Episode 16 – Host Jeremy D’Entremont interviews Josh Liller, Historian and Collections Manager for the Loxahatchee River Historical Society and Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum in Florida. Josh gives numerous presentations related to local history in the Jupiter area throughout the year. In a history segment, Jeremy and co-host Cindy Johnson discuss the vital 1843 report to Congress by the civil engineer I. W. P. Lewis that led to the restructuring of the nation’s lighthouse administration.
Episode 17 –The U.S. Lighthouse Society’s group tours are developed to maximize lighthouse touring and also to help provide better understanding of the culture and communities in which the lighthouses are located. In this episode, host Jeremy D’Entremont interviews Chris Brookes, a volunteer tour planner and leader. Built in 1879, the Cape Neddick Light Station in York, Maine, is on a small rocky island known as the Nubble and is best known to the public as the Nubble Light. Matt Rosenberg is an English teacher and also the seasonal caretaker for Nubble Lighthouse. Matt is also the supervisor of a student organization known as the York Youth Lighthouse Preservation Association, or YYLPA. Jeremy interviewed Matt Rosenberg and YYLPA President Rachel Carr for this episode. Jeremy and special guest co-host, filmmaker Rob Apse, discuss ways of getting young people interested in lighthouse preservation.
Episode 18 –The city of South Portland, with a bit over 25,000 people, is the fourth-largest city in Maine. It is situated on Portland Harbor and looks out onto the islands of Casco Bay. The Cushing’s Point Museum, adjacent to Bug Light Park, the location of Portland Breakwater Lighthouse, has been home to the South Portland Historical Society since 2009. In this episode of “Light Hearted,” host Jeremy D’Entremont interviews Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo, executive director of the South Portland Historical Society and curator of the Cushing’s Point Museum; Art Greene, chairman of the Spring Point Ledge Light Trust; and Jack Roberts of the Rotary Club of South Portland and Cape Elizabeth. Jack has spearheaded the preservation of Portland Breakwater Lighthouse for nearly 30 years. Jeremy is joined by a special guest co-host, filmmaker Rob Apse.
Special Edition – National Lighthouse Day – This is a special edition of Light Hearted in honor of National Lighthouse Day, August 7. It was on this date in 1789 that the first Congress approved an act for the establishment and support of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers. This special edition includes audio excerpts from a 1989 celebration at Portland Head Lighthouse in Maine, including historian F. Ross Holland.
Episode 19 – Host Jeremy D’Entremont is joined by co-host Michelle Jewell Shaw. Russ Rowlett started his web site, The Lighthouse Directory, in 1999, and it kept growing until, by 2009, it covered the whole world. Russ is the first guest on this episode. Bob Muller was the founding president of the Long Island Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society in New York. Bob updates us on the restoration efforts for Stepping Stones Lighthouse, a project in which Bob has been personally involved. In a history segment, Michelle and Jeremy relate the story of William C. Williams, longtime (1883-1911) keeper of Maine’s remote Boon Island Light Station. The next interview is with Jeff Zappen, who retired in December 2018 after 28 years as a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. Jeff is still working for the Coast Guard as a Waterways Management Specialist in Port Orchard, Washington.
Episode 20 – First is part two of an interview with Chad Kaiser, general manager of the New Dungeness Light Station in Sequim, Washington. Chad is also a lighthouse preservationist and one of only a handful of qualified lampists in the country who are approved by the U.S. Coast Guard to work on historic Fresnel lighthouses lenses. In a history segment with hosts Michelle Jewell Shaw and Jeremy D’Entremont we learn more about William C. Williams, longtime keeper of bleak Boon Island Lighthouse off the southern Maine coast in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Next we travel to South Carolina, where Friends of Hunting Island State Park has been hosting tours of the Hunting Island Light Station in Beaufort. Ted Panayotoff runs the public tours and they are discussed in today’s interview.
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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