Digest>Archives> Jul/Aug 2014

Maine’s Tallest Lighthouse Goes Up For Auction

By Kathleen Finnegan

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Boon Island Lighthouse, off the coast of York and ...

The 133-foot tall majestic Boon Island Lighthouse located on a rocky island about nine miles off the coast of York, Maine has been offered for sale to the highest bidder in an on-line auction by the General Services Administration.

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In 1981 the Coast Guard burned the keeper’s house ...

The current tower was first lighted on January 1, 1885. Four previous lighthouse towers have occupied the site; the first one was in 1799.

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Military leaders of the Republic of the Republic ...

The Boon Island Light Station has so many amazing stories associated with it that only a thick book could cover all of its history and that of the people who once staffed and lived at the historic light station.

The Coast Guard still maintains a modern solar powered light in the tower which replaced the second order Fresnel lens that was removed from the tower in 1993. For a number of years there was some controversy as to where the lens should go. It finally went on display at the Kittery Naval and Historical Museum in Kittery, Maine.

The last Coast Guard keepers at Boon Island Lighthouse had to be rescued by helicopter after a storm dumped two feet of water in the keeper’s house and tower. In 1981 the Coast Guard burned the damaged keeper’s house and for all practical purposes abandoned the lighthouse. The Coast Guard makes periodic visits to maintain the light in the tower, but the stairs going up the tower are starting to rust through.

In 2000 the lighthouse was licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard to the nonprofit American Lighthouse Foundation. In 2003, Timothy Harrison, who at that time was president of the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF), launched “The Republic of Boon Island,” originally planned as a spoof taken from the book The Mouse That Roared, in an effort to get economic aid from the United States Government. However, when it realized that no funds would come from the federal government, Harrison crowned himself “The Regent Lord Master of the Republic of Boon Island,” which he openly described as corrupt, and would openly accept bribes for citizenship, public office, and military titles such as Admiral of the Air Force, and Seagull Poop Collector.

ALF then, on behalf of the Republic of Boon Island, sold citizenship papers and political appointments to help raise money for the American Lighthouse Foundation. They even issued their own passports, which were only good to visit Boon Island or the United States from Boon Island. The spoof drew local as well as national media attention and continued to do so for several years. At one time, Dick Moehl, who was then the president of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keeper’s Association, said his band of patriot keepers were going to seize the lighthouse, dismantle it, and move it to a location on the Great Lakes, something that drew full-page stories in newspapers in Maine and Michigan. The immense amount of media attention helped to draw a large audience to the plight of many of the nation’s lighthouses as well as attention to both of the nonprofit groups’ efforts.

After Harrison left ALF, the organization, to the dismay of many, stopped promoting the unique fund raising idea, and the citizens, along with the political and military leaders of the Republic of Boon Island, were forced into exile.

In 2012, under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, the federal government declared Boon Island Lighthouse as excess property, and ownership of the lighthouse was offered free of charge to ALF. However, ALF declined to take ownership, saying that without a local chapter, the lighthouse would be too expensive to maintain.

Perhaps the new owner of Boon Island will set up his or her own country at the lighthouse. The keepers who faithfully kept the beacon here must be turning over in their graves from these dramatic changes; the saga of Boon Island Lighthouse will soon change forever.

This story appeared in the Jul/Aug 2014 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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