November 25, 2024 • 43 mins
Many know which lighthouse was the last to be automated in the US, but what about second to last? Goat Island Lighthouse of Kennebunk, Maine was not automated until 1990, and even today there are caretakers who watch over the light and the island it rests on.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our US listeners!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi everyone. I'm Emily.
(00:02):
And I'm Vince.
And this is the Lighthouse Lowdown.
You have a different tone there.
I know. Sometimes I want to switch it up, but
I should probably say the same.
No, welcome to the Lowdown.
I have a good appreciation now for the fact that we can just play the sound through our interface.
(00:26):
I mean, I know it's been like years or something, like a year since we got this, but
how nice that I don't have to add it in afterwards and we can just like chat while it fades out.
Coffee's hitting.
What are you going to say?
People may not know that I can just push a button and then keep talking through it.
(00:48):
It's not like...
I add it in later.
Which a lot of people have to do.
So it's nice. We're like pro.
We're like mid-tier podcasters.
Yes.
Equipment-wise.
Welcome to the show.
Welcome everybody.
I am doing a listener lighthouse today.
So if you send in a lighthouse for us to cover, it gets added to our list.
(01:12):
And I've decided the next two episodes are going to be solely from that list.
Nice.
And that's what we're doing today.
I do have a history of buoy.
It's not what I wanted it to be because this is coming out the week of Thanksgiving.
So Thanksgiving's on Thursday.
It's coming out on Monday.
So I wanted to do how did keepers spend Thanksgiving at lighthouses.
(01:38):
But unfortunately, you know, like most keepers, they got like a stipend to supply their own food
because they lived in a town, most of them.
And there's a lot of offshore lighthouses that would still get shipments in of food or like food delivered to them specifically.
You know how in the past we talked about like early on keepers would get like 20 pounds of onions or something.
(02:05):
Yeah. 200 pounds of pork.
Yeah. So I thought that they would have something like that, but I didn't find it.
So this kind of turned into like specific events at lighthouses during Thanksgiving.
Like I picked the good ones because we know that there's lots of bad Thanksgiving's at lighthouses.
Actually, it made me think of we covered the wreck of the Isador.
(02:27):
The Isador. You remember the Isador?
I can't remember. Isador. Isador.
And that happened on Thanksgiving.
And actually, which was funny, I was trying to I was like, I'm pretty sure I said it happened on Thanksgiving.
So I looked it up and it left out of the port that I'm covering today.
No way. How weird is that?
(02:49):
We're at. We're at. We're at.
Elsa, you're right. That is weird.
Yeah. But I'm not going to tell you until I'm done with my history buoy. Slow down.
OK. So, yeah, I'm just going to do a couple of stories.
So it'll be a little bit of reading, but I thought it would be fun.
So offshore lighthouses often would write letters to newspapers at like their local or like at the mainland
(03:10):
so that people knew what was going on at the lighthouses because they would never know,
like especially the ones that are like 20 miles offshore. Oh, yeah.
Never going to see them. But the Rockland. Is it courier?
Like a courier courier. Someone who carries messages. Yeah. Courier.
I've never challenged my own pronunciation. I know.
(03:32):
Well, it's usually a word you read like there's a carrier pigeon.
But a courier is a person like on a bike, a bike messenger.
Yeah. Or with a boat courier courier. Gosh.
I'm just going to say courier. Yes.
The Rockland Courier Gazette received a letter in 1925 from. Oh, no, I didn't look this one up.
(03:53):
Spit it out. Geez. Spit it.
Spit it out. Matt. Mattinicus. Mattinicus.
That's how it's spelled anyway. Rock Light saying, quote, Thanksgiving,
we were all present at roll call when Mrs. Hilt, who was the headkeeper's wife,
(04:19):
sounded the gong at 12 sharp and all gathered around the dining table loaded down with goodies prepared by the housewives.
Quite needless to say, it was a jolly party for the remainder of the day and evening.
Everyone joined in playing games and the phonograph wasn't idle. Nice.
The phonograph like 1925 seems late in my head for a phonograph.
(04:42):
Like by then we had what's a phonograph? It's the you know, you play records and oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20s. I think that's accurate. Yeah, probably. They were well developed by that time.
Like they were I think covering lighthouses has stunted my like my idea of how old things are.
Because a lot of times we're talking about lighthouses being built in like mid eighteen hundreds.
(05:05):
And so then I think the lines are getting blurred for me for technology.
I think Jamie at work told me the other day optimists are always late
because I think about where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do. And that's one of the reasons I'm always late everywhere I go.
So I'm like, oh, yeah, it'll be right downstairs. That's five minutes. Definitely true.
(05:28):
It took me that long to process what. And here's where we're tied back.
I'm not just having a schizophrenic break right now. Schizophrenic. Also, sorry, everyone.
Also, looking at history, we learn about technology.
We learn about this is when this happened, this and this happened in this year.
What else happened? And it frames it. And so as we've I mean, I have history in public school growing up,
(05:55):
but I really enjoyed American history and some world history.
