|
Family Life
Lighthouse keeper Carl Olaf Svendsen and his family. He started his lighthouse career in 1901 at Bulls Bay Lighthouse in South Carolina. He also served at Jupiter Inlet Light in Florida. But his longest tenure was as the keeper of the St. Simons Island Lighthouse in Georgia where he served from 1907 to 1935. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
Keepers from Days Gone By
Shown here on July 22, 2000 are Robert “Bob” H. Hanford (l) and Jerry Biggs (r) in their lighthouse keeper garb at the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse in Port Huron, Michigan. Bob Hanford, known as “Lighthouse Bob,” was a long-time dedicated volunteer at the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse. Mr. Hanford died in 2010. Jerry Biggs was a respected lighthouse and maritime author and historian who died in 2015. (Lighthouse Digest archives courtesy of Pat Biggs)
Winter at Marquette Harbor
A Detroit Free Press photo from February 1984 with Michigan’s Marquette Harbor. With the shipping season normally running from early March through January each year this caption reads: “Lighthouse Point, dividing Marquette’s upper and lower harbors, is ready for another ore shipping season to get under way. Marquette is one of the three major ore shipping points on the up
per lakes. The others are Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota.” (Lighthouse Digest archives)
Anything to pass the time and make a dollar
Lighthouse keeper Brackett Lewis was the keeper at Cape Neddick (Nubble) Light in Maine from 1885-1904. He is shown here charging tourists for a ride out to the Nubble Light. According to Kraig Anderson, Nathaniel Otterson, the light’s first official keeper, blatantly courted the tourist trade with the help of his family. The Portsmouth Journal announced, “Visitors are not allowed to visit the lighthouse at York Nubble between the hours of 6 P.M. and 10 A.M.; but at other times the son of the keeper will row you over and back in his boat for ten cents.” The practice of ferrying sightseers continued for many years at the same ten-cent rate. In 1898, Keeper Brackett Lewis was prohibited from admitting visitors to the island on Sundays. Lewis said the restriction was because he was making too much money, but the more likely reason was that the throngs of visitors were interfering with his duties. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
The Easternmost Lighthouse
The West Quoddy Lighthouse is rarely seen from this angle in this late 1890s photograph. The light station has changed considerably since then, but the characteristic daymark remains the same. (Courtesy Tides Institute)
Launching the Boat
Charles H. Hinckley, the shortest lighthouse keeper in U.S. history who served as the 2nd assistant keeper of the Bishop and Clerks Lighthouse in Massachusetts from 1881 to 1883 and as head keeper there from 1892 to 1919 is shown working at the Bishop and Clerks Lighthouse. He later served as the keeper at Dumpling Rocks Lighthouse, also in Massachusetts, from 1884 to 1892. In a 1909 magazine article, he was quoted as saying, “There ain’t a great deal of me so far as height goes, but I am all right from my feet up. I’ve laid many a man bigger than me on his back if I do say so myself.” Bishop and Clerks Light was tilting and in bad condition, and in 1952 the Coast Guard decided to destroy the structure. Hundreds watched as the tower was dynamited on September 11, 1952. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2025 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
| 