The 21st annual Toledo Lighthouse Festival will be held Saturday, September 13, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, September 14, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This year it will be at the Maumee Bay State Park Nature’s Center.
Parking is free, and a $5 donation for the lighthouse is requested.
The festival will feature artists, crafts, live music and more. Featured performers include Junkanoo, Kerry Patrick Clark, The Good The Bad Blues, Bob Wurst Band, Johnny Rodriguez, the American Legion and more. This year there will be information sessions at the nature center, Also featured will be a silent auction, food, merchandise and children’s games.
For more information on the festival, go to toledolighthousefestival. org.
Lighthouse History
The Toledo Lighthouse is about five miles from the shores of Maumee Bay State Park. It is four thousand square feet, buff brick on a crib along the shipping channel in Lake Erie.
The lighthouse stands out from other more traditional cylinder lighthouses, like Marblehead and others. The Toledo Lighthouse was dedicated May 23, 1904, and was built because the Turtle Island Lighthouse, dedicated in 1831, failed because of massive ice sheets and high waves. The Turtle Island Lighthouse toppled twice, when it was decided to straighten the shipping channel and build the Toledo Lighthouse.
In the 1960’s, the Toledo Lighthouse was no longer manned and there were plans to destroy it in the late 1980s. Lighthouse advocates saved it, and in 1989 it was secured by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Society was formed in 2004 to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the Toledo Lighthouse. Since then, the organization has become a nonprofit and has acquired ownership of the lighthouse and a lease for the Fresnel lens. The organization has received grants and support amounting to more than $1 million, which has new windows and shutters on the first and second floors, brick tucking and restoration of two of the entry doors. Additional restoration is estimated at a cost of $2.5 million.
Once the lighthouse is restored, four people will become temporary keepers and welcome boaters and the public from spring to fall. The lighthouse will become a leading Ohio tourism destination like Marblehead.
The society has nearly 500 members who, through their membership, will get rights to become the first keepers.
A major goal of the festival is to raise funds to match a $25,000 grant from Cleveland Cliffs for a dock and lift to allow public access into the lighthouse.