But it's so just a speck of dust on the event. Like, what was the Coliseum like? Oh, like that was a day.
History. I find history really I mean, so we have a historical podcast kind of shows.
But we're talking mostly about late 1800s to early 1900s. Yeah.
(06:17):
So that hundred years and even in there, my mind is blown on how things have changed.
And then I think about today and I'm like, yeah, nothing's changing today compared to back then.
But that's actually inversely true. Yeah. The change today is exponential.
So technologies and now we've got robotic dogs guarding people's houses with machine guns and flamethrowers.
(06:39):
Oh, what is this in reference to? I'm just saying, like, that's crazy.
What makes you do we have one of those? Not us. We don't. But the American has them.
Yeah. Chinese also. They released this is totally off topic. That's OK.
They released a video. I don't know who they are. OK. OK.
I saw a video of a Chinese robotic dog, which we have had like Boston Dynamics.
(07:03):
Yeah. Really well known for their instruments.
They've had that for a couple of years, that type of technology in better and better development, like doing gymnastics.
Oh, yeah. Crazy robotics and controls.
Now, the Chinese, some Chinese company has one that has a wheeled feet. Oh, gosh.
Like four or five inch wheels. And they show it going through a forest like a forest at like 20 miles an hour.
(07:25):
Oh, like terrifying jumping, going over rocks around trees.
And it has a machine gun. It has like a six barrel like I'm telling you, machine gun war these days would be terrifying.
The top comment was like, imagine being chased by this.
And someone said, I always pick the bear. It's like, oh, no. It's scary.
(07:48):
But yeah, although the to go back to the topic. OK. Think about beacon technology, lighting technology.
Yeah, I think maybe it's oversimplified because that's how history is. We can't know everything.
But as we look back, there's X number of years of this style of beacon and then the Fresnel lens development and then this style of fuel was adopted.
(08:09):
And they're like, there's a lot to know in the history of lighting and beacons today.
We don't there's not even a thought of like, what do people use? It's how many technologies are in place for lighting and bleeding edge, new things all the way down to what's built into your cell phone,
which when I was in school and I'm still kind of a young person, my teachers, probably like yours, said, you're never going to have a calculator everywhere you go.
(08:36):
Hello, built in. You have a calculator with our first phones. We didn't even have flashlights on them.
Yeah. Or it was a big deal to make it like when it got a text, you light up the flashlight to show off you have a flashlight or your phone fell on the couch.
I forgot about that. Like I was like your flashlight would flash.
Not only do we have a calculator in our pocket, we have more technology than all of the breaking it breaking lighthouses, the best lighthouses in all of history, let alone the computer that sent rockets men to the moon.
(09:08):
Yeah, not rocket. You know, the whole package, but also rockets, but just and then we just, you know, watch Tick Tock or we're like, what's the weather today? Yeah.
Imagine how do I get from here to there? I was just thinking the other day about how crazy maps used to be.
And like, if you didn't know your way around, it was actually terrifying.
(09:29):
Like you can just go to a new town and just be like, I just put it into my phone. If you get lost, like you're actually in trouble. Touch people. Yeah. Trust people. That's kind of how maybe the world is going downhill.
Maybe we should get back on track.
I was just like, wow, you've really. Everybody who's watching and listening coffee is excellent. Yeah. And it's also Saturday morning so we have a lot to live for.
(09:57):
Okay. The second.
The second story is from 1910 Boone Island light had an eventful night before Thanksgiving. Yes, I'm sorry. I haven't turned her up.
But it's relevant. It's relevant. My hand is up.
You said on the first story, she rang a gong. Yeah. And then people came for dinner. I don't know. Do you think that's because they couldn't ring a triangle or a bell or yell because there's like those mean other things because someone's yelling.
(10:26):
They need help. So this rock.
From what I've gathered was very.
It was like in the middle of the ocean, like no obstructions at all. Often had a gong. So like I think it was extremely windy.
And so maybe they needed a loud sound in order to gather people on the island. Yeah, but I'm saying they wouldn't want to mistake it for a fog signal. Oh, or any other auditory signal that they would have.
(10:55):
Yeah, maybe that light station. I bet it was just some kind of fun, goofy like dinner and was it a gong or was it like a pot, you know?
Yeah, maybe it's a metaphorical gong. Maybe they were just like she told us to come to dinner. She rang the gong and we're like, what kind of gone?
I think it's zeroed in. But yeah, so I'm sorry. I heard that there was lots of people like he said housewives. There was like several families and one time one of them had like 14 children or something at a time.
(11:26):
So like, I mean, what else are you doing? Well, we'll have to cover that light because that sounds kind of insane.
Like a whole town on one little rock.
So anyway, Boone Island, we're going to Boone Island. So I'm going to read here, quote, the holiday was approaching and I think this is from like a I linked it in my show notes, but it's from a website.
