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Eric Martin’s Quilt
Long-time Lighthouse Digest subscriber Eric Martin is shown here with his lighthouse quilt that features the artwork of the late Paul Bradley and was made by Debbie McKelvy of “I Quilted It,” of Mobile, Alabama. Of course, Eric was the one who came up with the idea and design for the quilt that features Florida lighthouses. All I can say is, “Wow, I wouldn’t mind having one of those.”
Where in Maine?
We feel sorry for the tourists in Maine who bought this post card and spent a lot of time looking for the lighthouse that it pictured. Although there are lighthouses in Acadia National Park, none of them look like this one. One might say that the artwork, minus the striped band in the middle, slightly resembles Portland Head Lighthouse, which is a good five hours away in the town of Cape Elizabeth. These types of post cards were sold by wholesalers to gift shops that would simply drop in any name they wanted at the top of the card. Spurious cards, like this, were, and continue to be, a cheap shot by gift shop owners all over the United States. This one was postmarked in 1988.
Lighthouse Keeper Scrapbooking Card
Echte Wagner made margarine in Germany and issued many series of trading cards in the late 1920s to 30s. At the bottom on the reverse of the card was an appeal urging the German people to buy and collect the cards which were signed, “Warm Regards, Uncle Heinz Wagner,” who must have owned the company or was the spokesman for it. This particular card is part of the 1930-31 series of 24 cards from album #3, which had 216 cards total. This is image/card #3 of that album. The English translation of the text on the back of the card says, in part, “Keeping these lamps in the most scrupulous order is the task of the lighthouse keeper, on whose diligence the lives of many good sailors depend. The type of light, whether fixed, i.e. lasting [stationary], or with interruptions, with groups or individual flashes in certain spaces in-between also characterizes each individual lighthouse at night.” The company was in Elmshorn, in northern Germany.
$775,000 for Conimicut Light
The 1883 Conimicut Lighthouse near the mouth of the Providence River, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island is getting a $775,000 restoration thanks to a grant obtained by the City of Warwick, Rhode Island. The work will include replacing exterior railings, repairing the existing jetty, weatherproofing the structure and a complete repainting of the exterior and hopefully a new interpretative kiosk in Conimicut Point Park.
Group Gets $100,000 Donation for Boat
The Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands (FOPPI) have accepted a $100,000 gift from a private benefactor to purchase the Shoreline, an excursion boat that has been operated in Wisconsin’s Death’s Door for the past 27 years. The owners of the 16-passenger boat are retiring. FOPPI will use the large boat to transport visitors, contractors and supplies out to Plum Island to continue their historic preservation efforts. The group is now raising money for the boat’s operating and maintenance costs. For more information go to www.plumandpilot.org. (Photo of the Shoreline, courtesy Tim Sweet)
Busted!
Two women were arrested after being watched on security cameras scratching graffiti on Michigan’s Grand Haven South Pierhead Inner Lighthouse. Police were waiting for the 20-year-old and 17-year-old as they exited the pier and then promptly arrested them. (Photo by Keith Noerenberg)
Point Clark Gets $117,100 Grant Funding
Canada’s Point Clark Lighthouse on Lake Huron has received a $117,100 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund. The funding will be used to help transform the museum’s visitor experience in time for the 2023 tourism season. The Point Clark Lighthouse is owned by Parks Canada and operated during the summer months by the Township of Huron-Kinloss, Ontario, as a museum and tourism information center. It has been closed to the public since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
Charleston Depot Correction
In our column, “From the Commodore,” in the May/June edition of Lighthouse Digest, we incorrectly stated in the photo captions that the Charleston Lighthouse Depot was in North Carolina. This is obviously incorrect, as it was located in Charleston, South Carolina. We apologize for this error.
