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It is obvious from the photographs, shown here, why Maine’s 1855 Baker Island Lighthouse, located on an uninhabited island in Acadia National Park, has now been added to the Lighthouse Digest List of Endangered Lighthouses.
The National Park Service, who has owned the lighthouse for years, has neglected the 1855 light station. Yet, in 2020, they were allowed to take over Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, which is also located in Acadia National Park. We have to wonder how they can expect to take care of Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, when they can’t properly care for Baker Island Lighthouse. What the National Park Service has allowed to happen at Baker Island is shameful. The photos don’t lie.
A report issued by the National Park Service in 2008, estimated that it would cost around $800,000 to restore the lighthouse, a figure that would be much higher today. In all fairness to the National Park Service, some work has recently been done. In 2020, lead and asbestos remediation was done on the keeper’s house and the oil house, and some work was done on the roofs of those structures, but little else has ever been done.
On March 14, 1988, Baker Island Light Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, but that does little to protect the property. Over the years, there has been discussion about leasing out the light station, preferably to someone with deep pockets, who could restore the lighthouse. Obviously, the National Park Service is no longer a good steward for the lighthouse.
We have decided not to provide captions with these photos because the state of decay is obvious. We have more photos – they all show a rapid state of deterioration of a once well-maintained lighthouse that the National Park Service has deliberately allowed to decay from neglect and an apparent no-care attitude.
You can draw your own conclusions, but the photos obviously show how we reached our decision to have Maine’s Baker Island Lighthouse added to the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List of Endangered Lighthouses.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2022 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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