(11:48):
So it's quoting from website. The holiday was approaching and as nobody had been ashore for several weeks, they had gone down very close to nothing in the hearty line.
Basically, they don't have like a lot of food left. Oh, no. He keeper Williams was standing just inside the light tower on the evening before Thanksgiving and wondering what he and the boys were going to have the next day for the
(12:09):
for the holiday. Sorry, it says repast repast.
That is probably an old word. I don't know. Yeah.
Suddenly, without any warning, he heard a terrific blow struck against the deck, anxious to find out
that I'm sorry that thought went through my head like that pause where it's pause and then say deck is going to sound edited.
(12:33):
There's a lot of like things when I'm editing. I'm like that sounds edited because we have really nice headphones. Yeah, nice microphones. It sounds like I cut something out and then said, sorry, anxious to find out just what had happened.
He went outside and they're laying on the deck were four pair of black duck dead as a doornail, thinking that it took more than just that to make such a thump. He went around the base of the tower among the rocks.
(12:57):
He found four more. The birds were in unusual fine condition and he and the boys had some Thanksgiving dinner for which they were only too glad to give thanks to the creator for remembering them at such a time.
So I just like this. You're saying I'm going to call them a murder because I don't know what they're called a murder of ducks flock. You just say flock. That makes sense.
The birds. Yeah, but so are crows. Anyways, a flock of ducks.
(13:24):
Accidentally flew into the light tower with such speed that they died. Yes, or at least they appear to be dead as a doornail quote.
Eight, which yeah, which was not abnormal. Like Bert ducks often died. But yeah, eight is kind of shocking. And just as he was like, oh crap, what are we going to eat tomorrow?
(13:47):
It's like, oh, here's a bunch of ducks. Black ducks is interesting. I've never heard of black ducks. Probably don't have them here in the Midwest.
Yeah, I don't know. Ducks. I don't know my ducks. Sure. The coast is a different story. Also ducks flying far out in the ocean.
I don't know that. I thought they were lake. I thought so too. But we're also not near water. So yeah, we don't know these things. It is interesting. We're so far from water. We don't even know what kind of birds live over there.
(14:19):
We're like, oh, we got seagulls and like albatross and pass that. I'm like, there are no birds. That's why when we're on vacation, we go to these lighthouse locations. We're like in awe as we wait for dinner at some like roadside shack.
Like, wow, look at the water because what's so normal to somebody else is just a novel to us. Like if I saw black ducks, I'd be like, are those ducks? Cool.
(14:47):
Yeah. So that was the story of Boone Island. I think they had a pretty rough conditions out there too. Obviously, weather so bad they can't even get more food. Yeah, that's scary.
And I'm pretty sure.
So I also have one from Tillamook Rock and then I'll be done. But Tillamook Rock we tried to cover for like our second episode or something. But it was ambitious. We weren't recording. It was tragic.
(15:13):
But Tillamook Rock, it sounds like only one keeper got to go home for Thanksgiving and the rest of them had to stay out there. Tillamook was one of those places where they shipped stuff to there.
You know, like to the yeah, like a lighthouse tinder or something would bring out food. And so it looks like they actually got a Thanksgiving shipment for that. And I wish it had specified what it was going to be. But it was definitely used to have turkey.
(15:41):
So in 1913, the weather was too poor for them to deliver this shipment and quote, the holiday looked bleak for the keepers who wondered what they had to be thankful for in such dismal conditions.
Not only would they be without their families, they'd missed the traditional feast. No turkey would be enjoyed on Tillamook Rock.
Just when things looked their worst, two ducks crashed into the lantern and fell dead on the metal gallery.
(16:06):
The keepers wasted no time preparing the birds for dinner and enjoyed roasted duck for their Thanksgiving meal, truly thankful for the gift from heaven, which fell at just the right time.
So here's the question. Seems to be a common theme. That's incredible.
Here's the question. Were men more capable back then? Yes. And they all knew how to take a duck from the dead deck to dinner.
(16:29):
I just I was just thinking and you'll hear about it later in this episode. More capable, all subject to stuff. Or did they pick men for lighthouse keepers?
I can't believe you interrupt me. You interrupt me. Who were these type of dudes? Oh, that's good. Like gruff necks.
I think you're right that and that's another episode I want to do is what qualified you to be a lighthouse keeper. And a lot of lighthouse keepers, especially like today, I'm going to mention it.
(17:01):
They kept animals. And so a lot of them had experience. Livestock. Yeah. Not pets. Keeping livestock and like chickens and things.
I don't know if that made you qualified, but I think keepers didn't used to be engineers or like people who knew how to work the foghorn and stuff, because they didn't have that kind of stuff at the very beginning.
(17:26):
So I don't know. Yeah. A lot of early, early lighthouse keepers. They talked about where they keep their animals and well, and the women who took over a lot of those roles as we've learned your history and they were head keepers and their assistants.
They weren't like, oh, well, I guess I'll have to leave. Like, yeah, they all knew all the skills because they were around, whether they brought those skills with them or they learned them at the lighthouse. Right. That's crazy. Cool.
