Door County Lighthouse Festival (WI) begins today with some restrictions
The 27th annual Fall Lighthouse Festival kicks off today (Friday), but officials say coronavirus concerns will have an impact. The Door County Maritime Museum runs the festival. The weekend includes land-based, boat, and adventure tours that together reach all 11 of the treasured lighthouses of Door County. Many of the tour excursions are unique to the Lighthouse Festival weekends, and provide visitors exclusive access to lighthouses not typically open to the public.
Click here for more information
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Portage River (Jacobsville) Lighthouse is for sale (MI)
This lighthouse turned bed and breakfast that just may be the most unique real estate listing in Michigan. This Lake Superior gem, built in 186, is located on Keweenaw Bay in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. After being decommissioned in 1919, the lighthouse remained vacant until 1958 when it was purchased in an auction. In 2004, Mike Ditty and his now late wife Sherry happened by the property while boating and noticed a for sale sign and they were able to purchase the property.
As a family, the Dittys enjoyed summers there and made even more improvements that then allowed them to open the Jacobsville Lighthouse/Portage River Lighthouse as a bed and breakfast inn in 2005. The property features multiple buildings boasting over 4,000 square feet of living space when all combined. The asking price for the entire property is $720,000.
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Round Island Lighthouse in Pascagoula, MS, reopens
After six months of being shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Round Island Lighthouse in Pascagoula finally reopened to the public on Monday. Visitors can now once again visit the lighthouse in small groups and learn about its history. Masks are required while touring the lighthouse and small groups are encouraged.
Built in 1859 and a beacon for mariners for 150 years, the hurricane-ravaged remnants of Round Island Lighthouse were rescued and relocated to mainland Pascagoula in 2010.
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Grass fire burns near Point Reyes Lighthouse (CA)
A 5.6-acre grass fire was burning near the Point Reyes Lighthouse, according to the National Park Service last Sunday. There were concerns about the historic lighthouse, but the structure was not threatened because it is largely protected from the fire by steep and rugged terrain nearby.
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New Jersey’s Lighthouse Challenge Going “Hybrid”
For two decades the idea of the New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge has been to have people visit all of the state’s lighthouses, plus some historic lifesaving stations and the Barnegat Light Museum, in the third weekend in October. COVID-19 got in the way of the 21st version of the challenge, so the challenge will be a hybrid affair this month. Many of the sites are closed so they can be visited only virtually. The Challenge will last for the entire month.
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Elaine Graham, caretaker of Point Atkinson Light Station (BC, Canada) for 40 years, retires
Don and Elaine Graham first visited Point Atkinson Lighthouse in 1977. While the lighthouse, a brilliant white and red station which can be reached by hiking Lighthouse Park’s valley trail in West Vancouver, would eventually end up being their home for the next four decades, they didn’t stay long that first go-around.
The Grahams started their long tenure at the West Vancouver lighthouse station and park lands in 1980. After 40 years, Elaine retired as caretaker of the park and light station at the end of September. (Don passed away in 2003.) Elaine also spent years developing educational displays around the park, leading guided tours and walks, and even working with the Girl Guides year after year to develop a nature room.
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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 D’Entremont 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