Lighthouse Stewards · News

Watch Hill Lighthouse, Rhode Island, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Watch Hill Lighthouse in Westerly, Rhode Island, will be conveyed under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA). The NHLPA provides for disposal of historic lighthouses to eligible entities, which includes non-profit corporations. This light station is being made available at no cost to eligible entities defined as federal agencies, state and local… Continue reading Watch Hill Lighthouse, Rhode Island, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Lighthouse Stewards · News

Beavertail Lighthouse, Rhode Island, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Beavertail Lighthouse in Jamestown, Rhode Island, will be conveyed under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA). The NHLPA provides for disposal of historic lighthouses to eligible entities, which includes non-profit corporations. This light station is being made available at no cost to eligible entities defined as federal agencies, state and local agencies,… Continue reading Beavertail Lighthouse, Rhode Island, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Lighthouse Stewards · News

Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light, Ohio, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light in Ohio will be conveyed under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA). The NHLPA provides for disposal of historic lighthouses to eligible entities, which includes non-profit corporations. This light station is being made available at no cost to eligible entities defined as federal agencies, state and local… Continue reading Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light, Ohio, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Lighthouse Stewards · News

Duluth Harbor North Pierhead Lighthouse, Minnesota, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Duluth Harbor North Pierhead Light in Duluth, Minnesota, will be conveyed under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA). The NHLPA provides for disposal of historic lighthouses to eligible entities, which includes non-profit corporations. This light station is being made available at no cost to eligible entities defined as federal agencies, state and… Continue reading Duluth Harbor North Pierhead Lighthouse, Minnesota, to be transferred under the NHLPA

Lighthouse Stewards · Queries

Query on Lighthouse Visitor Registers

Extract from the 1881 Instructions to Light Keepers
Extract from the 1881 Instructions to Light Keeper

Lighthouses have always been tourist attractions. At some point keepers were instructed to track the number of visitors to their stations. This may have been when the practice of guests signing a register started.

Jennifer Niemi, program manager at Split Rock Lighthouse, a state historic site maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS), submits the following query to other lighthouse stewards:

Our site has been gathering DATE, NAME, CITY, STATE & ZIP literally forever (starting with the USLHS, then Coast Guard & now MNHS) and then the filled registries get stored to never be looked upon again. We are trying to figure out if we can use the information for something useful or if we should just scrap the whole practice, as in its current state it’s quite useless information. The only real reason for doing it is because it has been done historically at the site.

Jennifer would like lighthouse stewards to answer the following questions:

  1. Do you use guest registers for visitors to sign in where they are from?
  2. If so, what do you ask them to share (name, city, zip, etc.)?
  3. And what do you do with that information?

Please submit your responses directly to Jennifer at jennifer.niemi@mnhs.org. She will prepare a summary for a followup post.

Based on query submitted by Jennifer Niemi on January 9, 2017.

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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. Please consider joining the U.S. Lighthouse Society if you are not already a member. If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to candace@uslhs.org.