(17:53):
That was my last story. Very cool. What a nice story. Kind of boring. But I mean, a lot of keepers didn't get the chance to celebrate. And there's all these stories of rescues.
And like, if you look up Thanksgiving at lighthouses, most of them are like crazy rescues that happened and shipwrecks and things. Yeah. So maybe take this time to be thankful this Thanksgiving that you're not a lighthouse keeper diving into icy cold waters to save shipwrecked people and probably dying yourself.
(18:23):
Possibly. It's possible.
And that's my history. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving. It was interesting. I like that a lot. Good. We haven't had one like that in a while. I believe this is a trumpet. There. Everything on the screen is actually a trumpet.
Oh, gosh, our avid listeners will know what Vince is talking about.
(18:44):
Moving on our lighthouse of the day to listener lighthouse. Like I said, thank you to Heather and I believe it's pronounced Gwyn for sending this one in. And by the way, if you type this lighthouse into Google, it shows you the wrong lighthouse.
Like, you know how it kind of cycles through pictures. Yeah, it shows you the wrong lighthouse. And that's because it's like house recovering is Goat Island light. And there's a lighthouse called Newport Harbor light, which has goats can also be called Goat Island light or green light, allegedly, if I remember correctly.
(19:26):
And that one's in Rhode Island. So it's not the official name of the lighthouse. But Google put those images right in there. It's also a cool one. So maybe we'll cover that one later, too. But this one is in Maine, the coast of southern Maine, east of the Kinnebunk River in
Porpoise Bay, which is like a small group of islands and rock ledges. This is not far from Germany, right? How did you know that by Kennebunk, Kinnebunk? Well, just the south of Maine. Kinnebunk. Oh, my gosh. Hold on one second.
(20:00):
I seem to remember he was near Portsmouth. Oh, yeah, it is just north of that. Portsmouth is just on the other side of the border of Maine.
So, yeah, and I see Kinnebunk. I see it on the map. Okay. Kinnebunk port. Yeah, not far. Thank you. You're welcome.
Shout out to Jeremy. Yeah. Goat Island is about a mile offshore and about three and a half acres in size. So it's a good little island. It's not like the other ones we're talking about out in the middle of the ocean, rock and, you know, the wind.
(20:33):
This is I feel a nice spot to be stationed. In 1831, Congress appropriated $6,000 for a lighthouse in or around the bay, and the island was purchased from Adam McCulloch for $300 and a 20-foot rubble stone tower and dwelling were built and lit in 1833.
(20:56):
You can see from this, if you listen to our previous episodes, who built this, you can tell right away.
Oh, no. So, its fate is sealed by who built it. I'll tell you though. It wasn't our last episode, was it? Two episodes ago? I never can be quoted accurately on that. Okay, because you went last.
(21:20):
So it had to have been at least two episodes ago. These guys knew how to pose though. My question is if they're doing that for scale or probably like we are for people that can't see we got one guy standing on the gallery, which is, which is normal.
And we got one guy standing on the roof of the conjoining walkway. Why are you standing on the roof?
(21:44):
I don't know. It's got to be, maybe he didn't stand out enough in the photo against the walkway because it's dark. And so he's like, I'll just stand on the roof.
I don't know. Pretty cool though. Cool photo.
So this was built by Winslow Lewis. So you can tell that by 1842, it was in very poor shape when IWP Lewis made his report that we talked about in that episode as well.
(22:16):
Noted the tower was quote, laid up in lime mortar of bad quality with a loose and leaky roof and decaying woodwork. And given that only $27,000, $2700 of the $6,000 budget was used, they kind of got what they paid for on that as well.
Never take the low bid. If they think it's going to take $6,000 to build, they're probably going to be closer to $6,000. Less than half, that's pretty bad.
(22:43):
It's not good. The second keeper Hutchins noted that the condensation was so bad in the lantern room that he had to wipe the lens off three times per night, which there should be no water in there.
That's the thing is like you shouldn't have to wipe off the lens of water. Your thing should be sealed appropriately because you know it's near water.
(23:05):
Well, the lens is also warm. So yeah, if you're wiping off a warm lens, then it should be. That's a ton of compensation. Yeah, and this wasn't a Fresnel lens at that time. So yeah, we've got open flame, there should be no water.
And he also said the walls of the dwelling were so cracked that he couldn't live there in the winter. I'm like, where would you go? Like the keepers house was built the same time as the tower. They both stunk. There were no outbuildings. So where the heck did you go to the bathroom? Probably a pale and you threw it on the window.
(23:40):
He had a boat but no boathouse and animals with no barn. Though he said he paid $6 a year to the previous keeper, the first keeper here to rent a building that he built himself on the island. We've seen that once before. Yeah. Yeah, we've mentioned that.
