This little island in the Providence River has a storybook look to me. It looks like something you'd stick into a model train setup.
The Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, has done a tremendous job with this lighthouse in recent years; an exterior restoration was completed in 2006, leading to the relighting of the lighthouse after many years in darkness. You can read more about Pomham Rocks here and here.
I took this photo on a blustery day in October 2004. I was part of a group that was supposed to go inside the lighthouse that day, but it was obviously impossible with the seas breaking right over the breakwater. I hope I get another chance one of these years.
The annual Christmas lighting of the Cape Neddick "Nubble" Lighthouse in York, Maine, takes place today.
As I sit hear listening to the wind howling outside today, it seems like a good idea to make this the photo of the day.
This photo of Whaleback Lighthouse in Kittery, Maine, was taken at high tide during a storm on April 16, 2007. The lighthouse is over 60 feet tall. This photo was taken from Great Island Common in New Castle, New Hampshire. The image is grainy because the visibility was very bad during the storm; it was raining heavily.
Took this last year during a sunset cruise from Rockland. Happy Day After Thanksgiving!
Producer Marian Gagnon is currently making a documentary on Ida Lewis; see www.goodnightireneproductions.com
Neil Odams, owner of Captain and Patty's Cruises, honored with a 2009 Len Hadley Volunteerism Award at the American Lighthouse Foundation's annual Lighthouse Gala & Volunteer Awards Dinner at the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport, Maine, on November 7. The award was given in recognition of his donation of fundraising cruises for Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse every Tuesday evening. 
For me, this lighthouse stands as a memorial to the five people who died when the keeper's house was swept away in the hurricane of 1938. See lighthouse.cc/prudence/history.html and this article.
I've made Nobska Point Lighthouse in Woods Hole on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, my photo of the day because I also want to pass along this information about 2010 open houses, just passed along by Sandy and Don Abt of Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 11-2.
The lighthouse will be open to the public in 2010 on the following days and times, weather permitting, all 9:30 to 11:30 a.m:
Saturday, May 15; Saturday, June 19; Thursday, July 1; Thursday, July 15; Thursday, July 29 ; Thursday; Aug. 5 ; Saturday, Aug. 14; Thursday, Dec. 4. Also, there's still one more open house in 2009: Saturday, Dec. 5, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
ADMISSION REGULATIONS:
- Children must be at least 6 years of age AND 45 inches tall to enter
- Shoes and shirts required
- No food or drink permitted in the lighthouse
- No smoking permitted in the lighthouse
- Backpacks, large purses, large camera bags not allowed in the light room
- Infants in carrying pouches not allowed in the lighthouse
- No liability is accepted for personal items left unattended in or on the grounds of the lighthouse
Lighthouse tours are conducted by United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 11-2. Admission is free. For more information, email Abtda@aol.com.
For more on this lighthouse, see lighthouse.cc/nobska/.
This photo was taken back in the '90s during my first visit to beautiful Windmill Point. This lighthouse is owned by the Clark family, true lighthouse keepers and preservationists.
I took this photo of Cape Ann's famous twin lights on Thacher Island from a helicopter, piloted by Dale Hardy, in June 2002.
The Thacher Island Association had contracted Campbell Construction to renovate the assistant keeper's house near the south tower. Dale was hired to fly in supplies and to take debris off the island. I was lucky enough to get a ride along with Paul St. Germain of the Thacher Island Association.
This was among my most memorable lighthouse experiences. For more on Thacher Island, see lighthouse.cc/thacher/
Here's some video from that day:
New London Ledge is one of the coolest lighthouses anywhere, in my humble opinion. Not only is it architecturally beautiful and unique, but it's haunted to boot! What more could you want?
The latest good news is that the New London Ledge Lighthouse Foundation has become the newest chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation.
Austere and weather-beaten, Graves Light might appear to the uninformed observer to be a more ancient structure than Boston Light, its neighbor in Boston’s outer harbor. Surprisingly, it’s actually one of Massachusetts’ youngest lighthouses.I took this photo circa 2000, during my one and only visit to Great Captain Island. For many years, the ferry to the island was restricted to Greenwich residents and their guests. That has changed recently -- now anyone is permitted to ride the ferry. Click here for more info.
And there's more good news! The lighthouse was recently restored. The caretaker had moved out in 2003 because of the poor condition of the building. In May 2009, Greenwich native Mike Nickerson moved in as caretaker, with his wife and 10-month-old son. The Nickersons plan to live on the island year round.
I took this photo quite a few years ago, somewhere in the mid-1990s. My wife and I were driving home from somewhere or other, and it had been raining all day. Near sunset, the clouds lifted a bit and the sky was quite striking. We were near Gloucester, so I suggested we go to Eastern Point. We were rewarded with a great photo opportunity, with dramatic overcast skies but sunlight on the lighthouse.
I took this photo in June 2001 on Seguin Island, off the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. I was visiting the island along with Jean Guichard, the great French photographer. We visited the caretakers on the island that summer, Jim Woods and Kris Pescatore (below).
