Episodes

Kinnaird Head Lighthouse is in Fraserburgh, a town in Aberdeenshire in northeastern Scotland. The original navigational light at Kinnaird Head was a simple lantern placed in a tower of a sixteenth century castle in 1787, installed by Thomas Smith of Edinburgh. The engineer Robert Stevenson—Thomas Smith’s son-in-law and the grandfather of the famous writer Robert Louis Stevenson—improved the lighthouse in 1822 and 1823, and there were further improvements in the early 1850s by Robert’s son, Alan ...

This is the first of two episodes dealing with Scottish topics. Episode 66 will be posted on Wednesday, June 18, and will feature the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses. The North Carr Lightship is the last remaining light vessel in Scotland. The first light vessel stationed near the North Carr rocks on the SE coast went on station in 1887. Only two years later it was replaced by a more substantial vessel. The third and final North Carr Lightship was built in Glasgow for the Northern Lighthouse Boa...

Point Betsie Light Station is on the northeast side of Lake Michigan, north of the city of Frankfort. The lighthouse, built of cream city brick from Milwaukee, began service in 1858. The station was greatly enlarged in 1894 to about triple its original size. Point Betsie and Sherwood Point became the last light stations on Lake Michigan to be fully automated and de-staffed in 1983. In 2004, ownership of the property was transferred to Benzie County. Friends of Point Betsie Lighthouse has cared f...

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse (Wikimedia Commons photo by Grim23) James Dougass (U.S. Lighthouse Society) In an area of London known as the Docklands, where the River Lea meets the River Thames, is a part of the waterfront known as the Trinity Buoy Wharf. And on the wharf is London’s only lighthouse. The lighthouse at the Trinity Buoy Wharf was never used for navigation. The wharf itself was also used by Trinity House, the English lighthouse authority, for the manufacture of chains, buoys, ...

White Shoal Lighthouse, USLHS photo by Chad Kaiser. White Shoal Lighthouse is twenty miles west of the Mackinac Bridge and Mackinaw City at the northeast end of Lake Michigan. Work on the lighthouse began in the spring of 1908. The crib foundation was built using 400,000 square feet of timber, 3700 cubic yards of concrete, and 4000 tons of rock. The lantern originally held a bivalve second-order Fresnel lens, which rotated on mercury. The light is 125 feet above the mean surface of the lake. In ...

On March 3, 1821, Congress appropriated $10,500 for three lighthouses on the Maine coast, one of them on five-acre Burnt Island at the west side of the entrance to Boothbay Harbor. In 1988, the station was automated and destaffed. A decade later, Burnt Island Light Station was transferred to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Elaine Jones, education director for the department since 1991, was named the director of the facility. Elaine Jones painting Burnt Island Lighthouse (courtesy of E...

Graves Lighthouse; photo by Jeremy D’Entremont This is the second part of a two-part interview with Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse in outer Boston Harbor, a classic wave-swept granite tower on a barren, rocky ledge. One of the subjects discussed is the “Franklens” created by Dave Waller and friends — a first-order Fresnel lens made of spare panels from various Chance Brothers lenses. Dave Waller Also discussed is the observation of wildlife near Graves Ledge, the experience o...

Graves Lighthouse is a classic, granite, wave-swept offshore lighthouse tower on a barren ledge in outer Boston Harbor. It went into service in 1905 with a huge first-order Fresnel lens from Paris, rotating on 400 pounds of mercury, produced a light that was later upgraded to 3.2 million candlepower– it was for many years the most powerful light in New England. It was staffed with resident keepers until its 1976 automation. Graves Lighthouse; photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. The lighthouse was sold...

The Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard is a great destination for anyone who’s interested in lighthouses. There are five lighthouses on the island, including Cape Poge Light on Chappaquiddick, an island that’s connected to Martha’s Vineyard. And the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven has the first-order Fresnel lens from Gay Head Lighthouse on display. Richard Skidmore talking with visitors at the lighthouse Richard Skidmore has been the modern day keeper of Gay Head Lighthouse f...

Gay Head Lighthouse stands in one of the most picturesque locations in New England, on top of the 130-foot-tall multicolored clay cliffs at the western edge of the island of Martha’s Vineyard, just south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The Town of Aquinnah took ownership of the lighthouse in February 2015. As of that month, the Save the Gay Head Light Committee had raised $2.5 million toward its goal of the $3 million needed to finance a move of the lighthouse away from the edge of the rapidly ero...

In last week’s episode of Light Hearted we spoke with Skip Sherwood, the director of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s lighthouse passport program, and with Scott Walbert, who is one of the volunteers who coordinates the program. In this episode we meet four of the Hall of Fame Lighthouse Passport stamp collectors. First is James Hill of Winter Park, Florida, a deputy sheriff with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Next is Sharon Mills of Kittery, Maine, who has been a volunteer and chapter lead...

The U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Lighthouse Passport Program provides enthusiasts the opportunity to help preserve lighthouses as well as a wonderful way to keep a pictorial history of their lighthouse adventures. Small donations are made by passport holders for the stamps. The lighthouse passports can be bought through the U.S. Lighthouse Society website and at many participating locations. Skip and Mary Lee Sherwood Skip Sherwood, a retired college professor, and his wife, Mary Lee, have led man...

