Coast Guard & Water Tower
The Coast Guard has been a presence in Charlevoix for over a century. In 1899 the city sold land on the south channel bank near the Lake Michigan Beach to the U. S. Life-Saving Service for one dollar. In 1900 this towered station was commissioned. It opened in 1901. Seven men and a captain manned the building, grounds, and boats for the first several years. In 1962, the Coast Guard moved into a new building on the north bank of the upper channel next to the railroad bridge. The shingled station was taken down in 1965, the ground leveled, and the property reverted to the city
Seen in 1908, the Life-Saving station was situated below and to the west of the water tower which went up in 1906. At far right was Charlevoix’s second electric plant. Half of this building, the north part shown here, was removed to make way for the second fish hatchery in 1917. The photo was taken from the north pier. At far left by the trestle appears the 1890 storage building for the oil used in the lighthouse. Just to the right of the three-masted schooner’s stern appears a little curved white structure on the revetment in front of the station
This structure was a wooden hinged pedestrian footbridge that spanned the gap in the revetment through which the Life-Saving boats were launched down a ramp and into the channel. This bridge lasted only about ten years.
The 1906 water tower was a major landmark that could be seen for miles both from Lake Michigan and inland. It had aged drastically by the mid 1990s, by which time a replacement had already been put up on Division Street near the municipal golf course. Although considered by some to be a candidate for a terrific observation tower, projected renovation, maintenance, and insurance costs proved to be prohibitive. Its legs were torched almost through, then cables pulled it over in a few throat-catching seconds in May of 1995
Life-saving drills were regularly held in the channel along with breeches buoy drills carried out along a cable suspended high over the channel to a tall pole on the north bank. The “surf boat” was considered to be unsinkable. In the early days these drills were one of the biggest attractions in town. On the 4th of July hundreds of onlookers lined both piers and embankments, in places shoulder to shoulder, many accompanied by blankets and picnic baskets.
Old 404, the Coast Guard buoy tender Sundew, berthed in Charlevoix for many years. After hosting a major vessel and its crew for decades, the town lost most of its Coast Guard vessel presence when the aging Acacia left in 2006