Port Sanilac Light placement and the unique shape were dictated by and created because of budgetary constraints (Congress appropriated only half the money requested). Designed by Eleventh District Engineer Captain Charles E. L. B. Davis, the design has been called "both unique and architecturally significant in its elegance." The tower is white with a red roof. This "handsome" lighthouse shares its design with only one other, Ile Aux Galets, also known as Skilligallee Island Light, on Lake Michigan. The Port Sanilac Light tower is capped with a cast iron lantern room, which still houses a fourth order Fresnel lens manufactured by Barbier and
Ship Shoal Light remains in the gulf for now. Ship Shoal Light The Ship Shoal Light is a screw-pile lighthouse located in the Gulf of Mexico southwest of the Isles Dernieres off the coast of Louisiana. It is currently abandoned. Ship Shoal (known as Ship Island Shoal in early maps) is a bar running east-west in the open waters of the gulf. The Louisiana state legislature petitioned congress for a light to be erected on this hazard in 1848, but instead of a fixed tower, a lightship was provided instead. This vessel, the "Pleasonton", was named after Stephen Pleasonton, who was in charge