So Many Lighthouses; Not So Much Time
By Sue Clark on Sep 19, 2007 in Opinion, Other 
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The above was the headline in the Baltimore Sun which caught the eye of Lighthouse News. The story is referring to the Maryland Lighthouse Challenge, and is a very nice overview of the weekend activities, which was to visit as many of Maryland’s ten lighthouses as possible. While it certainly seemed to be a fun weekend for lighthouse enthusiasts, the real meaning behind the story’s headline is that all of our nation’s lighthouses have so little time. And this applies to other countries as well. Most are endangered by years of neglect, as almost all are automated. Without a lighthouse keeper to tend to the maintenance, these historical gems are in danger of being demolished or just left to rot.
The government is in a frenzy to get rid of these beacons of brightness, and while some have been tranferred to non-profit foundations for a dollar, others go wanting due to their offshore locations. Whaleback Ledge in Maine is a case in point. It’s recently been excessed, and although the American Lighthouse Foundation has sent in a letter of interest, where are the funds going to come from to repair the years of neglect? The lighthouse sits on a rock a few miles offshore from Kittery, Maine, and is accessible only at mid-tide. How do you get the materials out there in such a situation? Who pays for it? There are only so many grants available to cover these costs.
Lubec Channel Light in Maine is a sparkplug type lighthouse built on the border of Maine and Canada. No non-profit could afford to take it on, so it too has now gone up for auction. Fortunately, there is now some interest in it, so perhaps it has a chance as a unique summer property for the lucky bidder, but what about those that get no bids? Those that are offshore sparkplugs become a hazard to navigation, and the government demolishes them. Can we afford to let these lighthouses be dumped into the sea? Can we afford to lose one more piece of our nation’s maritime history?
What is the solution? Perhaps the government, rather than taking the money they receive for auctioning off these offshore lighthouses and dumping it in a general fund, ought to put it in a fund for the preservation of the lights that have been transferred to non-profits and make the money available as grants to help them restore these neglected buildings.
In the meantime, volunteer your time, spread the word, and give a couple dollars to your local lighthouse preservation group. The best thing in the world would be to see zero lights listed on the American Lighthouse Foundation’s Doomsday List. And that can only happen if we support efforts to preserve buildings that can never be replaced. Their use may not be as important as in the days before GPS, but they still need keepers. And as the lighthouse keepers of yore have gone the way of the dinosaur, we need to be the new keepers of the light.
From George Putnam, commissioner of the US Lighthouse Service from 1910 to 1935:
“The lighthouse and lightship appeal to the interests and better instinct of man because they are symbolic of never-ceasing watchfulness, a steadfast endurance in every exposure, of widespread helpfulness. The building and the keeping of the lights is a picturesque and humanitarian work of the nation.â€
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