Episodes

The 1861 building, known as Red Bluff Lighthouse. (Island County Historical Society) The promontory known as Admiralty Head, on the west coast of Whidbey Island in Washington, juts out into the east side of the entrance to Admiralty Inlet, a busy passage that leads to Puget Sound. Admiralty Head’s light station went into service in January 1861. It was originally known as Red Bluff Lighthouse. Because of the development of Fort Casey in the early 1900s, the lighthouse had be built in a differen...

With a large harbor on Buzzards Bay, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, developed as a center for shipbuilding, whaling, and coastal trade. Congress appropriated $5,000 on March 3, 1837, for a lighthouse at Neds Point, at the north side of the entrance to Mattapoisett’s harbor. The lighthouse was first lighted in March 1838. Neds Point Lighthouse. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. The Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse in 1952. In 1958 the site, except the tower itself, was sold to the Town of Matt...

Round Island Lighthouse, in the Straits of Mackinac, is one of the most photographed lighthouses in Michigan. Thousands of people see it each year from the ferries that pass from Mackinac Island to Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. Round Island itself is about 378 acres and is uninhabited. It’s part of the Hiawatha National Forest. The lighthouse was constructed in 1895. It was decommissioned and abandoned in 1947. The abandoned lighthouse fell victim to the weather and vandals. Round Island Lighth...

In 1825, an act of Congress authorized the building of a breakwater off of Cape Henlopen in Delaware to create a protected harbor. The new harbor that was created was called the National Harbor of Refuge. In 1907 a lighthouse at the southern end of the outer breakwater went into service. The original structure was replaced by a 76-foot-tall cast-iron lighthouse in 1926 and automated in 1973. Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse under construction (National Archives). Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse, Delawa...

Annamaria Mariotti was born in Camogli, in northern Italy, and she still lives and works there. She is the author of many books, articles, and stories related to the sea. Her passion for lighthouses began with the Capo Sandalo Lighthouse on the Italian island of San Pietro and with the Lighthouse of Genoa. She’s visited many lighthouses in Italy, on the Atlantic coast of the United States, in Canada, and in the Caribbean. Annamaria Mariotti inside the Lanterna di Genoa Her lighthouse-related bo...

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, located offshore from the southern tip of the peninsula where Annapolis, Maryland, is located, is the last surviving screw-pile lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay. The light station was established in 1838 and the current lighthouse was built in 1875. Today, the City of Annapolis owns the lighthouse. The City leases it to the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, Maryland. 2015 U.S. Lighthouse Society photo by John J Young. A ...

Greens Ledge is one of several treacherous formations near Norwalk Harbor in Connecticut. Congress appropriated $60,000 for the establishment of a light and fog signal at Greens Ledge in 1899, and the 52-foot lighthouse was finished in 1902. Greens Ledge is a cast-iron tower on a cylindrical cast-iron concrete-filled foundation, typical of offshore “sparkplug” lights built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Male keepers lived inside the lighthouse tower. Greens Ledge Lighthouse in 2016. Sheffie...

Shona Riddell Shona Riddell, who lives in New Zealand, has been writing for as long as she can remember. Both of her parents were writers, and Shona’s first article was published in 2000 in the New Zealand Herald. She was hooked, and in 2002 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Auckland University of Technology. Since then she’s worked as a magazine writer, web writer and editor, and as content marketer for several companies. Shona Riddell at Pencarrow Lighthouse in Wellingto...

From the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, Nantucket was the world’s leading whaling port. But the island’s east and south coasts remained devoid of lighthouses well into the 1800s, in spite of the high volume of shipping traffic passing the island and the presence of dangerous shoals offshore. Finally, in the late 1840s, a bluff at Sankaty Head in the village of ‘Sconset on the island’s southeast coast was chosen as a lighthouse site. A 53-foot brick lighthouse was built and a second-order Fresnel le...

Hilton Head Island, part of South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, is widely known for its twelve miles of pristine beaches and its golf courses. The Hilton Head Rear Range Lighthouse overlooks the award-winning Arthur Hills Golf Course at the Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort. The range light station was decommissioned in 1932. In the mid-1980s, the lighthouse was incorporated into the new golf course. Hilton Head Rear Range Lighthouse. USLHS photo by Mike and Carol McKinney In 1985, the lighthous...

With its long coastline and about 790 islands, Scotland has been home to a large number of lighthouses. The Northern Lighthouse Board, founded in 1786, currently operates and maintains 206 lighthouses across Scotland and the Isle of Man. Automation of lighthouses began in Scotland as early as 1894, when the Oxcars Light in the River Forth had its two lightkeepers withdrawn. Fair Isle South was the last of Scotland’s manned lighthouses to be automated, on March 31 1998. Ian Duff at St. Abb’s Hea...

The U.S. Lighthouse Service constructed the Staten Island Lighthouse Depot on the former site of the New York Marine Hospital. The depot, which began operation in 1864, was the key manufacturing, storage, supply, and maintenance center for the Lighthouse Service’s Third District. Activity at the depot included experimentation on lamps, illuminants, and Fresnel lenses. Under the Coast Guard in the 1960s, budget cuts led to much of the workload being transferred elsewhere. By 1965, the Staten Isla...

