. Accessed .
- Ohio Sea Grant, Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail lighthouse page: Port Clinton Lighthouse, Ohio Sea Grant College Program. Accessed .
- Wikidata Q43398755: Port Clinton Light, Wikidata. Accessed .
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