That was a while ago. So I don't know which lighthouse but it happens. So 1857 the order was made to rebuild the light quote as rapidly as the means will permit. So it's obviously in really bad shape. Tower was rebuilt as a 25 foot brick cylinder tower. So instead of having this conical shape, yeah, no taper. It's just straight up and down.
(24:16):
Connected to the existing keepers dwelling by walkway like the previous tower. So which is nice. We like to keep that. And it also got a fifth order for Nellyn's. Keeping up with the times. Looks much better. Yeah. New picture up. Looks sturdier. It looks like a hard ground to build on. Yeah, it's all just loose rock. For some reason I see trees in the background. So for some reason I thought this was more of a green way out there. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe that's the shore or something. I don't know. It's not that far.
(24:46):
From the mainland. So yeah, they gave it a good coat of paint and got a new lens in there. All good things. The house looks the same. So yeah, the house stayed. Yeah. And just probably did some like renovation on it. Gosh, these are such small quarters to live in permanently. I know other guys.
And usually with your families too, only in like some cases was it a stag light where you could only have the keepers living there and then your families would live on the mainland. That was also sad reading about Thanksgiving instances where it's like, oh, like at Tillamook Rock, you don't get your families. It's kind of sad.
(25:25):
Haven't seen him in 20 years. No. So this lighthouse, like most lighthouses, had a wonderful repertoire with the town, the townspeople. Between 1865 and 1920, 46 vessels wrecked near the lighthouse, with 28 of those being total losses.
(25:46):
And nobody died because the keepers at this lighthouse were so vigilant that they always caught it early enough and then like called the mainland and rode out and actually helped. They're good lifesavers. Yes. But the signal's not so good.
It's just that I'll pull up a picture later after this one that I think shows the islands pretty well. It's just like a lot of islands. Okay. Unavoidable. Yeah. So I think it's just really difficult even now to sail in to the port.
(26:17):
And like recently they put in, they had one marker of like how to sneak into the bay. And then on their Facebook, on this lighthouse's Facebook, they put like very excitedly that the second one had been placed, which made it like a channel that you pass through.
And so even now it's a struggle to even be on the water around there. So crazy. Obviously a good place for a lighthouse, but it wasn't. It's hard. You can't have a lighthouse on every spot. Yeah. There's danger because it's difficult.
(26:52):
So anyway, nobody died. George Wakefield was the 12th keeper at the light and passed away there in 1921 after 33 years of service. The town remembered him quote for his unusual care and watchfulness, which saved lives because he was able to act quickly to bring rescue to sinking vessels.
And this was true for a lot of the keepers at the station. So much so that in 1976, the locals petitioned to keep the Coast Guard from automating the station, which already would have been a little late. 76 is late.
(27:23):
The local fishermen said quote, you're damn right. We fought for the light. That lighthouse just isn't something for the tourists to gawk at. There's a man up there and we know he watches out for us. A machine can't do that.
And quote. So obviously they felt very strongly about that. And if you think about how many lives they saved just from being up there, like it's true. You can't automate someone keeping an eye out for like people like that.
(27:49):
So the Coast Guard listened and it remained staffed until 1990, which is the last light in Maine to be automated and the last in the US behind Boston Harbor Light. So this was the second to last lighthouse in the US to be automated.
That's incredible. Very cool. 1990. Yeah, that's five years later. Patrick Mahomes, Post Malone and Vincent Bailey. We were all born.
(28:18):
What a good world became a better place.
Only missed only miss this on my five years.
After automation, the Fresnel lens was replaced with a modern optic and became began having island caretakers after the station was leased to the
Kennebunk Port Conservation Trust in 1992. Okay, nice. So 1994, the caretaker was Richard Dick Curtis, known for his jokes, smiles and laughter. And he continued in his role through the trust receiving the title through the Maine lives program 1998.
(28:51):
So 2002, Curtis fell overboard and drowned while out on a boat in the harbor. It's interesting to hear about it happening.
In modern day. Yeah, that's post 9-11. Exactly. That's crazy.
The caretaker after him Scott Dombrovsky, who is still there today, believes, like many other locals that Curtis's spirit still resides on the island. And I'll give you some examples.
(29:24):
It wasn't the first one to die there though. No. Okay. There was the there was one other guy in 1921, I believe.
This guy is stuck around, which is also strange. It's like a modern day haunting. Yeah, this is the recent history. Yeah, this is the one I should have covered for Halloween.
Instead, I'm doing it for Thanksgiving.
(29:46):
Oh, very fast.
I was ready to write out the entire sound effect.
Anyway, shortly after Curtis's death, a woman on a tour said to Scott that the place was haunted and she had a message from Curtis, quote, that he was all right and that he was going to make his presence known.
End quote. I would be like, no, no, that's okay. Please move on. That's all right.
(30:09):
I've got to go. Go live your best afterlife.
So at that point, items had started to go missing on the island and would eventually turn up always on the kitchen table.
This is something Scott would say that like if he missed play something, it would always show up on the kitchen table. That's scary. Very spooky.
