Agencies raise alarm about Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse (FL) area erosion
Since 1953, the area around Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse has lost five acres of land to erosion. Much of the erosion is natural, but people climbing on the dunes, wedging their boats into the sand and pulling down fences and signs erected to keep people out of fragile areas may have accelerated the loss of land. That’s put 6,000 years of artifacts, native plants and, in the long term, even the lighthouse at risk.
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Beaver Island Head Lighthouse (MI) fog signal may need protection from high lake levels
The current high water levels on Lake Michigan, along with forecasts they’ll go even higher — may necessitate further action by Charlevoix County officials to protect the fog signal building at the Beaver Island Head Lighthouse. The fog signal building sits close to the shoreline.
Last year Charlevoix County and Networks Northwest bought the lighthouse property from the Charlevoix Public Schools at a price of $215,000. The 171-acre property includes the lighthouse and fog signal building, three residential cabins, a classroom building, a dining hall and a wood shop.
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Tickets on sale for Door County (Wisconsin) Lighthouse Festivals
Tickets for the 2020 Door County Spring and Fall Lighthouse Festivals will go on sale March 23. They include land-based, boat and adventure tours that together reach all 11 of the county’s treasured lighthouses.
Many of the excursions are unique to the Lighthouse Festivals and provide exclusive access to several lighthouses that are not typically open to the public, including the Chambers Island and Sherwood Point Lighthouses and the Plum Island Range Lights. New this year will be air tours that visit all 11 lighthouses.
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Town of Barnegat Light, NJ, purchases historic lightship bell
The bell from the U.S. Lightship Barnegat will be retired to Barnegat Light, near where the ship floated for four decades (1927-67). A bayside pavilion park has been discussed as a possible place to site the bell on a base after it is prepared. The lightship itself is in rough condition and was put on a list of the state’s top 10 endangered historic places in 2018.
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Spring Fling event for Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses (NH/ME)
Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses (FPHL) a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, cares for two historic lighthouses near the mouth of the Piscataqua River — Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse in New Castle, New Hampshire, and Whaleback Lighthouse in Kittery, Maine. Both mark the entrance to the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
FPHL will be holding its annual “Spring Fling” at the Kittery Lions Club at 117 State Rd. (Route 1) in Kittery, Maine, from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 4. The event includes music with the band The Honey Badgers and McDonough-Grimes Irish Dance, food, a raffle, and silent auction with all kinds of gift cards, art, and memorabilia. There is a suggested $2 donation for admission.
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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
Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of more than 20 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is the president and historian for the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org