The site for the station was selected atop a forty-foot red clay bluff, which it was calculated would provide the lens with a focal plane of 130 feet, allowing the light to be seen distance of 19 ΒΌ miles in clear weather.
The old cast iron tower from Schooner Ledge, which had been shipped to the Eleventh District and stored since 1919, was shipped to Michigan Island along with the work crew required to bring the station to completion. Work began with the pouring of a concrete foundation for the tower, and the construction of a brick building to house the diesel engines and generators, which would power the light, radiobeacon and station quarters. The cast iron tower was erected on the prepared foundation, and the Third-and-a-half Order Fresnel was disassembled, removed from the old tower, and carefully relocated to its new home in the lantern atop the new tower. Equipped with a 24,000 candlepower electric light, the combination of the significantly increased intensity and the 170-foot focal plane afforded by the tower's location atop the cliff. Increased the light's range of visibility to a remarkable 22 miles.