Oak Island Lighthouse went into service in 1958 near the mouth of the Cape Fear River in southeastern North Carolina. It’s been owned by the Town of Caswell Beach since 2004, and it’s managed by the nonprofit Friends of Oak Island Lighthouse. From 1958 to 1962, Oak Island Lighthouse had the brightest navigational light in the United States. It was the next to last lighthouse constructed in the United States. Oak Island Lighthouse, U.S. Lighthouse Society photo E. Gifford Stack In 2014, E. Giff...

Tawas Point Lighthouse, located in Tawas Point State Park in Baldwin Township in Northern Michigan, is an attraction for maritime buffs and also a destination for birdwatchers, with spectacular views over Lake Huron and Tawas Bay. Visitors enjoy the view from Tawas Point Lighthouse. Courtesy of Tyler Leipprandt and Michigan Sky Media. The brick tower is 70 feet tall. The State of Michigan acquired Tawas Point Light Station from the Coast Guard in 2002. In 2008, the upper floor of the keeper’s h...

J. Candace Clifford From the time it was founded in 1984, the United States Lighthouse Society has maintained an Archive of lighthouse data including photos, documents, and many other items pertaining to lighthouses, lightships, and related subjects. Starting in 2016, J. Candace Clifford, the Society’s Historian, and Tom Tag, the Society’s Technical Advisor, began researching ways of making the Archive more easily accessible to the public. Their work culminated in a database that is now on the U...

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse is the last screwpile cottage-style light station in its original location in Chesapeake Bay. It’s located about a mile and a half offshore from the nearest point of land in Annapolis, Maryland. The City of Annapolis owns the lighthouse, and the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society manages it. The Annapolis Maritime Museum serves as the departure point for boat tours to the lighthouse. Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse; U.S. Lighthouse Society photo by Mik...

Lighthouse tenders were ships that were specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses or lightships by providing supplies, fuel, mail, and transportation. The tender Lilac was launched in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1933. Lilac in 1939. U.S. Lighthouse Society archives Nearly 175 feet long, Lilac was equipped with a steam-powered boom that could lift buoys weighing 14 tons or more. Lilac was assigned to the Fourth Lighthouse District covering Delaware Bay and its approaches, n...

Peter Gellatly Peter Gellatly is a lecturer in accounting and administration at the Coatbridge campus of New College Lanarkshire in Scotland. About 25 years ago he saw a lighthouse on his way to the Isle of Man, and he was mesmerized. He has photographed many lighthouses on his travels over the years, and more recently he has built up a lighthouse memorabilia collection ranging from uniforms to a 19th-century oil painting, presentation salver, and embossed crockery reserved for the visits of li...

The United States Lighthouse podcast Light Hearted was launched in June 2019 as the only podcast completely devoted to lighthouses and their history, preservation, and lore. This marks the fiftieth episode, not counting a few “special editions.” To mark this milestone, this episode is different than most. Rather than featuring an interview with a guest from the lighthouse world, this episode features a free-wheeling discussion with hosts Jeremy D’Entremont, Cindy Johnson, and Michelle Jewell-Sha...

Katie Brydon greeting visitors at Burnt Island. Courtesy of Maine Department of Marine Resources. Katie Brydon and husband Jesse Gauthier at Burnt Island. Courtesy of Maine Department of Marine Resources. Living history performances are utilized at many museums and lighthouses, but few light stations have utilized the concept of living history to the extent that Burnt Island Light Station in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, does. The Maine Department of Marine Resources acquired the Burnt Island Light S...

Ida Lewis; U.S. Lighthouse Society archive February 25 is the birthday of a woman who is arguably the most famous lighthouse keeper in American history — Ida Lewis of Lime Rock in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. She was born in Newport on February 25, 1842. And to celebrate Ida Lewis’s birthday, the guest in this episode of Light Hearted is Lenore Skomal, author of one of the best books ever written about Ida Lewis, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter. The Ida Lewis Yacht Club in Newport, Rhode Islan...

Moose Peak Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont This episode of Light Hearted featured an interview with the owners of one of the most rugged and remote lighthouses in New England. Congress authorized the building of a lighthouse on the east point of 30-acre Mistake Island, about five miles offshore from Jonesport, Maine, in March 1825. The station was established in October 1826. A 24-foot-tall round rubblestone tower and dwelling were originally constructed; the 57-foot brick tower that sta...

(Use the player at the bottom of the page to hear the podcast) There are many creative ways to raise money for lighthouse preservation, and the two interview subjects in this episode of Light Hearted have found one of the most creative. Alison Richardson, a summer resident of Isle au Haut in Maine, and Molly Siegel, an Island Institute fellow on the island, decided to do something special to help raise funds for the island’s lighthouse – they swam all the way around the island in the summer of 2...

Windmill Point Lighthouse, Vermont. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Lake Champlain, bordering New York, Vermont and Quebec, was once a bustling waterway. More than ten lighthouses were built on the lake in the nineteenth century, on the New York and Vermont sides. A light was established at Isle La Motte, at the northern end of the lake, about 1829 – actually a lantern placed in an upper window of a house. The present 25-foot cast iron lighthouse was built in 1880 along with a wooden keeper’s dwell...