Old Mission Point, Michigan

Old Mission Point is an unincorporated community within Peninsula Township, Grand Traverse County in the U.S. state of Michigan.

The Old Mission Point Lighthouse is located at the northern terminus of M-37, at the tip of the Old Mission peninusla, which juts 18 miles into Grand Traverse Bay. It is located at 44° 59′ 7″ N 85° 28′ 24″ W, just south of the 45th latitude, midway between the North Pole and the Equator.

In the 1836 Treaty of Washington, the U.S. federal government agreed to provide local native tribes with both a mission and schools for their reservation. Henry Schoolcraft, the Indian agent representing the government, selected a natural harbor on the eastern shore of the peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay for the planned facilities. In 1838 the Presbyterian Board of Missions, sent the Reverend Peter Dougherty (1805–1894) to establish the mission for which the peninsula would eventually become known.