Unfortunately for Stebbins, the Coast Guard deemed the light as non-chartered, and thereby its illumination would be in violation of the law. Francis' son Jim inherited the lighthouse in 1967. Placed on the National Register of Historic Sites, and assigned registry number 73000957 on April 11, 1973. In 1979, the Coast Guard removed the clockwork mechanism that rotated the light, removed the bulb and permanently extinguished the light. Jim Stebbins sold the lighthouse to the local township in 1995, which continues to run the facility as a museum.
Local lore reports that the lighthouse is home to a ghost.
One version of the story states that the isolation drove Garrity's wife insane, and that he kept her locked up. It is believed that her ghost haunts the lighthouse to this day, and that on some windy nights she can still be heard screaming from inside the lighthouse. Another version reports that the deactivated light in the tower has been seen illuminated at night, and it is believed that George Parris, a deceased private owner of the station returns to reactivate it. One of the oldest lights on the Great Lakes, it was also one of the first to be deactivated in 1871 when the New Presque Isle Light was built approximately one mile further down the peninsula. Now a privately-run museum, the building represents a strange concoction resulting from many years of varied use.