Split Rock Lighthouse, one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the United States, is located on a 127-foot-high cliff on the northwest shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. By the late 1960s, the Coast Guard deemed the lighthouse obsolete and it was discontinued as an official aid. Split Rock Light Station, USLHS archives Today the light station is the centerpiece of Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The Minnesota Historical Society a...

The Aleutian Islands are a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller islands that form a dividing line between the Bering Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Scotch Cap Lighthouse was established at the southwest corner of Unimak Island, the largest of the Aleutians, in 1903. It was the first station established on Alaska’s outside coast. Scotch Cap in the 1940s (courtesy of Peter Kaufman) In 1940, a new concrete-reinforced lighthouse and combined fog signal building re...

Toledo Harbor Lighthouse was established in 1904 in the western end of Lake Erie, marking the entrance to the Toledo Shipping Channel and the approach to the Port of Toledo on the Maumee River. The buff-colored brick tower has a steel framework, and the total height of the lighthouse is 85 feet. There’s also an attached one-story fog signal building. The building’s distinctive Romanesque architecture has led some to liken it to a gingerbread house. Resident keepers staffed the lighthouse until i...

On this date in 1789, the first Congress approved an act for the establishment of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers. Two hundred years later, Congress passed an act that designated August 7, 1989, as National Lighthouse Day. This day is observed at many lighthouses, although Congress has not designated National Lighthouse Day in perpetuity. Boston Light Station, the first in North America, was established in 1716. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. For this special edition of the podcast,...

Eldred Rock is at the north end of Alaska’s Lynn Canal, 55 miles north of the port of Juneau and about 35 miles south of Skagway. Eldred Rock Lighthouse was first lighted on June 1, 1906, as one of four lighthouses in the Lynn Canal. It’s the only remaining example of the wood-frame lighthouses that were built in the state between 1902 and 1906. Eldred Rock, Alaska. USLHS photo The light station was automated and destaffed in 1973. The Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association was organi...

Aerial view of Cape Beale, BC With local maritime commerce in the area growing, the high cliffs of Cape Beale on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, were surveyed for a lighthouse in the early 1870s. A 31-foot-tall wooden tower was constructed with a powerful second-order lens in the lantern, and the station began service in 1874. The original wooden lighthouse at Cape Beale was replaced by a modern 32-foot skeletal tower in 1958. Kash the Lighthouse Cat Today, Cape ...

More than 20 miles from the nearest port at Mount Desert Island in Maine, low-lying, wave-swept Mount Desert Rock is only about 17 feet above sea level at its highest point. Congress appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse on Mount Desert Rock on March 2, 1829, to aid mariners heading to Frenchman and Blue Hill Bays from the south. The light went into operation on August 25, 1830. The structure weathered many storms before being replaced by a new 58-foot granite tower in 1847. The new tower was des...

This is the first of two episodes focusing on light stations that are owned by the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Great Duck Island is more than 200 acres in size and about nine miles south of the much larger Mount Desert Island. The Lighthouse Board recommended a light station on the island in 1885, and funds were appropriated in 1889. The light was established on December 31, 1890, with a 42-foot-tall cylindrical brick tower, three keepers’ dwellings, a fog signal building, and ...

Pomham Rocks is a tiny island in the Providence River, about 800 feet from the east shore of the Riverside section of East Providence, Rhode Island. With increased shipping traffic heading toward Providence in the 1800s, Pomham Rocks was an obvious place to establish a navigational aid, and funds were appropriated in 1870. A wooden dwelling with a mansard roof was built on a granite foundation with a hexagonal lighthouse tower on the front center of the building. It was first lighted on December...

This is part two of a two-part interview with Ralph Krugler, historian for the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society. Ralph is not only one of the most knowledgeable people about Florida lighthouses, but he also has been helping with the ongoing creation of the J. Candace Clifford Lighthouse Research Catalog for the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse; USLHS photo Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse is on the southeast coast of Florida. The property is now cared for by the Hillsboro ...

Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse is about halfway between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton on the southeast coast of Florida, marking the northern limit of the Florida Reef, the third largest coral barrier reef system in the world. The skeletal lighthouse was constructed in 1907, with a second-order Fresnel lens. 1946 postcard of Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse. U.S. Lighthouse Society archives. The Fresnel lens was taken out of operation in 1992 and a modern optic was mounted on the gallery railing. Local ...

The lighthouse on Maine’s Seguin Island was approved by President George Washington in May 1793. The tower had to be rebuilt in 1819, and then again in 1857. Also in 1857, a new nine-foot-tall first-order Fresnel lens was installed, and that lens remains in operation today. Over a period of 31 years, the station was foggy 15 percent of the time. A 10-inch steam fog whistle was installed by 1873, replacing a fog bell. In 1907, the island set an all-time Maine mark for fogginess—2,374 hours, or a...