During the 1830s, Michigan Road (U.S. 421) first connected the Great Lakes at Michigan City with the Ohio River. Michigan Road was Indiana’s first major north-south highway. In 1858, the federal government built a stone and brick lighthouse on Lake Michigan, equipped with a whale oil lantern visible for 15 miles.

This piece is exposed to all weather, all hours of the day and night, and beams light from high atop the museum’s northwest wall. The lighthouse-like cylindrical form contains an actual 360 degree rotating light.

Designers Jeff Laramore and David Jemerson Young of 2nd Globe, an Indianapolis–based artistic company, designed all 92 of the county sculptures featured on the outside of the Indiana State Museum. Their designs narrate the counties’ famous natives, historically significant events, or their cultural heritage, and were fabricated and installed by various Indiana sculptors, carvers, glassworkers, metal workers, and other artisans.