Minot’s Ledge—about a mile offshore, near the border between the towns of Cohasset and Scituate on the south shore of Boston, Massachusetts—is a 25-foot-wide rock ledge that is part of the dangerous Cohasset Rocks. In 1847, Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse on Minot’s Ledge. Capt. William H. Swift of the Corps of Topographical Engineers… Continue reading USLHS Historian Video #8: The first Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse
On March 3, 1821, Congress appropriated $10,500 for three lighthouses on the Maine coast, one of them on five-acre Burnt Island at the west side of the entrance to Boothbay Harbor. In 1988, the station was automated and destaffed. A decade later, Burnt Island Light Station was transferred to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 62 – Elaine Jones, Burnt Island Lighthouse, Maine; Russ Katje, hall of fame Lighthouse Passport Program collector
Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum (FL) reopens for tours on May 30 The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum will be welcoming visitors once again beginning Saturday, May 30, after being closed since March 16. Although most lighthouses in the U.S. remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jupiter Lighthouse will join Florida’s St. Augustine Lighthouse as… Continue reading Lighthouse News of the Week – May 22, 2020
This is the second part of a two-part interview with Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse in outer Boston Harbor, a classic wave-swept granite tower on a barren, rocky ledge. One of the subjects discussed is the “Franklens” created by Dave Waller and friends — a first-order Fresnel lens made of spare panels… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 61 – Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse, Massachusetts (pt 2 of 2)
This episode of Weekend Magazine follows the families of lighthouse keepers living on two remote Tasmanian islands, Maatsuyker and Tasman.
Boston Light available to new steward through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act The U.S. Coast Guard, in partnership with the U.S. General Services Administration, has initiated the process to transfer stewardship of Light Station Boston, commonly known as Boston Light, under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act (NHLPA). The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act… Continue reading Lighthouse News of the Week – May 15, 2020
Episode 3 of the USLHS podcast “Light Hearted” was originally released on June 10, 2019. In this episode, host Jeremy D’Entremont was joined by co-host Michelle Jewell Shaw. A lighthouse history segment focused on the ancient Roman lighthouse in Dover, England. The featured interview was with Dolly Bicknell, president of Project Gurnet and Bug Lights,… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 3 redux – Dolly Bicknell of Project Gurnet & Bug Lights; Roman lighthouse at Dover, England
Boon Island is a desolate pile of granite several miles off the southern Maine towns of Kittery and York. The present lighthouse, the third built on the island, went into service on New Year’s Day in 1855. It’s the tallest lighthouse in New England at 133 feet tall. Captain William Converse Williams, a native of… Continue reading USLHS Historian Video #7: Keeper William C. Williams at Boon Island, Maine
Graves Lighthouse is a classic, granite, wave-swept offshore lighthouse tower on a barren ledge in outer Boston Harbor. It went into service in 1905 with a huge first-order Fresnel lens from Paris, rotating on 400 pounds of mercury, produced a light that was later upgraded to 3.2 million candlepower– it was for many years the… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 60 – Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse, Massachusetts (pt 1 of 2)
In episode 2 of the USLHS podcast Light Hearted, originally released on June 6, 2019, host Jeremy D’Entremont interviewed Chad Kaiser, general manager of the New Dungeness Light Station in Sequim, Washington. Chad is also a lampist (Fresnel lens expert) and preservationist, and part two of this interview was heard in episode 20. Chad and… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 2 Redux – Chad Kaiser, New Dungeness Light Station (WA); Pharos of Alexandria, “The Light at the Edge of the World”
