Light Hearted

Ida Lewis was featured on the cover of Harper’s Weekly in July 1869

Ida Lewis, born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1842, became one of the most celebrated lighthouse keepers in American history. Her father, Hosea Lewis, was appointed the first keeper of the Lime Rock Light Station in Newport Harbor in 1853, and Ida learned to care for the light as a teenager. Hosea Lewis suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1857. From that time, young Ida was essentially the keeper, although she didn’t get the official appointment until much later. Ida’s rowing skills and courage were to come into play m...

Timothy Mount and Lynne Macco live in the Adirondack region of New York, but they have spent a good part of their lives going back to 2008 serving as volunteer caretakers at lighthouses in far flung corners of the earth. Lynne is a retired physician, and Tim is a professor emeritus of music at Stony Brook University. Both of them are also experienced boat captains.

Their caretaking experience began with three months at Maine’s Seguin Island Light Station in the summer of 2008. In 2009 they became th...

Jeremy D’Entremont at Gay Head Lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Bob Trapani, Jr., at Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse in Maine. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont.

In this second of a two-part interview with Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont, guest interviewer Bob Trapani asks Jeremy about his decades of experiences in the world of lighthouse preservation, and about humorous and scary experiences in the course of visiting remote lighthouse locations. Bob and Jeremy also discuss the changes they’ve seen in the lighthouse world, and Jeremy names his favorite lighthouses.

Jeremy is the historian for the U.S. L...

In this episode, the tables are turned on U.S Lighthouse Society historian and Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont as he is interviewed by his friend Bob Trapani, executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation. This is part one of two parts. Among the subjects discussed are Jeremy’s nearly 40 years researching, writing about, and photographing lighthouses, as well as his work in the field of lighthouse preservation.

Grand Manan is a Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy, about seven miles east of West Quoddy Head in Lubec, Maine. Swallowtail Lighthouse was built on a peninsula at the northeastern corner of the island in response to a number of shipwrecks. The lighthouse began service in 1860 and is one of the oldest wooden lighthouses still in operation. The light station was automated and destaffed in the 1980s. In 2012, the property was turned over to the Village of Grand Manan. A community group called the Swallowtail Keepers Society has a long-term lease to care for the light station...

Kraig Anderson

Kraig Anderson is the owner and webmaster of one of the most popular lighthouse-related websites on the internet, lighthousefriends.com. Kraig grew up in the landlocked state of Utah and didn’t move to a state with lighthouses until he attended graduate school at the University of California Santa Barbara. After earning his PhD in 1995, he worked for a few years at a high-tech company in the Bay Area, and it was while on an extended assignment from this job to the Raleigh/Durham area that he became interested in lighthouses following a day trip to Cape Ha...

Clare Island is at the entrance to Clew Bay, off Ireland’s western Atlantic coast. It’s the largest of Clew Bay’s 365 islands, only six of which are inhabited year-round. It rises to a height of 1520 feet and is an important breeding ground for seabirds. The family of the legendary pirate queen Grace O’Malley owned the island during the Middle Ages, and many of the O’Malley clan are buried at an abbey on the south side of the island.

The island’s original lighthouse wa...

The town of Newport on the central Oregon coast is home to two picturesque lighthouses, at Yaquina Head and Yaquina Bay. Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, a pretty two-story dwelling with an attached square wooden tower, began service in November 1871. It’s believed to be the oldest building in Newport and it’s the only surviving wooden lighthouse built by the federal government in Oregon. A short time later, less than four miles to the north, another lighthouse was built at Yaquina Head. A powerful first-order lens at that location went into service in August 1873. The 93-foot-tall brick tower is Oregon’s tall...

In 1990, Goat Island Light Station, at the entrance to Cape Porpoise Harbor in southern Maine, became one of the last light stations in the country to be automated and destaffed. After automation, the island became the property of the nonprofit Kennebunkport Conservation Trust.

A project to rebuild the station’s fog bell tower and the covered walkway between the tower and keeper’s house was completed in the fall of 2011. The station’s fog bell, long on display at the Kennebunkport Historical Society, was returned to the island and now h...

