Episodes

Use this player to listen to the podcast episode: The brightly striped red and white tower on Sambro Island, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is the oldest lighthouse in the Americas. The first act passed by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, on October 2, 1758, authorized the lighthouse. It was paid for by a tax on vessels entering Halifax Harbour. The station was automated and destaffed in 1988. Of three keepers’ houses built in the 1960s, one was demolished for salvage in 1989 and another ...

Use this player to listen to the podcast episode: Tybee Island Light Station in 2009. U.S. Lighthouse Society photo by J. Candace Clifford. Tybee Island’s Lighthouse is the oldest and tallest in Georgia, and it’s one of the most intact historic light stations in the U.S. Sarah Jones The Savannah River marks the border between Georgia and South Carolina. The river was vital to the early development of the area, including the city of Savannah. A lighthouse at Tybee Island has been guiding shippi...

Use this player to hear the podcast: Dan Spinella began his Fresnel lens research and restoration work in 1992. His first project was to provide engineering drawings to aid in the restoration of the St. Augustine Lighthouse first-order Fresnel lens. Several restoration projects followed, using both acrylic and glass prisms used to restore historic Fresnel lenses. Dan’s company, Artworks Florida, began creating full-scale reproduction Fresnel lenses in 2004. Dan Spinella has restored several le...

Use this player to listen to the podcast episode: Halfway Rock is a windswept, rocky ledge far out in Maine’s Casco Bay, about nine miles east of Portland Head. Its name comes from its location about halfway between Cape Elizabeth and Cape Small. A 76-foot granite lighthouse tower was built on the ledge in the summer of 1871. It’s now privately owned and has been restored in recent years. Halfway Rock Light, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont Seguin Light, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont Tim Bailey Tim...

Although our nation has made much progress in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and we can now all start to see a guiding light at the end of the tunnel, it will still be several months before lighthouse visitation picks up to near-normal levels and for some organizations that may not happen until the 2022 season. The Board of Directors of the U.S. Lighthouse Society has therefore unanimously agreed to once again defer the normal cycle of grants and to instead offer our support and assistance wit...

Sheringham Point Lighthouse. BC. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Sheringham Point, in the community of Shirley, about 16 miles northwest from Race Rocks near the south end of Vancouver Island, was named in 1846 for the British Vice Admiral William Louis Sheringham of the Royal Navy. The wreck of the steamer Valencia nearby in 1906, with the loss of at least 126 lives, had put pressure on the Canadian government to improve navigation. To aid shipping along the Canadian side of the Strait of Juan de ...

Jim Bruton was born in Wales in 1926, but his family relocated to British Columbia in Canada when he was just one year old. He started working in the logging industry when he was 14. After serving as a merchant seaman during World War II, in 1945 Bruton became an assistant keeper, or junior keeper, at Lennard Island Lightstation, off the west coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino. Jim and Evelyn Bruton, courtesy of Elanie Bruton. After a brief time at Lennard Island, Jim Bruton left the lightho...

Pete Lerro is a graduate of Temple University in Pennsylvania, where he studied video, audio, and photography. In his career as a photographer, Pete has done work for the Department of Homeland Security, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and USA Gymnastics, among others. When he’s not on assignment, he organizes photo workshops across the country. With Pete’s unique workshops, guests can expect special access, private photo sessions, and a night of professional photography seminars. During some of the ...

This is part two of a two part interview with Richard Cummins, a native of Ireland who worked as a lighthouse keeper in that country for a decade. He spent time at the very famous Fastnet Rock Lighthouse; at Hook Head, the oldest operating lighthouse in the world, and some other well known light stations – more than 20 in all. A clip from the interview with Richard Cummins:Download Here’s a video tour of Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, one of the places where Richard served as a keeper. A Tour of the...

Richard Cummins Richard Cummins is a native of Ireland who, for about 10 years ending in 1989, worked as a lighthouse keeper in that country. He spent time at the very famous Fastnet Rock Lighthouse; at Hook Head, the oldest operating lighthouse in the world, and some other well known light stations – more than 20 in all. Hook Head, County Wexford, Ireland. Photo by Richard Cummins After his time as a lighthouse keeper he’s worked as a photographer and his photos have been published in National...

The U.S. Lighthouse Society podcast “Light Hearted” was launched in June 2019. The podcast’s name refers to people who have lighthouses in their hearts. It’s the only podcast that’s devoted to the subject of lighthouses. Since it was launched, 100 episodes have featured interviews with lighthouse keepers, authors, historians, and preservationists — and much more. This retrospective includes clips of interview highlights from the first 20 months of “Light Hearted,” along with never-heard-before ...

Elizabeth Spires was born in Lancaster, Ohio, and she now lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She has always admired the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and by the time she was twelve she had decided to be a writer. When she was in college at Vassar, she began writing poetry seriously. That led to the publication of seven collections of poetry for adults, most recently A Memory of the Future, which was a New York Times Best Poetry Book of the Year. Elizabeth Spires Elizabeth has written seven children’s b...

