The annual Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Beacon Lighting will once again be a public event. Every year on 10 November, the lighthouse, fog signal building, and visitor center are open to the public to commemorate the lives lost in the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. In 2020, the buildings were closed due to the pandemic.

A film on the Big Fitz will be shown throughout the day. At 4:30pm, the lighthouse will close for the reading of the names of the crew to the tolling of a ship’s bell. Afterwards, the lighthouse will reopen. This is the only day of the year that visitors are allowed to climb the tower, in the dark, to see the lit beacon.