(30:30):
And then one day, Dombrowski remembers, quote, it was cold and I was exhausted. So I sat in Dick's easy chair and said, Dicky, give me some heat.
There was an old electric heater that hadn't worked for years. And at that moment, it turned on.
I was like, no.
I'd be like, ah, would you keep the ghost chair around? I don't know if I could. Well, if you think I have a bunch of my grandma stuff.
(30:55):
Yeah, but she didn't die in, I guess he didn't die in his chair.
I don't know where I was going with that. If somebody died in a chair. Yes, I would get rid of the chair.
If you left the chair there after your death, I may use the chair. Yeah. Yep.
(31:16):
Unless it's haunted, which this appears to be in 2007, they began having problems with the foghorn.
And at this point, the foghorn was automated or like automatic. Yeah.
And so it's like a little less. A little less spooky because it could be like problems, but I'll go on with it.
Goat Island had a great view of Walker's Point. You know what that is?
(31:40):
No, actually, it's where President George W. Bush had his estate. Oh, yeah.
And because of this view, the Secret Service men were often stationed there during the presidency of George H.W. Bush because they could see the estate from Goat Island.
Oh, I actually have this where I have a picture. That's so funny.
So there's a red pin on Walker's Point and then you can see Goat Island by lighthouse over here.
(32:01):
So it's still a pretty good distance. And I don't know what's going on with Bumpkin Island. Bumpkin Island.
I don't want to use. They don't probably they probably don't like the name Bumpkin. Yes.
And in this picture, you can see all of the island in the shallow water that I was talking about.
I'm surprised the Secret Service like someone going to launch a rocket. Yeah.
What are they going to do? It must just be like surveillance or something. I don't even know.
(32:23):
It's so far away because the lighthouse is high. Maybe they went up to the gallery and they're like, yep, only 25 still there.
Yeah. But yeah, on the waterfront, 25 feet is pretty good.
Yeah. Anyway, it's interesting. In 2007, Scott said, quote, quote, Bush Senior came on his boat and took pictures.
Then he brought his son and President Putin and said there's something going on at that time around for a long time.
(32:50):
Yeah. But what was the first Bush? I think he's dead. Yeah. From old age. I think so.
And Bush W. Junior is he was president when I was a kid. Is the current President Putin the same dictator?
Wow. Interesting. Bush said, see, our people want us to work together.
(33:13):
Scott asked out loud because he lives at the lighthouse.
He said, quote, Hey, Dick, what do you think of that? And the foghorn, which have been quiet, suddenly sounded.
And since then, the foghorn would sound more often even on clear days.
And they were getting complaints from people around there because it's like, why is the foghorn going off?
If there's no fog, it should be like accurate warnings.
(33:36):
So then they tested like new signals, like they added new signals and then they disconnected power altogether and it still went off.
Yep. That's where it's spooky. And then they replaced the entire foghorn and it stopped doing it.
That's crazy. Yeah. We had that at a house.
We had a doorbell that would ring and then we discovered that because our house was haunted.
(34:00):
We discovered that it was totally disconnected. And yet somehow it would still ring.
That's what you get for being rich. We were renting the house.
Oh, what? I thought this was your White House. No, no, no. This is in Colorado.
Oh, because the White House would have been spookier because it's so like big and vast.
Yeah. This is this. Yeah. This is in Colorado.
So what kind of house did you have in Colorado? Dad moved a couple of times.
(34:21):
I know. I'm just saying like was it was a big house. OK. Big like bigger than the White House.
Yeah, because you had a ranch on it. No different house. What?
This is in town in Pueblo, Colorado. Oh, and we rented the house.
It had like a mother's quarters in the basement. So my dad like let his partner at work,
(34:44):
like his co-workers mom live in our basement. Wilma, she's from the South.
She's a lot of fun. The point is the house is so big that we had two separate residences.
Oh, never saw unless we like intentionally went to hang out. Yeah. Never saw that lady.
This was an old house, old house, sounding mother's quarters.
(35:05):
Like, what is that? Supposedly, the guy who owned it was gay because there's lots of gay art that was there.
We moved in. OK. He died in the house. Oh, so that's the we suspect he was the one who was haunting the house.
He never did anything harmful. He would like set off. We had motion sensors.
He would set those off at nighttime. No one was out there.
The doorbell rang a couple of times and we were all home and we went to the front door.
(35:31):
No one was there. And then we called and they discovered that the doorbell.
They're like, you must be hearing something else because this is not connected.
They showed us the wires were never completed.
Like they were not they were not landed on any electrical source. Oh, my gosh.
So that was interesting. And then my dad one time had coffee.
And if it was just this story, everyone be like, you just forgot, right?
(35:54):
He had coffee. He just made it. It was too hot to drink.
So he put it on his desk and I went and got ready and put clothes on, came back and the coffee was gone.
But the cup was totally clean. Like, you know, ring in the bottom.
I know there's less than I remember. It's as if he never made the coffee.
So we went back to the coffee machine and he had made the coffee.
