Fantastic Atlantic Salmon fishing has long been a prime attraction at the mouth of the Salmon River in New York, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. In the early 1830s it was determined that the harbor at the mouth of the river could accommodate as many as 30 ships, and a lighthouse was established… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 185 – Abe Ellis, Salmon River Lighthouse & Marina, NY

July 30, 2022 A lighthouse was established at Stony Point at the eastern end of Lake Ontario in New York in 1838. One of the most notable things about the original lighthouse was its first keeper, Wiley Gilbert Nickles, who held the position for 30 years. Nickles had lost both his hands in an accident… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 184 – Sherry and Willy Faust, Stony Point (Henderson), NY

July 23, 2022 In 1890, the Lighthouse Board recommended a lighthouse at Forty Mile Point, on the northeast coast of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The primary reason for the light was so that as mariners traveled along the western part of Lake Huron between Mackinaw Point and the Saint Clair River, they would never be out… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 183 – Pat Williams and Eric Klein, Forty Mile Point, MI

July 16, 2022 Plum Island, a nine-mile long barrier island off the northern coast of Massachusetts, was first connected to the mainland by bridge in 1806. Newburyport was an important port by the late 1700s. The approach to the harbor was dangerous, with a sand bar and shifting channels at the mouth of the Merrimack… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 182 – Roslyn Esposito, Jenn Bogard, Bill Cooper: Plum Island, MA

July 9, 2022 The development of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, which juts about 60 miles north from the Upper Peninsula into Lake Superior, was based mostly on copper mining. Increased maritime traffic related to the copper industry led to the establishment of Eagle River Lighthouse on the northwest part of the peninsula in 1858. Local maritime… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 181 – Jan Cole, Eagle River and Sand Hills, MI: Jane and Jean Gertz

July 2, 2022 Whitefish Point, near the eastern end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is a critical turning point for maritime traffic entering Lake Superior. The point marks the eastern end of a notorious 80-mile stretch of shoreline that’s known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. Of 550 known major shipwrecks in the vicinity, at least 200… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 180 – Bruce Lynn, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, MI

Mike Vogel retired as editorial page editor of The Buffalo News in 2011, after a 41-year journalism career that included three decades as a reporter and feature writer. Mike was the organizer and founding president of the Buffalo Lighthouse Association, which began restoration of Buffalo, New York’s historic 1833 lighthouse in 1985. Mike’s work at… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 179 – Lighthouse preservationist Mike Vogel