Cape Porpoise is a small coastal village in the town of Kennebunkport, Maine. More than a dozen islands protect the deep, sheltered harbor at Cape Porpoise, and it grew into a busy center for fishing and lobstering.

Goat Island Light Station was established in 1833 to help guide mariners into the harbor. A 20-foot stone tower and dwelling were built, and John Lord of Kennebunk became the first keeper at a salary of $350 per year. In 1859, the tower and house were rebuilt. The brick tower is 25 feet tall wi...

The Florida reef lights date back to 1852 when Carysfort Reef Lighthouse was completed under the direction of Lt. George Meade of the Army Corps of Engineers. Sombrero Key Lighthouse was built a few years later, and then Alligator Reef was built as the third of the reef lights in 1873. Alligator Reef Lighthouse is about four nautical miles offshore from the village of Islamorada. The reef is named for the U.S. Navy schooner Alligator, which was launched at Boston in 1820. Alligator Reef Lighthouse, courtesy of Friends of the Pool, Inc. The lighthouse was established on the northeast end of the...

Point Cabrillo is in Northern California, about midway between San Francisco and the border with Oregon. In 1908 an octagonal lighthouse tower was built with an integral fog signal building in an attractive building that’s built of local redwood and Douglas fir. Three dwellings were also erected for the keepers and their families. The lantern was fitted with a third-order Fresnel lens created by Chance Brothers of England. It’s one of only three British-built lenses still in use in the United States. Today Point Cabrillo Light Station is a California State Historic Park. The nonprofit Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association mana...

From December 21 through 26, 2022, an historic extratropical bomb cyclone brought blizzard conditions and winter storms to much of Canada and the United States, killing at least 71 people and cancelling or delaying more than 10,000 flights during the busy Christmas travel season. The storm was unofficially named Winter Storm Elliott by The Weather Channel. Meanwhile, a separate storm moved into the Pacific Northwest on December 23. The storm knocked out power for more than 30,000 people in Washington State and Oregon. The walkway to Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, New Hampshire, was mostly destroyed by Storm Elliott just before Christmas. Photo by Ann Trapani. In Storm Elliott...

Bakers Island Light Station is off the coast of Salem, Massachusetts, a few miles north of Boston. The station was established in 1798 and the lighthouse tower that stands today was built in 1820. The 10-acre site is owned by the Essex National Heritage Commission, also known as Essex Heritage, a non-profit organization that manages and oversees the unique heritage resources of the Essex National Heritage Area. During the summer season, Essex Heritage offers public tours to the light station by boat, as well as overnight stays with a campground and accommodations in the historic assistant keepers’ house. Each year, volunteer caretakers st...

Borden Flats Lighthouse in 1900, from the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Borden Flats Lighthouse was built in 1881 on a dangerous reef to help guide increased shipping traffic as the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, became an important center for textile manufacturing. In fact, the city grew to become the largest textile producing center in the United States during the 1800s, with over 100 mills in operation by 1920. Borden Flats Lighthouse is a cast-iron tower on a cylindrical caisson – the type of lighthouse that’s often called a sparkplug light. Borden Flats Lighthouse In 2006, it was announced that the lighthouse would be a...

The city of Fall River, Massachusetts, situated where the Taunton River flows into Mount Hope Bay, was famed as the "Textile Capital of the World" in the nineteenth century. A lighthouse was established on Borden Flats at the mouth of the Taunton River in 1881. It took the form of a cast-iron tower on a caisson base, with a fixed red light 47 feet above mean high water. The structure was battered in the hurricane of September 21, 1938, and a new, much wider cylindrical caisson was added around the old one to provide more protection. Borden Flats Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. Nick...

Emma Choi The guests in this episode are the hosts of their own highly successful podcasts. Emma Choi is a comic and writer and host of the weekly short-form comedy National Public Radio podcast Everyone & Their Mom. In 2021, Emma joined the NPR program Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! as an intern. She worked with the Wait Wait team to create the podcast Everyone & Their Mom, which began airing in February 2022. Emma is set to graduate from Harvard University in 2023 with a major in English and, she claims, a minor in tomfoolery. Kylie Low Kylie Low is a podcast manager and conten...