(36:15):
My dad has a fancy coffee machine. Yeah. So like.
Do you put the mug somewhere else? Did you have a mental break?
Like, what did the ghost drink coffee? Yeah, maybe he was like, thank God.
And nobody leaves their coffee alone right here.
So, again, this is a big house and two more stories.
One, we moved in, we found all the artwork and we were all fascinated.
(36:41):
Are we talking phallic or are we talking?
Like the kitchen had a giant paint, this beautiful painting with two roosters.
OK, and that was like that was the most underhand of like the could just I mean, we're in the like it's beautiful.
Yeah, and then ducks are roosters and chickens are common decorations,
(37:02):
but they're never too roosters to lots of male nudity. Oh, so like but but but classic classy like the statue of David.
Oh, the painting. OK, again, you could be like, yeah, what you're looking for it. You're looking for this bias.
Yeah. And then some others that were not statues I could know of in history or anything.
(37:23):
So and then the in the basement, there is a huge house storage space, unfinished basement space had I think there were between eight and 10 feet tall.
A nativity set that was creepy. Eight feet tall, eight to ten feet tall, huge, like life size cows bigger, bigger than life size.
(37:46):
What Jesus Mary and put them in the yard, baby Jesus.
But we didn't put them in the yard. They were just in the basement. I don't know what he did.
He clearly got him from a church. Oh, so he died and you guys moved in.
Oh, I moved his stuff. Oh, my gosh. So I could never.
I think he haunted. I didn't believe in ghosts at all. Yeah.
Zero percent until we lived in that house. And then I was you know, I was a kid. There was 10 to 12 somewhere in there.
(38:11):
Yeah, that type of stuff. It was just like, well, if if ghosts are real and if he's here, he seems friendly.
Yeah. So he's probably just going about his normal business.
Johnson for some coffee. Not noticing. Yeah.
Again, I've dragged this way off track. No, no, it's nice. The gay ghost realm.
(38:32):
Flamboyant. He probably wasn't gay. He's like, gosh.
He's like, I just liked the painting. I just understood travel and art.
You simple boy. Don't. Simple boy.
Back to our story. How did I drag us there?
It was the ghost thing. Yes. But it was at the tail end.
I just had one more note that Scott said, quote, it was just a very calming, wonderful presence.
(38:57):
And I wish he would still show himself.
So probably the last way that he showed himself was fog.
I use the foghorn and now that it's new and probably something he's unfamiliar with working.
He just he was on duty and they're like, yeah, they're like.
2011, a one million dollar renovation project was completed by the trust to restore the station to 1950s condition, which was good.
(39:21):
Right. Yes. But just like how it looked, especially on the inside.
Eleven million dollars, one million dollars. OK.
One million. I don't know. It's the golf course in 2011.
That's funny. So, yeah, the Keepers House has had some changes since then, it appears.
So maybe they rebuilt it or I don't know. It looks a little different to me.
(39:45):
Well, we're looking at a different side of it. That's true.
All the other previous pictures were from where the sun is that screen. Right. Right.
So maybe those like there's four windows, I think, on that wall.
Yeah. So maybe visually, it just looks a little different.
But yeah. And then 2002, sorry, 2022, the submarine cable failed.
We heard about that. We've heard of that story.
(40:06):
And in June 2024, so very recently, solar panels were set up on the walkway to supply power to the station.
So now it's supports itself out there. And they have a Facebook page.
So Scott and Karen Dabrowski live. I know like your siblings
live in the Keepers cottage and you can visit by boat during the summer months during high tide.
(40:27):
So they have a tiny little dock where you can pull up.
And they said if Scott and Karen are home, then they'll give you a tour of the lighthouse or you can just like be on the grounds.
So they're private owners of this. They spent the million dollars.
The trust did. But they work for them. Oh, they're probably on the board.
Yeah. Maybe I don't know. I guess I didn't. Maybe they do double duty.
(40:50):
They live there and take care of it as well. Yeah, that's definitely.
Yeah, they've had caretakers since they took over in 1992. So that's great.
Yeah. So it's got to be in good shape because there's actually people out there caring about it.
You see that tall post by the tower. What do you think that is?
It's probably weather related. A lot of lighthouses nowadays have posts like that.
(41:12):
I was going to say it's not a lightning rod because it's higher than the lightning rod.
It's well, lightning rods would be. I mean, there's one on top of the tower.
Yeah. But if you wanted to save it. Oh, so it's a historical landing rod or something.
But you. That's true. I think you would have to have ferrous materials.
That appears to be aluminum or. Polish stainless.
(41:33):
It doesn't matter. Cool. Thanks. Scott and Karen shout out.
Yeah, thanks for taking care of a lighthouse.
Someday we're going to lose a lot of these lighthouses and we got to have people caring for once that'll stick around.
It's just going to keep happening, unfortunately. Yeah.
You know, the folks that we keep in contact with talking about this.
(41:55):
Trying to prevent that. Yeah. But also celebrate the time we do have.