Like his father before him, young Joseph Hindley went to work in the textile mills of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Looking for a more adventurous life, he spent some time in the Coast Guard. He then entered the Lighthouse Service. He had a long career as a lighthouse keeper that spanned from the late 1920s to 1972, when he retired as the last civilian keeper in the New England region. He served at offshore stations early in his career: Whale Rock (RI), Butler Flats (MA), and Sakonnet Point (RI). ...

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse is one of the most frequently visited attractions on the Maine coast, receiving about 100,000 visitors each year. The point, at the entrance to Muscongus Bay to the east and Johns Bay to the west, was the scene of many shipwrecks through the centuries. In May 1826, Congress appropriated $4,000 for the building of a lighthouse at Pemaquid Point. The original tower didn’t last long, and a new 30-foot-tall conical stone tower was built in 1835. Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, ...

Fay Howe, courtesy of her son, Don Watson. Fay Howe, as drawn by illustrator Brian Simmonds for “Lighthouse Girl.” This is part 2 of a two part interview with Dianne Wolfer, author of the award-winning children’s book Lighthouse Girl. The book tells the true story of Fay Catherine Howe, daughter of the lighthouse keeper at Breaksea Island in Western Australia, during World War I. Around 30,000 soldiers left Australian shores to fight in World War I, and the sight of Fay Howe waving to them fro...

Dianne Wolfer Dianne Wolfer is an award-winning children’s author who lives on the south coast of Western Australia. A teacher who has worked in Tokyo, Japan, as well as in Nepal in addition to schools in her native Australia, she pens novels for children and young adults that focus on life in modern Australia and Pacific countries. Her 2009 book Lighthouse Girl won the 2010 West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award for Picture Books and has been adapted into a stage play. Lighthouse Girl tells...

Filmmaker Rob Apse was born and raised in Reading, Massachusetts, but he spent summers on the coast of Maine and at Great East Lake in New Hampshire, boating, fishing, and exploring. After graduating from Ithaca College with a degree in Cinema Production, he’s worked almost 10 years in creative marketing. After realizing he had a passion for documentary storytelling, he opened his own marketing studio, Wandergroove, helping small businesses and nonprofits tell their story. Rob Apse, right, with...

In March 1871, Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse on the east side of California’s San Pablo Strait. It was decided that East Brother Island, about 1000 feet offshore on the east side of the strait, would be a good location. The style chosen was the handsome Stick Style design developed by architect Paul Pelz and used for several other West Coast lighthouses around the same time; a square wooden tower was attached to a six-room keepers’ dwelling. On March 1, 1874, a fourth-order lens w...

The Flying Santa tradition traces its origins to a pioneering pilot named Bill Wincapaw. Wincapaw flew amphibious airplanes around the Penobscot Bay region in Maine. He often relied on the area’s lighthouses to get him safely home. To show his appreciation to the lighthouse keepers and their families, on Christmas Day 1929 he loaded his plane with a dozen packages containing gifts for the lighthouse families. He dropped the packages at some of the lighthouses in the Penobscot Bay region. The Fl...

The Chance Brothers and Company glassworks began producing glass in 1824 at their facility in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. Before too long, the company became known as the best glass manufacturer in Britain. In addition to producing sheet glass, Chance Brothers perfected methods of manufacturing optical glass for telescopes. In 1848, Chance Brothers began working on the manufacture of Fresnel lenses for use in lighthouses. A first-order lens was created and displayed in the Crystal Palace ...

Offshore from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the Gulf Stream collides with the Virginia Drift, a branch of the Labrador Current from Canada. This current forces mariners heading south toward a dangerous twelve-mile long sandbar called Diamond Shoals. Countless shipwrecks there have led to the nickname “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” A lighthouse was first authorized at Cape Hatteras in 1794, and the station began service in 1803. By the 1860s it was decided that instead of extensive repairs to the ...

The Nantucket South Shoals extend many miles south of Nantucket Island, which is south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The shoals were a great hazard to shipping, with more than 500 shipwrecks in the area. The first lightship was stationed at the Nantucket New South Shoals in June of 1854. The name eventually changed from “Nantucket New South Shoals” to just “Nantucket Shoals” lightship station (1896-1983). The LV-112, built in Wilmington, Delaware, went on station in 1936. It was the largest ligh...

North Manitou Island is in northeastern Lake Michigan, about 12 miles west-northwest of Leland, Michigan. A lighthouse was first established on the island in 1896. A few years after the lighthouse on the island was established, it was decided that an offshore light was needed to mark a shoal in the busy six-mile-wide passage between the southern point of North Manitou Island and the mainland. The Public Works Administration funded construction and work on North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse began in ...

Stonington, Connecticut, grew into a thriving port known for its shipbuilding, sealing, and whaling. By 1819, the town had as many as 15 vessels engaged in fishing along with some engaged in coastal trade. In May 1822, Congress appropriated $3,500 for a lighthouse at the east side of the entrance to Stonington’s harbor. The stone lighthouse was first lit in 1824. In 1840, a new lighthouse was built further back from the eroding shore. A new 25-foot cast-iron lighthouse was erected on a breakwate...