New London, CT, lighthouse tours return with fewer restrictions
After over a year of canceled tours and sightseeing boat trips done away with due to the pandemic, New London is adding new life to some of the area’s historic lighthouses with fewer COVID-19 restrictions and better weather ahead.
Susan Tamulevich, the executive director at the New London Maritime Society is calling the summer of 2022 the beginning of “The Year of the Lighthouse.”
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$1.9 Million Announced For Piney Point Lighthouse And Museum Shoreline Restoration (MD)
Congressman Steny H. Hoyer and Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced $1,937,953 in federal funding to enhance shoreline restoration and coastal resiliency at the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and Historic Park. This funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund (ECRF) will be directed to the St. Mary’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation to combat ongoing shoreline erosion, flooding issues, and habitat deficiencies associated with the park to better protect this coastal community treasure.
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Port Authority of Oswego, NY, Secures $4.75 million for harbor breakwater repairs, includes preservation of lighthouse foundation
Following two-years of advocating by the Port Authority of Oswego (POA), they recently secured $4.75 million in federal funding to make critical repairs to the harbor’s breakwater, said William Scriber, POA executive director. “We are extremely grateful for the support from U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer to make this happen,” Scriber said. “At our urging, part of this funding was earmarked for repairs to preserve the West Pierhead Lighthouse’s foundation.”
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Tawas Point Lighthouse (MI) again open for tours
After being closed to the public since early 2020 due to COVID-19, public tours of the Tawas Point Lighthouse at Tawas Point State Park have reopened.
“The Lighthouse has missed you,” said Vicki Seltz Barnes, marketing team lead, Friends of Tawas Point Lighthouse and State Park. “We are happy to report it is open for indoor tours in 2022!”
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Door County (WI) Spring Lighthouse Festival, June 10-12
The Festival includes air, land-based, boat, and adventure tours that together reach all 11 of the treasured lighthouses of Door County, and 3 to the south! 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 – Chambers Island, Kewaunee, Plum Island and Sherwood Point Lighthouses. There are tours for all levels of activity and accessibility. Some tours involve hiking. Boat tours depart from a variety of locations around the Peninsula, including Sister Bay, Gills Rock and Baileys Harbor.
Click here for more information
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Experience Thomas Point Lighthouse (MD), a jewel of Chesapeake Bay
The U.S. Lighthouse Society offers docent-led tours each Saturday between now and mid-October. Tours begin at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day. They want you to be aware that the tour is considered an “adventure tour” involving vertical steps and ladders that can be strenuous to climb. The tour takes about two hours including a 30-minute boat ride to the lighthouse, a docent-led tour of the interior and a 30-minute boat ride back to the dock.
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The Wallflowers to headline Montauk Lighthouse (NY) benefit
Jakob Dylan is coming to “The End” when his band, The Wallflowers, headlines the “Montauk Music Festival Rocks the Lighthouse Benefit Concert” on Aug. 13 with special guest country singer Jessica Lynn. The show serves as a fundraiser for the Montauk Point Lighthouse and will take place under the stars at the foot of the National Historic Landmark.
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Dique del Norte Lighthouse in Valencia, Spain, is slated for demolition
Campaigners are up in arms over plans to destroy a century-old lighthouse at the entrance to Valencia Port described as a relic from the past. A local cultural heritage association, the Círculo por la Defensa del Patrimonio, is urging Valencia’s city council to postpone the decision to tear it down asking for a full assessment on its cultural importance to be carried out first. Demolition of the faro as it is known in Spanish is part of a plan for redevelopment of the port area.
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Renewed license agreement for Cana Island Lighthouse (WI)
The Door County Maritime Museum & Lighthouse Preservation Society has long been responsible for the development, maintenance, operation and rehabilitation of Cana Island. But the museum doesn’t own the property – the County of Door does. A licensing agreement covers the arrangement between the two, and the Door County Board of Supervisors approved a new one in May that will last until Dec. 1, 2027.
Click here to read more
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Bronze grave marker ceremony honors six Cape Canaveral Lighthouse (FL) keepers
Six lighthouse keepers assigned to the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse in the late 1800s and early 1900s had bronze markers placed at their gravesites in honor of their service during ceremonies May 14. Members of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation unveiled the Lighthouse Service grave markers at three ceremonies for the former keepers, who are buried in three cemeteries on Merritt Island and in Cocoa.
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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