Gull Rock: A Little Lighthouse with a Big History (Part 1 & 2)

Gull Rock is a small island roughly the size of a football field consisting of conglomerate bedrock covered with a sprinkling of glacial till [the sediment deposited by a glacier]. The island sits in the open waters of Lake Superior and rises roughly 12 feet above the surface of the lake. As the name implies, Gull Rock is a well-established nesting area for gulls. Other than lichen and a few hardy crevice-borne bushes and plants, the rock is devoid of vegetation or even much topsoil. (There is one regenerating mountain ash tree.) The rock itself is bordered by 100 miles  of open water to the north, a 1,000-acre island (Manitou) to the east, 50 miles of open water to the south, and the picturesque forested hills of Michigan's remote Keweenaw Peninsula 2 and 1/2 miles to the west.