The first (1850) lighthouse at Minot’s Ledge, on the southern approach to Boston Harbor, was destroyed in an April 1851 storm, taking with it the lives of two young assistant keepers. The construction of the second tower was one of the great achievements in American lighthouse building. Constructed of 1079 blocks of granite weighing 3514… Continue reading USLHS Historian Video #9 – The second Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse
Kinnaird Head Lighthouse is in Fraserburgh, a town in Aberdeenshire in northeastern Scotland. The original navigational light at Kinnaird Head was a simple lantern placed in a tower of a sixteenth century castle in 1787, installed by Thomas Smith of Edinburgh. The engineer Robert Stevenson—Thomas Smith’s son-in-law and the grandfather of the famous writer Robert… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 66 – Museum of Scottish Lighthouses: Lynda McGuigan and Michael Strachan
This is the first of two episodes dealing with Scottish topics. Episode 66 will be posted on Wednesday, June 18, and will feature the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses. The North Carr Lightship is the last remaining light vessel in Scotland. The first light vessel stationed near the North Carr rocks on the SE coast went… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 65 – Sam McKillop, North Carr Lightship, Scotland; Dwight Berry, Baltimore area lighthouses
Work at Cana Island, Wisconsin, continues Visitors to Cana Island will see some changes this summer. A welcome and interpretative center has been added. The building has new exhibits and will serve as the new space for the museum shop and admissions office. A nature trail was also added to the park to give people… Continue reading Lighthouse News of the Week – June 12, 2020
This episode of Light Hearted was originally released on June 17, 2019. It featured an interview with Bob Trapani, Jr., executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation since 2005, and also a segment about the Hook Head Lighthouse in Ireland, one of the oldest operating lighthouses in the world. Listen to the podcast here: Complete… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 5 redux – Bob Trapani, Jr., American Lighthouse Foundation; Hook Head Lighthouse in Ireland
Point Betsie Light Station is on the northeast side of Lake Michigan, north of the city of Frankfort. The lighthouse, built of cream city brick from Milwaukee, began service in 1858. The station was greatly enlarged in 1894 to about triple its original size. Point Betsie and Sherwood Point became the last light stations on… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 64 – Chuck Clarke, Point Betsie, Michigan
Restoration of Copper Harbor Lighthouse, Michigan Established in 1848 and standing on the Keweenaw Peuninsula on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Copper Harbor Lighthouse once guided shipping traffic in Lake Superior to safe harbor. Today the lighthouse site, including the 1848 keepers’ quarters and the 1866 tower, are part of the Fort Wilkins Historic Site, owned by… Continue reading Lighthouse News of the Week – June 5, 2020
In an area of London known as the Docklands, where the River Lea meets the River Thames, is a part of the waterfront known as the Trinity Buoy Wharf. And on the wharf is London’s only lighthouse. The lighthouse at the Trinity Buoy Wharf was never used for navigation. The wharf itself was also used… Continue reading Light Hearted Special Edition – Jem Finer, London’s Experimental Lighthouse and “Longplayer”
Episode Four was first released on June 13, 2019. Nobska Point is in Woods Hole, part of the town of Falmouth at the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 2014 the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the iconic Nobska Point Light Station would be available to a new steward through a license agreement. In… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 4 redux – Catherine Bumpus, Friends of Nobska Light (MA); Gigi Lirot and Ben Swan of Whitehead Light Station (ME)
White Shoal Lighthouse is twenty miles west of the Mackinac Bridge and Mackinaw City at the northeast end of Lake Michigan. Work on the lighthouse began in the spring of 1908. The crib foundation was built using 400,000 square feet of timber, 3700 cubic yards of concrete, and 4000 tons of rock. The lantern originally… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 63 – Brent Tompkins, White Shoal Lighthouse, Michigan