The neat thing was that Jim was a huge fan of Jean's work. He said he grew up with Jean's famous "La Jument" lighthouse print on his wall, and it had inspired him to want to live at a lighthouse.
Left: (L to R) Howie Marston of Kennebec Charters, Jim Woods, Kris Pescatore, Philip Jermain of the Friends of Seguin Island, and Jean Guichard.
Click here to read the story I wrote in 2001 about Jim and Kris.
For more on Seguin, visit www.lighthouse.cc/seguin/ and www.seguinisland.org
Anyone who's gone to see Cape Neddick Lighthouse in York, Maine, better known as the Nubble Light, knows that very few people get on the island -- most view it across a narrow channel from Sohier Park.
I was lucky enough, back in August 2003, to get the opportunity to get on the island with two Coast Guardsmen who were inspecting the fourth-order Fresnel lens. I might never get on the island again, so I treasure the memory of that day.
I thought I'd throw in a change of pace today, with something other than a lighthouse. You can buy prints and cards with this image at my new account with Imagekind at nelights.imagekind.com.
I think this photo might make a good jigsaw puzzle.
This clip shows Edward Rowe Snow (1902-1982), the popular New England maritime historian and "Flying Santa" to lighthouse keepers, diving from Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, off Boston's South Shore, in 1962. I believe it was his 60th birthday. The door he's diving from is approximately 60 feet above the water.
For more on the Flying Santa, see www.flyingsanta.org. For more on Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, see lighthouse.cc/minots/
This photo was taken during the same sunset cruise as yesterday's view of Minot's Ledge Light. This was one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen, and to be out in a boat near lighthouses at the time made it especially memorable.
I'm always drawn to offshore, wave-swept lighthouses like Minot's. I'm fascinated by the lives the keepers led at these places. Lighthouse keeping at these places was rough, physically and psychologically -- not the romantic picture many people have of the job.
I took this photo during a sunset cruise I narrated for the Thacher Island Association a couple of years ago. We left Gloucester, Mass., at 6 p.m. and got to Boston Light about sunset, and it didn't look like we'd have time to make it all the way to Minot's, a few more miles south, off the shores of Scituate and Cohasset. But the captain decided to go for it, and we still had some light left when we got to Minot's, as you can see. Because the light was so low, my photos were very noisy -- I had to reduce the noise in Photoshop in order to make this photo presentable. But I did very little manipulation of the color -- this is a pretty accurate picture of the beautiful sunset that evening. You can see the Boston skyline in the distance.
I ran a poll over the past week or so asking, "In the next year, which of the following are you most likely to do?" Here are the results: Visit one or more lighthouses within a couple of hours of home - 72% | |||
Visit one or more lighthouses more than a couple of hours away - 81% Take a lighthouse cruise - 72% Take a lighthouse bus or van tour - 18% Read a book about lighthouses - 72% Read about lighthouses online - 81%
These results aren't very surprising, but I am disappointed that only 27% said they'd volunteer. Granted, only 11 people responded, and that's not a very representative sampling. Still, I'd be more optimistic about the future of lighthouses if more people realized that preservation takes time and effort. I should have also included "Donate money to a lighthouse organization" as one of the options. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who professes to love lighthouses needs to do something for their preservation, whether it's a donation of time or money. It doesn't have to be a huge amount of money -- every dollar counts. |
I've visited West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, at the easternmost point of the U.S. mainland, many times over the years. I've been there at sunrise and sunset, in sun, fog, rain, and snow. The day I took this photo in June 2004, the weather was gorgeous and the sky was photogenic. I haven't been to West Quoddy in two or three years and I miss it.
I took this photo of one of Maine's prettiest lighthouses at sunset on a very cold day a couple of years ago.
For more history, see this page.By three o'clock the wind blew a gale and the sea began to go higher and higher. Pounding with such a force that it smashed up all the boats and by four o'clock we had lost part of our rain shed, one oil tank, a boat landing, also smashing in the engine room and flooding the engines and putting the fog signal out of commission.
At five o'clock all outside doors had been carried away and all windows from the first floor to the third floor were stove in, so that we were practically flooded out of our home.
At five-thirty I went into the tower to light up. While there, we took what was called a tidal wave. There were seas that went by that completely buried the tower. The first sea that came along was the one that caused the most damage. That one broke seven plates out of our upper deck, which is fifty-six feet from the average high water. That sea, when it hit the tower, sounded like a cannon. And it hit with such a force as to knock me off my feet. . . . But when I finished lighting up and started to go downstairs I was some surprised to find that I had to crawl through some broken deck plates that had fallen over the stairs. . . .
At sunrise Mr. Bouley put the light out and called me to see the beach. And we were surprised when we looked to the point and saw that everything had been washed away.
The Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse, deed holders for the historic lighthouse located beneath the Jamestown Bridge in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, are pleased to announce the passage of legislation allowing the group to sell Plum Beach Lighthouse license plates to interested Rhode Island registered passenger vehicle owners. To celebrate, the group is offering media and other interested parties the rare opportunity to tour the lighthouse on Thursday, November 12.
On October 29, during the special fall legislative session, the state Senate approved their version of the House bill that had been passed during the regular session. After a short grace period, the bill becomes law and the Friends welcome local media and other guests on a tour of the lighthouse to celebrate the passage of the PBL license plate bill. On the day of the tour, the bill, because it was passed by both legislative branches, automatically becomes law without the Governor’s signature, making the lighthouse trip a special day for the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse.
The lighthouse was opened in 1899 to protect vessels from the Plum Beach shoal. Active for only 42 years, the lighthouse was abandoned in 1941 by the Coast Guard after the opening of the original Jamestown Bridge in 1939. The structure deteriorated for 62 years until the Friends, with the help of a RI Department of Transportation grant, renovated it in 2003. Now, a short six years later, the lighthouse is once again in need of a painting. The Friends have tried to raise funds for the past six years and have now turned to the General Assembly, the Division of Motor Vehicles, and the general driving public for help.
The proposed specialty plate will cost drivers a one-time fee of $41.50. $20 from each plate fee collected will go directly to the painting project to help cover the $50,000 estimated painting cost. The state General Fund will benefit from the other $21.50 of each plate sold after the plate costs are deducted. The Friends will need to sell 900 plates before the DMV will commit to making any, but the group is confident they will quickly reach this number. They have already compiled a list of over 450 “pre-orders” from interested drivers, and this was done before the group had the right to sell the plate. Now that the General Assembly has approved the group’s request to create the plate, the Friends can now truly offer this unique RI plate design.
The Plum Beach Lighthouse plate is one of several new specialty plates approved by the General Assembly in the last year, but the group would like to point out that the lighthouse plate is one that has only local roots, and all of the funds collected would stay in the state to repair this local historic icon. Any funds earmarked for the lighthouse will go directly to the repainting project.
The group assembling at the town dock at 8 a.m. on November 12 will board the 50-foot certified passenger vessel Sea Princess of Wickford. Piloted by Coast Guard licensed Captain Doug Somers, the vessel will motor out of Wickford Harbor, turn south outside the harbor breakwater, and travel approximately three miles to the lighthouse beneath the Jamestown-Verrazzanno Bridge. The Sea Princess will circle the lighthouse several times for a photo-op before rafting to the “Lightship,” a 26-foot aluminum-hulled landing craft with a retractable bow piloted by Coast Guard licensed Capt. Keith Lescarbeau, the contractor of the 2003 lighthouse renovation. The group will transfer from the Sea Princess to the Lightship to make their way across the rocks to the lighthouse.
The Friends want to stress the danger and difficulty of this adventure. Very few have ever visited the property as it sits in some of the most treacherous waters of Narragansett Bay. Of the 90 official members of the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse, few have ever visited; at the most, only six current members have ever set foot there. It is surrounded by seaweed and moss covered rocks that become slick as ice when wet, which is most of the time. Once you have cleared these rocks, one must be capable of climbing fifteen feet up a ladder and through an opening no larger than two feet wide. Heavyset overweight people will have a difficult time making their way through this opening.
Proper outdoor waterproof clothing and proper shoes are required for the visit to the lighthouse. If one should slip on the rocks you must expect to get wet or dirty from the growth. Once in the lighthouse the interior walls are rust covered and the floors are dusty. Although the guano was abated during the 2003 renovation, the pungent smell from the years of being inhabited by generations of pigeons and cormorants is ever present. However, the views from the lower deck and the upper lantern room are spectacular and well worth the trip.
The decision to access the lighthouse property will be made jointly by Captains Somers and Lescarbeau. Sea conditions vary greatly from inside Wickford Harbor to the Plum Beach shoal, and the lighthouse is situated in water that has some of the strongest current on the bay. There is no guarantee that the group will make a landing at the lighthouse, but the best effort will be made to get everyone onto the property. Failing to make the landing won’t deem the trip a failure because there will be opportunity to get plenty of great, close visuals from the Sea Princess of the lighthouse.
Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to visit this RI historic icon. Space is limited to 40 on the Sea Princess, so please reserve your reporter and photographer’s spot now. The Friends expect it to be a full ship. This is an extremely rare event and will not be repeated any time soon.
RSVP REQUIRED by November 11 to Dee Hoebbel, 295-7665 deeh4@msn.com
Edmund and Lillian had one child when they moved to Wickford, and three more children were born at the lighthouse during their years there. The children made the most of their waterbound home. Their son, Edward, later said that his knuckles were frequently banged up from riding his bicycle in circles around the lighthouse, bumping into the iron railings that surrounded it.
The North Kingstown Free Library is pleased to be the current residence of a magnificent model of Wickford Lighthouse built by Dominic Zachorne. The original lighthouse was located outside of Wickford Harbor, Rhode Island, from 1882 until 1930.
