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All the United States Michigan Carp Lake Ruins of the Waugoshance Light Station
AO Edited

Ruins of the Waugoshance Light Station

During WWII the U.S. Navy conducted primitive drone strikes on this Lake Michigan lighthouse.

Carp Lake, Michigan

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Elliot Carter
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Waugoshance Lighthouse   Justin Billau/CC BY 2.0
Footage of an attack run on Waugoshance   U.S. Navy/Public Domain
Footage of an attack run on Waugoshance   U.S. Navy/Public Domain
Illustration of a radio-controlled drone   May 1946 issue of Radio-Craft Magazine
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During the summer of 1943, a martial atmosphere took over the normally peaceful waters of Lake Michigan, as the U.S. Navy ramped up its training exercises in the area. In Chicago, two paddlewheel aircraft carriers plied the waves and certified class after class of newly minted carrier pilots. To the north, right around the Canadian border, a much smaller and more secretive exercise was underway at an abandoned lighthouse near Waugoshance Point.

The Waugoshance Lighthouse was built in 1851 to help steer mariners away from dangerous reefs and shoals. During the Second World War it served the country in a reversed role, with the red and white tower acting as a beacon for experimental radio-controlled drones.  

The highly secretive program, codenamed STAG-1, Strategic Test Attacks Group-1, was dreamed up as the American response to increasingly common Japanese Kamikaze attacks.

Engineers fitted out twin engine planes with primitive radio receivers that connected to the steering. Aviation Machinist Michael L Beshara later described for the Library of Congress Veteran's History Project, “They had a television camera in the nose, and a hydraulic unit that was controlled by radio impulses for each operation they wanted to control.”

Pilots flying a “mothership” trailing several miles behind would steer the drones over their unlucky targets. After dropping powerful 2,000 pound bombs, the expendable drones were allowed to simply crash down into the water.

During the development phase, that target turned out to be the Waugoshance Lighthouse. Bombs rained down around the defenseless lighthouse throughout 1943—grainy footage of the runs is viewable on YouTube. Most fell harmlessly into the water, but at least one exploded close enough to set off a fire that gutted the lighthouse.

The abandoned hulk stood sentry over the icy waters of Lake Michigan, forgotten until 2011 when it was transferred from the Coast Guard to the Waugoshance Lighthouse Preservation Society. Efforts are currently underway to restore the historic lighthouse.

Related Tags

Military History Lighthouses War History Water Abandoned Ruins Military

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Added By

Elliot Carter

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wardswork

  • wardswork

Published

June 20, 2017

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  • http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=211
  • https://www.northernexpress.com/news/feature/article-7908-life-after-wartime/
  • https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed38/531575cf6fce272fd3d88ebe06f9775b021f.pdf
  • https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.18084/mv0001001.stream
  • https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/18084
  • http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/video/2030319924/
  • Acronym defining grammatically
Ruins of the Waugoshance Light Station
Waugoshance Lighthouse
Carp Lake, Michigan
United States
45.786111, -85.091111
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Photo of Carp Lake

Carp Lake

Michigan

Places 2

Nearby Places

Legs Inn

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miles away

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Photo of Carp Lake

Carp Lake

Michigan

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