Digest>Archives> Nov/Dec 2014

Experiencing a Different Kind of Light

By Michael J. Boyd

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The beckoning morning sun at Rose Island ...
Photo by: Michael J. Boyd

Visiting a lighthouse has always been exciting. I’ve even gotten my family to enjoy finding new ones everywhere we go.

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The Adirondack chairs awaiting visitors at Rose ...
Photo by: Michael J. Boyd

But until you have one all to yourself, you really have not experienced the power, majesty, and history of a lighthouse and what they mean to our coasts.

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The former Torpedo Filling Station housed ...
Photo by: Michael J. Boyd

Each summer, our family picked a day to visit one of our favorites – the Rose Island Lighthouse. A mile from Newport, Rhode Island in the east passage of Narragansett Bay, the lighthouse was just a short ferry ride away. With a picnic lunch in tow, a beach bag packed with water shoes, and bags for beach treasures, we made a day of it. Some years, we lucked out and visited during low tide, allowing us to make the mile plus walk around the shoreline to find shells, sea glass, and the occasional washed up beach debris to clean up. Add lunch on the beach and a tour of the lighthouse itself, it always made for a fun day.

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Overnight visitors enjoy the fire pit on the ...
Photo by: Michael J. Boyd

However, it was always a letdown when we had to raise the signal flag on the dock to catch the last ferry of the day and especially seeing the visiting lighthouse keepers finishing up their afternoon chores and kicking back in the Adirondack chairs up on the lawn.

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The Rose Island Lighthouse competes with the ...
Photo by: Michael J. Boyd

This summer we decided to experience Rose Island in a different light – to actually stay for a few days in the lighthouse.

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Modern day lighthouse “keepers” document their ...
Photo by: Michael J. Boyd

Our new experience began with our own boat ride on the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation’s (RILF) lobster boat, called Star Fish. Captain Chris not only educated us on the history of Newport Harbor, the local islands (Goat, Rose and Gould), but on the work being done to help maintain the Rose Island grounds. In addition to our bags, he was bringing over materials for the weekly volunteer keepers and a specialist to inspect wear and tear on the island’s dock. Now we had to decide what to do first. No longer faced with having to see it all in one day, we could pick and choose. Visit the museum rooms (and our bedrooms that night) in the 1910-era lighthouse building? Climb the tower to see the sixth-order Fresnel lens? Climb onto the balcony of the lantern room for a birds-eye view of… birds (from the bird sanctuary on the rest of the island)… and the Pell-Newport Bridge (which pretty much made the lighthouse obsolete for navigation)? Check-out the restored barracks from the island’s WWI & WWII heritage as a military munitions depot? They all lost to our typical first stop - the beach. Filled with seashells of every size and color, sea glass – some ready and some not – and the whoosh of the waves from the bay, we spent the first few hours combing the shoreline right next to the lighthouse. The beach on the west side stretches between the two defensive 1798 military bastions built as part of Fort Hamilton, a never-completed fort to defend Newport Harbor. It is a treasure trove of shells, often inches deep all the way to the high-tide line. The beach on the south side starts rocky, with pockets of mussels and shells, before smoothing out into a sandy beach back past the island’s dock. With the initial sea shell search underway, we settled in with our bosses for the next few days, Cathy and Nora, two of the RILF docents who help educate visitors on the island. We found out where we were staying in the circa-1912 lighthouse museum and the daily tasks that needed to be done. The volunteer docents are truly the ambassadors of the lighthouse, providing guests with answers to all their questions – both the lighthouse and the eighteen acre island it is perched upon. During our three days on Rose Island, we listened intently to their stories and learned the “color commentary” of the lighthouse’s history. Our favorites included learning about Wanton Chase, the birds that helped save the island, and how the island operates “off the grid.” Wanton Chase was the grandson of Curtis Chase, the Rose Island Lighthouse keeper from 1887-1918. As a boy, he had a mysterious respiratory condition and was sent to live at the lighthouse for eight years, where his condition improved. A long-time Newport, RI resident, his memories and history of the lighthouse provided a wealth of information used during the renovations and captured in the lighthouse museum. Late in his life, doctors found the cause of his childhood ailment – he was born with only one lung.

In the 1980s, developers were planning to build a large condo complex and marina on the island. Local residents banded together and created RILF to preserve the island and the lighthouse, needing almost a decade to restore the lighthouse and relight it 1993. During their efforts, a number of endangered bird species – including the American Oystercatcher – were found using the island for nesting. In order to help preserve the remainder of Rose Island from future development and ensure a safe haven for endangered birds, RILF acquired the rest of the island in 1999 and created the Rose Island Wildlife Sanctuary.

Our aviary highlight was watching the bird parents teaching their children how to fish and practice water takeoffs and landings just off the rocks just south of the lighthouse.

Rose Island calls itself “the little Green Lighthouse that could,” not because it is fashionable to be energy-efficient, but because they have to. Located a mile off the mainland, Rose Island has no connection to public utilities. It relies on a combination of renewable sources – a wind generator, 12-volt battery systems, water cisterns, bathroom water conservation programs, and solar water heating – for daily operations.

But spring storms with heavy winds damaged the island’s wind generator. Each night, we heard the back-up diesel generator in the former oil shed kick in to power up the batteries to keep the lighthouse lit.

We quickly learned that the real lighthouse experience started every afternoon, once the last ferry left. Now, we were the ones relaxing in those Adirondack chairs with a great view of Newport and Narragansett Bay. We also could take an extended look throughout the entire lighthouse, absorbing all the details of each room and the tower itself.

Our first night spoiled us. The weekly keepers had gone into Newport for the day, leaving the island all to ourselves. We took an extended after-dinner stroll around the entire coastline of the island, filling up two bags: one with beach treasures and another with debris that the currents had left behind. The big find was a bright orange scallop shell and several pieces of blue sea glass.

After a vibrant sunset, the real show began. Stars began to reveal themselves, one by one as dusk set in. The lighthouse tried to keep pace, flashing out its signal from the lantern room every six seconds. The glow from the bridge – the one that made the lighthouse as a navigational aid obsolete in 1969 – gave just enough light to move around the lighthouse grounds without our flashlights.

The following night was even better. In addition to the sunset and nightly planetary show, we also shared a cozy fire pit with the volunteer keepers. The dark-chocolate s’mores we ate while watching the mix of boats and massive ships move up and down the bay weren’t bad either.

We spent our last day revisiting our favorite spots - looking for more sea glass on the beach by the old filling station building, finding a nice flat rock to adorn with our names and leave near the lighthouse, and following the path through the heavy brush to the north spit of sand that stretches out towards the bridge.

And of course, now my kids will not be happy just with just a visit or a tower climb. We’ll need to stay longer for that complete lighthouse experience.

The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation owns and operates the Rose Island Lighthouse. Room rentals provide a majority of their operating budget and support their educational mission. The 2015 reservation calendar is now open, with rates beginning at $185/night. Nightly and weekly accommodations are available. For more information, room options and available dates, please visit www.roseisland.org and click on “Stay at the Lighthouse.”

This story appeared in the Nov/Dec 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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