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Silhouettes
Last year for the 200th Birthday Celebration of Ohio’s Marblehead Lighthouse, local merchants sponsored life-sized cutout silhouettes of the fifteen U.S. Lighthouse Service keepers of the lighthouse. Each had text giving the name, dates of service and a little biographical data, plus a QR code to access more detailed information. This is a neat idea that other lighthouse groups around the world could institute. (Courtesy Dennis Kennedy, Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society)
Glistening Trees
Winter may be on its way out, but this photo of Sand Point Lighthouse in Escanaba, Michigan shows just how pretty a lighthouse setting can be after a wet frost or snowy sleet has stuck to the trees. (Photo by Joan Savage)
Wow! What a Helipad!
The Fanad Head Lighthouse in County Donegal, Ireland, was built in 1886 to replace an earlier station that had been built in 1817. Although the lighthouse was automated in 1978, it is still an active aid to navigation. Voted as one of the most beautiful lighthouse locations in the world, the restored lighthouse now offers overnight accommodation. (Photo by John Mertens)
What a Novel Idea
Let’s build a museum that looks like the lighthouse! That’s what they did in Barrington, Nova Scotia, Canada. However, the scaled-down replica of the tower of the real Seal Island Lighthouse actually has the real lantern and the real lens from the real Seal Island Lighthouse. If that’s got you confused, let us explain. In 1978 the lantern and the valuable 2nd order Fresnel lens were removed from the real Seal Island Lighthouse and moved to the mainland and installed atop the replica of the Seal Island Lighthouse. At that time, a DCB-36 rotating aeronautical beacon and a new aluminum lantern room were installed atop of the real Seal Island Lighthouse that sits off-shore from Cape Sable Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy (Undated photo of the Seal Island Lighthouse Museum by Gail Garda)
After the Storm
There’s nothing quite like the beauty of nature at a lighthouse after a snowstorm as is evident by this past January 2023, photo of the 1885 Big Tub Lighthouse at the entrance to the Georgian Bay on Lake Huron in Tobermory, Ontario, Canada. (Courtesy of Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park)
Wasting Away
The upper portion of Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in the Cape Disappointment State Park near Ilwaco, Washington seems to look in a state of neglect. This is what happens to a lighthouse when it is not taken care of. The rest of the tower, not shown here, is also in a sad state of deterioration.
Where’s the Lighthouse?
The St. Joseph North Pierhead Outer Lighthouse in St. Joseph, Michigan is a favorite among photographers to capture waves that often engulf the entire 1906 structure that sits at the end of the pier. Its companion, the North Pierhead Inner Light, not shown here, is located in the middle of the pier. (Photograph by Cheryl Walberg)
Meteorite Strikes Lake Michigan
The constant battering of waves caused the Grand Haven South Pierhead Lighthouse to be encrusted in ice, a scene that is often common in the winter months on pier lighthouses on the Great Lakes. It was near here on November 26, 1919 that the lighthouse keeper watched a meteorite fireball strike Lake Michigan. The powerful plunge into the water shook houses in southwest Michigan, and neighboring regions of Indiana and Illinois. Fearing that it was an earthquake, many people fled out of their homes and into the street. The 1905 lighthouse is now owned by the City of Grand Haven, Michigan. (Photo by Brian Caswell of SpeedShot Photography)
Sparkly Snow and Ice
Winter scenes at lighthouses are so photogenic as is evident by this aerial view of the Rozewie Lighthouse in Cape Rozewie on the Baltic coast at the northern most point in the country of Poland. There has been a navigational beacon in this vicinity since at least 1695. The current lighthouse has had many alterations over the years and its height has been increased several times. There is an exhibition of Polish lighthouses at this light station. (Courtesy Apoloniusz Lysejko)
Second to the Last
On January 8, 1982 Michigan’s Eagle Harbor Lighthouse became the second to the last lighthouse on Lake Superior to be staffed; the last one was the Two Harbors Lighthouse in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Today, the lighthouse is under the care of the Keweenaw County Historical Society. While lighthouses on Lake Michigan seem to get all the publicity for wintertime photos, the magnificent beauty of the snow and ice at Eagle Harbor Lighthouse is considered by many as unequaled to many others on the Great Lakes. (Photo by Eldon McGraw)
This story appeared in the
Mar/Apr 2023 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.
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