According to an old Native American legend, there was a giant devil who caused much mayhem in a region that included parts of what is now Westchester County and the Bronx, New York, and portions of southeastern Connecticut. The giant was chased from the area by warriors, but he threw huge rocks at them across Long Island Sound. Some of the boulders landed in the sound and he used them as stepping stones to make an escape. Early maps noted the reefs in Long Island Sound as the “Devil’s Stepping Stones” after the Native American legend. Bob Muller Stepping Stones...

The port of San Luis, California, developed into a major shipping point in the 1870s. A lighthouse at Point San Luis began operation on June 30, 1890. The beautiful Victorian building consists of a square wooden tower attached to a keeper’s dwelling. The Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers, a dedicated group of preservationists established in 1995, spearheaded a 15-year restoration effort that led to the lighthouse being opened to the public. Docent-led tours are available year-round. Point San Luis (San Luis Obispo) Light Station in 1894. (U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office) Kathy Mastako is a docent and historian for the Point San Lu...

The Light Hearted podcast was launched in June 2019 to serve as a place for the exchange of information and ideas about lighthouses in the United States and around the world. Since then, there have been 200 numbered episodes, plus more than a dozen "special editions." This episode celebrates episode 200 with comments from many guests who have appeared on the podcast previously. Many guests from past episodes contributed messages for this special 200th episode. Cindy Johnson Michelle Jewell Shaw Jeremy D'Entremont Also included: host Jeremy D'Entremont asks co-hosts Michelle Jewell Shaw and Cindy Johnson why lighthouses still matter. There's also a discussion...

Armand Houde was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1927. He served in the U.S. Navy on the USS Gage and took part in the Battle of Iwo Jima, receiving a WWII Victory Medal, American Theatre Ribbon, and Asiatic Pacific Area Ribbon with Star, and various other medals. Houde continued in the Coast Guard after World War II and served at several shore stations and on several vessels, including the Handkerchief Shoal Lightship, before coming to Portland Head Light Station in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Portland Head Light Station, Maine. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. He was at Portland Head from March 1963...

Four light stations were established on Maine's Kennebec River in 1898, on the approach to the busy shipbuilding center of Bath. The keeper's house at one of the stations, Doubling Point, was sold to a private owner in 1935. The house has been owned for many years by Jim and Joyce Spencer, who also spearheaded the formation of the nonprofit Friends of Doubling Point Light in the late 1990s. The front range light of the Kennebec River (Doubling Point) Range Lights, photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. In 1982, Coast Guard first class boatswain's mate Karen McLean became the officer in charge at the Kennebec...

November 4, 2022 This is a special bonus episode of Light Hearted. The subject is a new play called A Safe Passage, being performed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from November 4 through November 13. The play, which is definitely of interest to lighthouse fans, is presented by Glass Dove Productions at the Players Ring Theatre in Portsmouth. The Players Ring Theatre is located at Prescott Park on the waterfront of Portsmouth. Since 1992, it’s been a center for the production of new and original plays by regional artists. Andrew Codispoti and Emily Karel in A Safe Passage (Courtesy of the Players Ring) Here is a de...

The city of Bath, Maine, on the Kennebec River, has long been known as the City of Ships. By 1800, Bath’s shipyards were producing vessels used in domestic and international trade. Doubling Point Lighthouse was established in 1898 on the northwest end of Arrowsic Island, at a sharp double bend in the Kennebec River, near the shipyards of Bath. It was one of several aids to navigation built on the river in the same year. Doubling Point Lighthouse, Maine. In the background is the Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics -- one of the largest defense contractors in the wo...

Patricia Heyer is a history buff with an interest in coastal folklore as well as research and marine science. She has written extensively for both children and adults during her career. She coauthored Shark Attacks of the New Jersey Shore: A History with her husband, Robert, in 2020. In 2021, Shark Attacks of New York: A History was released, as was Ghosts Along the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers. Pat’s new book, Haunted Jersey Shore: Beaches, Boardwalks, and Lighthouses was published by the History Press in August. In the book, she uncovers the eerie mysteries that shroud many of the New Jersey shore's...

