{"id":299,"slug":"sherwood-point-lighthouse-sturgeon-bay-wisconsin","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Sherwood Point was the last lighthouse on the Great Lakes to keep a keeper. The 1883 station on the thirty-foot limestone bluff — a brick keeper's dwelling with the tower attached, a fourth-order Fresnel lens from Barbier & Fenestre in Paris — was built to guide ships into the western end of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, the cut that spared vessels the trip around the Door Peninsula and through Death's Door.","The keepers made the light's reputation — including the keeper who won the Efficiency Flag and the Commandant's Efficiency Star, the highest honors the service gave. When the Coast Guard automated the light in the fall of 1983, Sherwood Point closed the era: a hundred years of keepers on the bluff ended as the last manned light on the Great Lakes.","The station survived as an odd second life — the keeper's quarters serving for years as Coast Guard family housing, the Fresnel still turning (automated) in the lantern above the bay. It remains the monument to the last keeper: the lighthouse that outlasted the profession everywhere else on the lakes.","Sherwood Point is the archive's last-keeper file — the 1883 lighthouse on the Sturgeon Bay canal entrance that stayed manned until 1983, the final keepered light on the Great Lakes."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Sherwood Point Lighthouse is the archive's automation file — the 1883 Door County station, built for the ship canal, that kept a resident keeper until 1983 — longer than any other light on the Great Lakes.","A lighthouse that outlasted keepers keeps its lens — the file's suggestion being that Sherwood Point's hold is the century: a hundred years of keepers on the bluff, ending with the last one on the lakes in 1983."]}],"name":"Sherwood Point Lighthouse","aliases":[],"type":"LIGHTHOUSE","type_label":"Lighthouse","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["hauntings","maritime"],"desc":"Lighthouse associated with documented cultural history.","full_desc":"A lighthouse in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, built in 1883, Sherwood Point Lighthouse is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Lighthouse associated with documented cultural history. HauntHunt files it with haunting reports. Ask the file who haunts it and it answers: Minnie Hesh. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. Access is restricted, and the file says so plainly.","address":null,"city":"Sturgeon Bay","county":"Door","state":"Wisconsin","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":44.822676,"lon":-87.369806,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"RESTRICTED","access_notes":"Usually closed to the public; tourism mentions limited lighthouse-festival tours. Confirm authorized dates with operator.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":1883,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery pass. Earliest attestation, primary history, precise location and current access require independent enrichment.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":61.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":233,"type":"HAUNTING","description":"Reports describe voices, teacup sounds and a figure on the stairs. The lore gives it a name — Minnie Hesh — which is what turns a report into a resident. Maritime lore is the oldest ghost file there is; Sherwood Point Lighthouse in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin is a fully credentialed entry. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The account appears in 'Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses'. The haunting is unproven and unfired: it keeps showing up for work anyway.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":"Minnie Hesh","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.7,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses","url":"https://www.travelwisconsin.com/stories/door-countys-haunted-lighthouses","publisher":"Wisconsin Department of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Built in 1883; automated in 1983. The vessel's documented service record is the record the rest of the file stands on. It enters the file through media reporting — documented coverage, not folklore. 'Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses' documents the entry. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses","url":"https://www.travelwisconsin.com/stories/door-countys-haunted-lighthouses","publisher":"Wisconsin Department of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reports describe voices, teacup sounds and a figure on the stairs. Maritime lore is the oldest ghost file there is; Sherwood Point Lighthouse in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin is a fully credentialed entry. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. Sources including 'Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses' keep the claim in circulation. Legends accrue where records go silent; this one filled the gap and stayed.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses","url":"https://www.travelwisconsin.com/stories/door-countys-haunted-lighthouses","publisher":"Wisconsin Department of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[{"name":"Minnie Hesh","claimed_identity":"Minnie Hesh","verified":null,"summary":"Reports describe voices, teacup sounds and a figure on the stairs. Minnie Hesh is what the reports name it. Maritime lore is the oldest ghost file there is; Sherwood Point Lighthouse in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin is a fully credentialed entry. 'Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses' carries the account. The lore has a face now: Minnie Hesh.","behavior":"Reports describe voices, teacup sounds and a figure on the stairs.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses","url":"https://www.travelwisconsin.com/stories/door-countys-haunted-lighthouses","publisher":"Wisconsin Department of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access is restricted; check with the managing agency or landowner before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Door County’s Haunted Lighthouses","url":"https://www.travelwisconsin.com/stories/door-countys-haunted-lighthouses","publisher":"Wisconsin Department of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Sherwood Point Light","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Point_Light","desc":"Lighthouse","extract":"The Sherwood Point lighthouse is a lighthouse located near Idlewild in Door County, Wisconsin, United States.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/USCGsherwoodpoint.JPG/330px-USCGsherwoodpoint.JPG?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":75,"lat":44.89277778,"lon":-87.43343333},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}