U.S. Lighthouse Society Podcast "Light Hearted" episode 72 – Sean Todd, Mount Desert Rock, Maine

More than 20 miles from the nearest port at Mount Desert Island in Maine, low-lying, wave-swept Mount Desert Rock is only about 17 feet above sea level at its highest point. Congress appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse on Mount Desert Rock on March 2, 1829, to aid mariners heading to Frenchman and Blue Hill Bays from the south. The light went into operation on August 25, 1830. The structure weathered many storms before being replaced by a new 58-foot granite tower in 1847. The new tower was designed by the noted architect Alexander Parris.

Mount Desert Rock Light Station in 2002. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont.

 The station was automated in late 1977. The light station was then leased to Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic for use as a whale watching station. Under the Maine Lights Program, Mount Desert Rock Light Station, along with Great Duck Island Light Station, became the property of the College of the Atlantic in 1998.

The 2019 Marine Mammal class pictured at Mount Desert Rock. In this class, in addition to performing marine mammal research, students learn to run the station.    (College of the Atlantic)

Sean Todd (College of the Atlantic)

Sean Todd is the Steven K. Katona Chair in Marine Sciences at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, and he also directs Allied Whale, the college’s marine mammal research program. He spent ten years in Newfoundland as part of the Whale Disentanglement team, a group that releases large entangled whales from fishing gear. In Maine he is trained as part of a first response team that performs a similar function. Sean also acts as a professional guide, including 14 seasons in the Antarctic and 11 seasons in the Canadian sub-Arctic and Arctic. He created, wrote, and stars in the award-winningLife in the World’s Oceans, a 30-part DVD series available from TheGreatCourses.com.



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U.S. Lighthouse podcast "Light Hearted" episode 71 – John Anderson, Great Duck Island, Maine

Great Duck Island is more than 200 acres in size and about nine miles south of the much larger Mount Desert Island. The Lighthouse Board recommended a light station on the island in 1885, and funds were appropriated in 1889. The light was established on December 31, 1890, with a 42-foot-tall cylindrical brick tower, three keepers’ dwellings, a fog signal building, and other outbuildings.

Early photo of Great Duck Island Lighthouse; fog signal building to the right.
National Archives image 26-LG-2-32F.

The light was automated in 1986 and the fourth-order Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern optic. The light remains an active aid to navigation, while most of the rest of the island was purchased by the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy in 1984.

A student bands a gull chick at Great Duck Island

In 1998 Great Duck Island Light Station, along with Mount Desert Rock Light Station, became the property of Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic under the Maine Lights Program. College of the Atlantic owns approximately 12 acres on Great Duck Island, consisting of the one remaining keeper’s house, two boathouses, and the lighthouse. Students and staff from the college now live in the former keeper’s dwelling much of the year. The College of the Atlantic’s ongoing research projects on the island include the monitoring of the large nesting gull population, as well as detailed study of black guillemots and the nocturnal Leach’s storm petrel.

John Anderson (COA)

John Anderson has been a professor at College of the Atlantic for more than 30 years. He teaches zoology, ecology, and animal behavior, and he’s a W.H. Drury Professor of Ecology and Natural History. He’s a New Zealander by nationality, British by upbringing, and has spent time in the UK, Europe, and the western U.S.

His field research centers around Great Duck Island. He says that he’s interested in the intersection between natural history and human history in relation to long-term ecological processes.

U.S. Lighthouse Society Podcast "Light Hearted" episode 70 - July 6, 2020

Pomham Rocks is a tiny island in the Providence River, about 800 feet from the east shore of the Riverside section of East Providence, Rhode Island. With increased shipping traffic heading toward Providence in the 1800s, Pomham Rocks was an obvious place to establish a navigational aid, and funds were appropriated in 1870. A wooden dwelling with a mansard roof was built on a granite foundation with a hexagonal lighthouse tower on the front center of the building. It was first lighted on December 1, 1871.

The lighthouse was discontinued in 1974 and was replaced by an automatic light on a skeleton tower. In 1980 the General Services Administration sold the property to the Mobil Oil Company, now Exxon Mobil, which has a large refinery and terminal near the lighthouse. Exxon Mobil eventually leased the historic structure at no cost to the American Lighthouse Foundation. A new chapter of the Foundation, the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, was announced.

A restoration of the exterior of the building was completed in early 2006, and the navigational light was returned to the lighthouse. Then, in the spring of 2010, Exxon Mobil donated the lighthouse to the American Lighthouse Foundation. Recent work has included the construction of new docking facilities, restoration of the oil house, installation of new fencing, restoration of the lighthouse windows, and restoration of the interior.

Dennis Tardiff (left) was the last
USCG officer in charge at Pomham Rocks Light Station.
(Photo courtesy of Dennis Tardiff)

Dennis Tardiff arrived at Pomham Rocks in April 1971 as a 19-year-old Coast Guard fireman. He left Pomham at the age of 22 as a third class Petty Officer. As one of the last Coast Guard keepers at the station, Dennis lowered the flag on June 5, 1974, when the light was decommissioned. More than four decades after he left Pomham Rocks, Dennis became reacquainted with the lighthouse when he became involved with the restoration project in 2016. Dennis is now the chairperson of the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse. He was recognized for his efforts with a 2018 volunteerism award from the American Lighthouse Foundation. In this interview, Dennis talks about his days as a Coast Guard light keeper and about the preservation of this jewel among New England lighthouses.