October 16, 2022 This is part two of a two-part interview with three people involved with the preservation of historic Wood Island Light Station near Biddeford Pool in southern Maine. Brad Coupe is one of the founders of Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse and served as its longtime chairperson, and George Bruns is the current chairperson. Richard Parsons serves as the group's historian and his new book, Wood Island Lighthouse: Stories from the Edge of the Sea, was published this year by the History Press. Wood Island Lighthouse, Maine. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. Sarah MacHugh co-hosts with Light Hearted host Jeremy D'Entremont...

October 9, 2022 Maine's Wood Island, about 35 acres in size, is about two miles east of the entrance to the Saco River and less than a mile from the village known as Biddeford Pool. Congress appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse on Wood Island in March 1806 and the light began service in 1808. The 1808 tower lasted until 1839, when a new 44-foot conical rubblestone tower was built. Keeper Thomas Orcutt’s dog, Sailor, achieved widespread fame in the late 1800s and early 1900s because of his habit of pulling a rope with his teeth to sound the station's fog bell for every passing vessel. Wood Island Li...

Port Washington, Wisconsin, is located on Lake Michigan's western shore, just a few miles north of Milwaukee. Port Washington’s first lighthouse was established in 1849, with a tower and keeper’s house built of Cream City brick. The lighthouse was rebuilt in 1860. This time, a short square tower was installed on the southern gable of a two-story dwelling, again made of local Cream City brick. A new Port Washington Pierhead Light was established nearby in 1889. Eventually it was realized that only one light was needed, and the 1860 lighthouse was deactivated in 1903. The lighthouse tower was eventually removed from the top of t...

International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, or ILLW, is an annual event held on the third full weekend of August each year. The event was the brainchild of John Forsyth and Mike Dalrymple who were members of the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in Scotland. The event started in 1998 and has developed into an international gathering of amateur radio operators from an estimated 95 countries. In Britain the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, or ALK, conducts International Lighthouse Heritage Weekend on the same weekend as the ILLW in August. The ILLW is currently managed by an Australian amateur radio operator, Kevin Mulcahy, who has b...

Valentia Island is on the southwest coast of Ireland, in the southwest part of County Kerry. The island’s lighthouse, built on the grounds of a 17th century fort at Cromwell Point, began service in February 1841. The stone tower stands 49 feet tall, and the adjacent keeper’s house is a concrete building constructed in 1910. Valentia Island’s last light keeper, Harry Staniforth, and his family were the last residents of the station, leaving when the lighthouse was automated in 1947. Valentia Island Lighthouse, Ireland. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. The house is now fully restored as a museum, and visitors get to climb...

The Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis, Massachusetts, focuses on Cape Cod's rich maritime history, along with boat building, yachting, and nautical art. The museum strives to enable audiences of all ages to understand and enjoy maritime culture through exhibitions, public events, and educational programs. Exhibits focus on the cod fishing industry and whaling, the history of navigation, the shellfish of Cape Cod, and more. There’s also an extensive scrimshaw collection and historic Cape Cod wooden boats. There’s a lecture series and other offerings including a Young Mariners summer program for kids and a boatbuilding program. The museum is d...

Scituate Lighthouse, Massachusetts. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. The town of Scituate, on Boston’s South Shore, developed a significant fishing industry by the late eighteenth century and local citizens petitioned the town's selectmen for a lighthouse in 1807. A stone tower was built at Cedar Point, and Scituate Lighthouse went into service in April 1812. When the second lighthouse at Minot's Ledge -- offshore from Scituate -- was lighted on November 15, 1860, Scituate Light went dark on the same night, seemingly forever. The Italian freighter Etrusco grounded near Scituate Lighthouse in March 1956. Bob Gallagher has been resident caretaker of Scituate Lighthouse since 2009. Photo by...

