Presque Isle Lighthouse on the north shore of the peninsula. Click photo for larger image.

For 134 years, the Presque Isle Lighthouse has been a beacon on the north shore of the seven-mile peninsula that juts into Lake Erie.

Pennsylvania's only working lighthouse, it's not open to the public, but it is still one of the most popular sites in the park that draws more than 4 million visitors a year.

"There's always footprints in the sand," said Jackie Tammaro, coordinator of a historic preservation project on the lighthouse planned by a new committee, Keepers of the Erie Lights. "People are there every day."

Preservationists are hoping to restore the grounds and re-create adjacent buildings as they existed between 1900 and 1925, before a road was built on the peninsula.

"The only transportation there was by boat," Ms. Tammaro said.

A white armrail fence will be built around the yard, with a replica of the original outhouse and chicken coop. At the end of the sidewalk trail to Misery Bay will be a boat and boathouse. The project also includes gathering more historical information and documents about the 68-foot-tall lighthouse to be placed at the Erie Maritime Museum.

Guidelines must be drawn up on the project before estimates will be available on anticipated costs. But fund-raising already is under way.

State officials announced last week that a Pennsylvania specialty license plate with images of the Presque Isle Lighthouse is being sold for $39.50, with $17 of each sale going to preservation efforts.

The plates are available to anyone with a current state vehicle registration.

An earlier fund-raiser this summer opened the lighthouse to the public for the first time on July 28-29. More than 750 people swarmed the building to climb up to the top, Ms. Tammaro said, each paying $2 admission.

When it was time to close the entrance on the last day, there was still a 2 1/2-hour wait in line.

"The last person in the lighthouse was a woman from Pittsburgh," Ms. Tammaro recalled. "She was about 75 years old, and her children begged to let her in. They had driven all the way up from Pittsburgh so their mother could see the lighthouse."

The Presque Isle Lighthouse, one of three in the area, was built by the federal government in 1872-73 and was turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard control in 1939. Then in 1998, when nautical instruments and technology had advanced to the point at which lighthouses were no longer necessary for navigation, ownership was transferred from the federal government to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Because the lighthouse was accessible only by boat until 1927, the first lightkeeper, Charles Waldo, wrote that the lighthouse was "the loneliest spot on the earth."

But there wasn't much time for socializing. The original oil lamps burned for just three to four hours, so the lightkeeper had to climb up and replace the oil frequently throughout the night. They kept only one night's supply in the oil room below.

Used as a residence for park administrators, the lighthouse itself has been well maintained, Ms. Tammaro said.

The Coast Guard still maintains the lights, which are changed about every six months, she said.

Preservationists are hoping to recover the original fourth-order Fresnel lens that was removed in 1962. This lens, developed in France in the 1880s, refracted 78 percent of the light -- whether generated from an oil lamp or electric light -- and could be seen for 13 nautical miles.

Because of the popularity of the lighthouse, they're hoping the restoration project will be well received.

"We really want to bring the outside back to the gem like it was before."

You can obtain an application for a Presque Isle Lighthouse Specialty Plate online at www.discoverpi.com or by calling 1-814-833-6050, ext. 7.

They're also available at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center nature shop, located at the entrance of Presque Isle State Park, and at the Erie Maritime Museum gift shop, 150 E. Front St.