News

Lighthouse News of the Week – Jan. 17, 2020

St. Simons Lighthouse in 2013. U.S. Lighthouse Society photo by J. Candace Clifford.

Research uncovers story of Isaac and Dora Peckham at St. Simons Light Station (GA)

Isaac and Dora Peckham, married in 1877, lived at Georgia’s St. Simons Light Station from 1883 to 1893. Isaac was principal keeper and Dora was the assistant keeper. They earned a reputation as the best light-keeping duo in the sixth district. According to an article by Larry Hobbs in the Brunswick News, Dora was also a crack shot with a rifle who could “hit anything on the wing.” And Isaac had a green thumb and grew blue ribbon-worthy vegetables of alarming proportions.

Researcher Linda Olsen will be giving a presentation on the Peckhams at the St. Simons Lighthouse Museum on February 13 at 6 p.m. Click here for more information.

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Access to Pensacola Lighthouse (FL) limited to those with Department of Defense IDs

According to a notice on the Pensacola Lighthouse website, “We are currently only able to receive guests with Department of Defense-issued identification that allows them access to NAS Pensacola. Individuals without such identification will not be granted access to the base through either gate.”

It is not known how long this regulation will remain in place.

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Storm destroys Lions Head Lighthouse (Ontario, Canada)

Lions Head Lighthouse

Plans are in the works to replace the landmark lighthouse at Lion’s Head that was destroyed during a weekend storm, which also caused hydro outages, downed trees, and created poor driving conditions. The lighthouse, which is owned by Northern Bruce Peninsula, had been damaged by a pair of storms in the fall.

Click here for more on this story

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Area near Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse (FL) facing accelerated erosion

The shoreline surrounding Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse on Florida’s east coast is falling away at an accelerated rate.

Historical view of Jupiter Inlet Light Station. National Archives image 26-LG-70-77s-ac

“Over the holiday season, vandalism and unauthorized use of the dunes along the shoreline put the lighthouse area on track for erosion to go up even more than its already stepped-up pace of seven feet per year over the last ten years, up from its historical average of two feet per year,” according to WJCT.

Click here to read more

The erosion problems could lead to trail restrictions; click here to read more

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Research on suffragists leads to article about Scituate Light (MA)

Scituate historian Lyle Nyberg recently had an article published in The Keeper’s Log, the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s quarterly journal. The article, “Scituate Lighthouse was once abandoned but not vacant,” focuses on how Scituate Lighthouse served as home to a variety of tenants during a 30-year period in the late 1800s when the light was not operating. Nyberg did not set out to write an article about the little known history of Scituate Light. The article grew out of his research for a book he is working on about Scituate’s summer suffragists.

Early 1900s postcard of Scituate Lighthouse

Click here to read more about this story

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Fifth annual “Lighthouses are for Lovers & Friends, featuring The Dreamers at the National Lighthouse Museum, Staten Island, NY

The Dreamers will again be on hand to entertain us with the music of Motown, The Jersey Boys, Carol King, Skyliners, Smokey Robinson, Chicago, The O’Jays, Harptones, The Temptations, Tavares and other artists. A delectable buffet dinner and refreshments round out the evening of music, friendship, and love.

Date: Saturday, February 8, 2020. Time: 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Place: The National Lighthouse Museum, 200 The Promenade at Lighthouse Point, St. George (adjacent to the FREE Staten Island Ferry), Staten Island, NY 10301. Tickets  – $75.00

Click here for more information and tickets

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Dover (NH) Public Library to host talk on local lighthouses

The Friends of the Dover (New Hampshire) Public Library invite the public to learn about the history of local lighthouses from historian Jeremy D’Entremont, author of this blog and producer/host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s podcast Light Hearted, on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in the library’s Lecture Hall. The presentation on “Lighthouses of Seacoast New Hampshire and Southern Maine” will focus on the lighthouses at Portsmouth Harbor, White Island (Isles of Shoals), Whaleback, Cape Neddick (Nubble), and Boon Island.

For more details, click here.

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U.S. Lighthouse Society News is produced by the U.S. Lighthouse Society to support lighthouse preservation, history, education and research.

If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to Jeremy at Jeremy@uslhs.org

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