Lighthouse News

By Dawn Alexander with Linda Hudson

When my cell phone rang in July of 2008 while I was working in my home office, I was suddenly reconnected with an island. The island was called Patos and this phone call would change my life in a most profound way. You see, when I was a small child I lived on Patos Island with my dad, who was a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper, my mother and my new baby brother. The call came from a friend who told me that he had found out about a new non-profit group, Keepers of the Patos Light, which had recently formed with the goal of preserving both the lighthouse and Patos Island. Memories came flooding back of idyllic childhood years spent on Patos Island, which is located in the far north of the San Juan Islands, off the northwest coast of Washington State.

Spectacle Island Lighthouse Group Relit

A very nice story about a lighthouse that was almost demolished a few years ago, but was saved by a group of residents, appeared in NovaNewsNow. The Spectacle Island (Port Mouton, Nova Scotia) Lighthouse Society was formed in 2004 by a resident, Brigitte Petersmann, after learning that the Canadian Coast Guard planned to demolish the light. After numerous phone calls and effort by the group, but ultimately the lighthouse was saved and repairs were made to the lovely lighthouse. After that, however, the group drifted apart in 2005.

Bloody Point Lighthouse in South Carolina on Market

A privately owned lighthouse on Daufuskie Island, near Hilton Head, South Carolina, is being offered for sale by its owner, Joe Yocius. Although the lighthouse is no longer used as an Aid To Navigation, it is registered on the National Register of Historic Places. Not to be confused with Bloody Point Bar Lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay, this home has its own unique history. Most of the information on the light has been compiled by the current owner and is available for reading at Low Country Joe’s site.

Baker’s Island Lighthouse Might Finally Be Transferred

In what has been a battle royal for the Baker’s Island Lighthouse (Salem, Mass.) to be transferred to a non-profit group wanting to care for it, the Essex National Heritage Commission. A group consisting of two U.S. Coast Guard officials, the city’s conservation agent and a representative from the state Department of Environmental Protection made a trip out to the island to check out the light station, which is scheduled to be finally released this year. At least the islanders (all summer residents), didn’t blockade the group, as they did to the former mayor of the city, Stanley Usovicz, at an earlier time.

Press Release

Levin, Stabenow Introduce Legislation to Help Preserve Michigan Lighthouses

WASHINGTON – Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) today introduced the National Lighthouse Stewardship Act to create a three year competitive grant program that would help fund the preservation and rehabilitation of historic lighthouses in Michigan and across the country. The grants will help nonprofit organizations, which serve as caretakers for the historic landmarks, to maintain the beauty of the lighthouses and keep them accessible to the public. Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state in the country.

Or Why You Should Raise Your Kids As Pirates (And 101 Tips on How To Do it)

So what do pirates and lighthouses have in common? A lot actually. It’s rumored that some lighthouses, before the government took them over in 1789, were actually the result of land based pirates, using the entrapment method of lighting fires on shore, to fool ships into landing for the purpose of slaying the crew and looting the bounty. And of course, there are numerous tales of Blackbeard’s treasure buried near North Carolina lighthouses. Not to mention one American lighthouse keeper was alleged to be a pirate. And even Scotland’s lighthouses have pirate legends.

Targeted Ten Eleven Times In Past Year

Picture this. You’ve just received funding to paint the lighthouse that houses your museum. Your group is so excited, the paint is bought. Your volunteers are busy painting until 7:30 in the evening. The next morning at opening time, you show up, and lo and behold, vandals have hit you again, before the paint had even fully dried, and your lighthouse is covered with graffiti. Well, that’s what happened to Low Lighthouse, which is home to the Harwich (England) Maritime Museum. No pun intended here, but just how low can these vandals go?