Ned’s Point Vandalized
The Ned’s Point Lighthouse in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts was broken into this past May. The vandals painted graffiti on the railings of the catwalk, destroyed seasonal decorations, and trashed the brochures and other information that is given to tourists and visitors to the 1838 lighthouse. American flags stored in the tower were also stolen. Although vandalism has happened before at the lighthouse, this was the first time that the criminals broke into the tower. Hopefully, the idiots will be caught and prosecuted. (Photo by Phyliss Lima)
Old and New Technology
The watch room and lantern of the former Cedar Point Lighthouse in Solomons, Maryland are now on display at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. The 1896 lighthouse was severely damaged by Hurricane David in 1979 and on December 14, 1981, the U.S. Navy removed the lantern. What remained of the damaged structure stood until October 17, 1996 when it was dismantled and parts of it were given to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons. What was left of the structure was then knocked into the water. One of the famous Blue Angels fighter jets is on display near the top of the former lighthouse. (Photo by Greg Krawczyk)
Volunteers Hampered by Mayflies
Volunteers who wanted to paint over the graffiti on the Menominee North Pier Lighthouse this past fall were delayed in their project by mayflies that literally covered the base of the tower in Menominee, Michigan. The Menominee Historical Society plans to install a solar powered security system to help thwart the vandals in the future. The lighthouse is open to the public through August from noon to 3 pm Thursdays and Sundays, and noon to 6 pm on Fridays. (Photo by Laura Baumeister)
Cutter Obion Celebrates 60 years
The 65-foot Coast Guard river buoy tender Obion (WLR-65503) recently celebrated 60 years of service. Paired with a 100-foot construction barge, the Obion performs maintenance and upkeep on the buoys, daymarks, lights and channel markers on the Ohio River. The vessel is homeported in Owensboro, Kentucky. (Photo by Aaron Santini)
First Use of Interactive Exhibit
On May 30, 2022, this youngster became the first person to press the button to light up a new interactive exhibit featuring a ML-300 optic at the Ron Pesha Lighthouse History Museum at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine. The ML-300 optic, which was once the emergency backup light for the lighthouse, was discontinued on October 11, 2016 when it was removed from the exterior of the lantern by the U.S. Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team of Southwest Harbor, Maine and subsequently donated to the museum. The exhibit was made by volunteer Marty Saconne, with some help from Matt Ashby. (Photo by Marty Saconne)
Canada Designates Three More Lights as Heritage Sites
Canada has announced that the Pointe a Jerome Front Range Lighthouse in New Brunswick, the 1859 Margaretsville Lighthouse in Nova Scotia (pictured), and the 1872 Cap des Caissie Lighthouse, in New Brunswick have been designated Heritage Lighthouses and are now protected under Canada’s Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. (Photo by Henryk Sadura)
First Female
Admiral Linda Fagan (r) relieved Admiral Karl Schultz as the 27th Commandant of the United States Coast Guard at Washington D.C. ceremony on June 1, 2022. Admiral Fagan is the first female to be the head of any branch of the United States military. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st class Travis Magee)
Police Evict Group
During Michigan’s Mackinac Island Policy Conference, a group hung a 3-story sign on the Round Island Passage Lighthouse that could be seen by conference attendees. The Police Chief said the sign was about counting every Black vote and how we depend on Black voters. Since the lighthouse is private property, and Mackinac Island has a strict sign policy, the group was asked to remove the sign and leave the lighthouse and peacefully complied.
Lens Structure in Danger of Collapse
Since 1996 the Fresnel lens from California’s Piedras Blancas Lighthouse has been on display in a replica lantern enclosure in Cambria, California. It was recently reported that the lantern enclosure is in danger of collapse; so much so, that a fence was installed around it to keep people away from it, in case parts of it should fall. (Photo courtesy Kathe Tanner)
Lost Lighthouse Exhibit at Museum
The Rehoboth Beach Museum in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware has a new exhibit called, “Cape Henlopen Lighthouse – Beacon, Attraction, and Icon” that will be on display until September 5, 2022. Although 96 years have passed since the lighthouse toppled onto the beach, it is still popular with locals and tourists alike. The exhibit will include a wealth of historic photos and historical data from the Cape Henlopen Light’s colonial origins in 1765, to its collapse in 1926. The exhibit will also include artifacts retrieved from the lighthouse ruins, and a 6-foot-tall model of the lighthouse that once belonged to artist Andrew Wyeth. The Cape Henlopen Lighthouse is shown here from a photo taken on May 13, 1924, two years before it met its demise. (Lighthouse Digest archives)
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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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