Side Note

The government is basically giving away this historic lighthouse

It would honestly be cheaper to buy this thing than a tiny house.

Because I am weird, I like to check government auction websites to see what sort of stuff the United States is looking to get rid of. While Uncle Sam usually just wants to offload obsolete computer equipment, sheds, and old Ford Crown Victorias, when I looked on the estimable RealEstateSales.Gov the other day, I found something kind of incredible.

If the headline didn’t give it away, it’s a lighthouse on a teeny-tiny concrete island.

However, it is not just any lighthouse. It’s the historic Martin Reef Light Station, located on Lake Huron, about 4.5 miles off the coast of Cadigon, Michigan. When I say it’s “historic,” I’m not just trying to say that it’s old — it is literally on the National Register of Historic Places. An exhaustive description/history of the lighthouse I found on the listing notes, “the light marks the dangerous Martin Reef in Lake Huron and is on the main route of steamers traveling from Lake Superior to Lake Michigan.” Additionally, the lighthouse, which now runs on solar power and doesn’t require anyone manning the thing, cost $112,000 to build in 1927 — seeing as it’s being listed at $27,000, this seems like a good deal. If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t mind being totally isolated from the rest of the world, all you’d need is a satellite internet connection, a boat to shuttle yourself from lighthouse to land, and boom — you could have the hippest hipster homestead in all the world.