Andy Robinson is a junior at Palo Alto High School in California, and he’s a co-chair for the Teen Advisory Council of the Palo Alto History Museum, where he helped create a historical time capsule of his city. Andy has also been a volunteer for the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s passport program, helping to update information… Continue reading Light Hearted 137 – Andy Robinson & the California Lighthouse Society; J. Dennis Robinson, NH Seacoast historian

Point Sur juts out from a rugged portion of the California coast 25 miles south of Monterey Bay. The Lighthouse Board had considered a lighthouse at Point Sur as early as 1856, but the terrain was daunting. Congress finally appropriated $50,000 in 1886 and another $50,000 in the following year. Stone for the buildings was… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 136 -Carol & John O’Neil, Point Sur, CA

Josh Liller has been the Historian and Collections Manager for the Loxahatchee River Historical Society and the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum in Florida since 2014. Jupiter Inlet Light Station has a museum on the site that features 5000 years of local history. Josh also serves as historian for the Florida Lighthouse Association, and he… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 135 – Josh Liller, “The Florida Lighthouse Trail”

Block Island, south of the Rhode Island coast and east of the entrance to Long Island Sound, lies in the middle of major shipping lanes.  A lighthouse was established at the island’s northernmost point in 1829, but it did nothing to aid vessels heading past the south side of the island. Congress appropriated $75,000 for… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 134 – Lisa Nolan and Gerry Abbott, Block Island Southeast, RI

Congress appropriated $4,000 for a lighthouse near the mouth of the Bass River on Cape Cod in 1850. Oxen hauled building materials across the local marshes, and the Bass River Light went into service on April 30, 1855. The government deemed the lighthouse unnecessary after the advent of the Cape Cod Canal and a new… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 133 – Greg Stone, Lighthouse Inn, Cape Cod, MA; Ralph Krugler, Florida historian/author

The Outer Banks, a 200-mile-long chain of barrier islands, stretch from southeastern Virginia to most of the North Carolina coast. The islands were a haven for piracy in the 1600s, but later an important commercial fishing industry developed in the region. Currituck Beach Lighthouse—the northernmost of the light stations on the Outer Banks—began service on… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 132 – Meghan Agresto, Currituck Beach, NC

Orient Point Lighthouse is a cast-iron, so-called “sparkplug” type lighthouse in a location known as Plum Gut, between Plum Island and Orient Point at the northeastern tip of Long Island, New York. After its 1958 automation, the Coast Guard considered tearing it down and replacing it with a simple pipe tower, but a public outcry… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 131 – Randy Polumbo, Orient Point, NY; George Latimer, Tarrytown, NY