A single storm on Nov 28, 1905, damaged 20 ships, fully a third of which were the uninsured property of the steel company fleet. Two of these carriers floundered on this rocky coastline, which some called "the most dangerous piece of water in the world."
In 1907, Congress appropriated $75,000 for a lighthouse and fog signal in the vicinity of Split Rock.
Workers completed the fifty four foot octagonal brick tower the following on July 31, 1910. Oren Young and his assistants lit the incandescent oil vapor lamp and set the bivalve Third Order Fresnel lens in motion for the first time. Situated on top of Split Rock, the lens boasted a focal plane of one hundred and sixty eight feet, the highest of all lights on the Great Lakes.
Split Rock is the most scenic and also the most photographed lighthouse on Lake Superior.