Benn Trask has more than twenty years of teaching experience, mostly as a middle-school history teacher. He holds an undergraduate degree in education and a master’s degree in history, both from Virginia Tech. Following Virginia Tech, he served as a communications officer in the Marine Corps. In 1987, he returned to graduate school, earning a master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Old Point Comfort Lighthouse, Virginia. USLHS photo by Ralph Eshelman. Benn Trask Prior to teaching, he was the librarian and a curator at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News. His exhibits, presentations and pu...

Courage Like Kate: The True Story of a Girl Lighthouse Keeper is a new children’s picture book biography based on the life of Kate Moore, a lighthouse keeper in the 19th century at Fayerweather Island in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The book is written by Anna Crowley Redding and beautifully illustrated by Emily Sutton. Anna Crowley Redding As an investigative TV reporter, Anna Crowley Redding received multiple Edward R. Murrow awards and an Emmy Award, and was recognized by the Associated Press. Anna’s debut young adult nonfiction book Google It: A History of Google explored the extraordinary tale of the star...

Here is a description of the classic children's book The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch, written by Ronda Armitage and illustrated by David Armitage: “Every day, Mr Grinling, the lighthouse keeper, cleans and polishes his light to make sure it shines brightly at night. At lunchtime he tucks into a delicious and well-deserved lunch, prepared by his wife. But Mr Grinling isn't the only one who enjoys the tasty food. Will Mrs Grinling think of a way to stop the greedy seagulls from stealing the lighthouse keeper's lunch?” There have been a number of sequel books to The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch, w...

South Foreland Lighthouse is located on the famous White Cliffs of Dover in southeastern England, overlooking the English Channel with a view to France on clear days. The cliff face, which reaches a height of 350 feet, is composed of white chalk accented by streaks of black flint. The dangers posed to shipping by the offshore obstacle known as Goodwin Sands led to the establishment of two lighthouses at South Foreland in 1635. The structures were rebuilt in the 1790s, and then Trinity House, England’s lighthouse authority, purchased the property. The lighthouse that stands at South Foreland today was built in 1842. So...

Fantastic Atlantic Salmon fishing has long been a prime attraction at the mouth of the Salmon River in New York, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. In the early 1830s it was determined that the harbor at the mouth of the river could accommodate as many as 30 ships, and a lighthouse was established in 1838. The lighthouse was built with stone from a local quarry and took the form of a two-story keeper’s house with an octagonal tower mounted on its roof. It was topped by a so-called birdcage-style lantern room, which remains in place today. Inside the lantern ro...

July 30, 2022 A lighthouse was established at Stony Point at the eastern end of Lake Ontario in New York in 1838. One of the most notable things about the original lighthouse was its first keeper, Wiley Gilbert Nickles, who held the position for 30 years. Nickles had lost both his hands in an accident at the age of 19, but he performed his light keeping duties with the help of his wife and children. The lighthouse was rebuilt in 1869, with a square stone tower attached to the keeper’s house. Stony Point Lighthouse, New York. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont. The last keeper left the li...

July 23, 2022 In 1890, the Lighthouse Board recommended a lighthouse at Forty Mile Point, on the northeast coast of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The primary reason for the light was so that as mariners traveled along the western part of Lake Huron between Mackinaw Point and the Saint Clair River, they would never be out of viewing range of a lighthouse. The name of Forty Mile Point stems from the fact that its location is 40 miles southeast of Mackinaw Point. The light station began service in 1897, with a square tower centered on the lake-facing side of a duplex keepers’ house. Forty Mile Poin...

July 16, 2022 Plum Island, a nine-mile long barrier island off the northern coast of Massachusetts, was first connected to the mainland by bridge in 1806. Newburyport was an important port by the late 1700s. The approach to the harbor was dangerous, with a sand bar and shifting channels at the mouth of the Merrimack River, near the northern end of Plum Island. To aid shipping entering the river, in November 1787 the General Court of Massachusetts authorized the building of two small wooden lighthouses. The lights would be an early example of range lights, meaning mariners would keep one light lined up behind...