2021 New Jersey Lighthouse Challenge this weekend
The Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey is an annual event that takes place the third weekend of October each year. The challenge is to visit ten land-based lighthouses, three lifesaving stations, one museum, one virtual site, and the Lighthouse Society of New Jersey site over the two-day weekend. The challenge route covers the Atlantic Coast from Sandy Hook to Cape May and the Delaware Bay and River Coast from Cape May to Paulsboro.
Take the challenge and learn more about these historic treasurers of New Jersey. While there is no fee to participate, a small registration fee enables you to collect a souvenir from each site.
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Rockland (ME) will now be responsible for maintaining its iconic lighthouse
A volunteer group is turning over the responsibility of maintaining and improving the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse to the city. The group, Friends of Rockland Harbor Lights, has leased the building that houses the lighthouse at the end of its nearly mile-long breakwater for about 20 years. That has now ended.
Due to costs and volunteers getting older, Rockland Mayor Ed Glaser said the group did not renew the lease when it expired last month. The city must now assume responsibility for maintaining one of the city’s most iconic treasures.
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Split Rock Lighthouse (MN) to allow visitors again for Fitzgerald memorial
A Lake Superior lighthouse plans to welcome visitors back for an annual memorial honoring the sailors who died when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank. Every Nov. 10, the day the ship sank in a gale in 1975, the Split Rock Lighthouse just south of Beaver Bay holds a beacon lighting. Lighthouse officials announce the names of all 29 sailors who died as a bell tolls, Minnesota Public Radio reported Sunday.
Lighthouse officials say this year’s ceremony will be a hybrid, with the lighthouse grounds open to the public and a livestream on the Minnesota Historical Society’s Facebook and YouTube pages for those who can’t attend. The ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m.
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Trinidad Lighthouse (CA) to host stewardship work day in preparation for 150th anniversary
he Trinidad Lighthouse is hosting a stewardship work day with a group of volunteers on Saturday, Oct. 30. The Trinidad Coastal Land Trust is partnering with the Bureau of Land Management for this event. They are looking for volunteers for paint removal inside the lighthouse in preparation for a fresh paint job, minor repairs in and around the lighthouse, invasive plant species removal, and native plant planting.
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Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation volunteers hold work day
Volunteers from the Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation conducted their last work trip of the season to the Harbor of Refuge Light Oct. 2. The group spent the day cleaning, painting and getting ready for the 2022 season.
Click here for the Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation website
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Around $1 million may be needed to fully restore the Frankfort North Breakwater Light (MI)
Fundraising efforts are moving forward in Frankfort to preserve one of the region’s most iconic landmarks. Built in 1912 and expanded upon 20 years later, the aging North Breakwater Light is in need of restoration. The City of Frankfort obtained the lighthouse in 2011 under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act program.
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Five saved during boat rescue off Penfield Reef Lighthouse (CT)
A boat rescued five people Saturday morning near the Penfield Lighthouse off the coast of Fairfield, Connecticut. Marine units responded to a boat in trouble near the lighthouse.
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Spurn lightship (England): Hull’s historic vessel towed to new berth
Hull’s Spurn lightship was towed into the Humber Estuary on the morning tide after strong winds delayed earlier attempts to move it. Two tugboats pulled the vessel from its Hull Marina berth to Dunston’s shipyard at William Wright Dock. It is due to enter dry dock ahead for works restoration as part of Hull’s £30m maritime regeneration project.
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Work under way to transform and restore iconic Cloch Lighthouse (Scotland)
Work is under way to transform and restore one of Gourock’s most iconic landmarks to its former glory. The owners of the Cloch Lighthouse, Captain Duncan Telfer and his wife-to-be Junn Sukisjinn, started to renovate their home in July with help from Edinburgh-based Benjamin Tindall Architects.
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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