So we're not we're never adding more lighthouses, so we only have the ones that we have now.
And moving on, it'll probably be less and less. So we got to appreciate our lighthouses as they stand.
Looks good. Looks like it's in great shape. Yeah, it's really good.
(42:16):
Yeah, that's Goat Island Lighthouse, the one in Maine, not the one in Rhode Island.
But we'll cover Rhode Island. Some terrible sidetracks on my side of the table.
So they're not terrible. They're nice.
You know, we're just we're a very casual podcast. We just talk.
We are the people that probably still listening who listen on YouTube have like I don't know how it's worked.
(42:37):
We don't have that many listens right now, but those who do listen, listen a lot to the whole thing.
Stick around. So thank you all. Thank you. You're still here this deep.
Yeah. Appreciate you. And we love comments.
We love reviews. Leave us reviews. We haven't gotten a review since like early this year.
So if you like this episode, leave us review at the Lighthouse Lowdown dot com.
(42:59):
You can also watch our YouTube videos or be led to our YouTube channel.
You can leave a review. You can listen to all of our episodes or use the links to get to like
Spotify, Apple, et cetera. You can also check us out on Instagram where we post some pictures
for each lighthouse that we cover at the Lighthouse Lowdown.
(43:22):
And I think that's pretty much it. A happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners.
We all we love you so much. And we're very thankful that you stick around and listen to our stuff.
Appreciate you. OK, I was like, you look like you want to say something.
And we'll catch you next time on the Lighthouse Lowdown.
Hi everyone. I'm Emily.
(00:02):
And I'm Vince.
And this is the Lighthouse Lowdown.
You have a different tone there.
I know. Sometimes I want to switch it up, but
I should probably say the same.
No, welcome to the Lowdown.
I have a good appreciation now for the fact that we can just play the sound through our interface.
(00:26):
I mean, I know it's been like years or something, like a year since we got this, but
how nice that I don't have to add it in afterwards and we can just like chat while it fades out.
Coffee's hitting.
What are you going to say?
People may not know that I can just push a button and then keep talking through it.
(00:48):
It's not like...
I add it in later.
Which a lot of people have to do.
So it's nice. We're like pro.
We're like mid-tier podcasters.
Yes.
Equipment-wise.
Welcome to the show.
Welcome everybody.
I am doing a listener lighthouse today.
So if you send in a lighthouse for us to cover, it gets added to our list.
(01:12):
And I've decided the next two episodes are going to be solely from that list.
Nice.
And that's what we're doing today.
I do have a history of buoy.
It's not what I wanted it to be because this is coming out the week of Thanksgiving.
So Thanksgiving's on Thursday.
It's coming out on Monday.
So I wanted to do how did keepers spend Thanksgiving at lighthouses.
(01:38):
But unfortunately, you know, like most keepers, they got like a stipend to supply their own food
because they lived in a town, most of them.
And there's a lot of offshore lighthouses that would still get shipments in of food or like food delivered to them specifically.
You know how in the past we talked about like early on keepers would get like 20 pounds of onions or something.
(02:05):
Yeah. 200 pounds of pork.
Yeah. So I thought that they would have something like that, but I didn't find it.
So this kind of turned into like specific events at lighthouses during Thanksgiving.
Like I picked the good ones because we know that there's lots of bad Thanksgiving's at lighthouses.
Actually, it made me think of we covered the wreck of the Isador.
(02:27):
The Isador. You remember the Isador?
I can't remember. Isador. Isador.
And that happened on Thanksgiving.
And actually, which was funny, I was trying to I was like, I'm pretty sure I said it happened on Thanksgiving.
So I looked it up and it left out of the port that I'm covering today.
No way. How weird is that?
(02:49):
We're at. We're at. We're at.
Elsa, you're right. That is weird.
Yeah. But I'm not going to tell you until I'm done with my history buoy. Slow down.
OK. So, yeah, I'm just going to do a couple of stories.
So it'll be a little bit of reading, but I thought it would be fun.
So offshore lighthouses often would write letters to newspapers at like their local or like at the mainland
(03:10):
so that people knew what was going on at the lighthouses because they would never know,
like especially the ones that are like 20 miles offshore. Oh, yeah.
Never going to see them. But the Rockland. Is it courier?
Like a courier courier. Someone who carries messages. Yeah. Courier.
I've never challenged my own pronunciation. I know.
(03:32):
Well, it's usually a word you read like there's a carrier pigeon.
But a courier is a person like on a bike, a bike messenger.
Yeah. Or with a boat courier courier. Gosh.
I'm just going to say courier. Yes.
The Rockland Courier Gazette received a letter in 1925 from. Oh, no, I didn't look this one up.
(03:53):
Spit it out. Geez. Spit it.
Spit it out. Matt. Mattinicus. Mattinicus.
That's how it's spelled anyway. Rock Light saying, quote, Thanksgiving,
we were all present at roll call when Mrs. Hilt, who was the headkeeper's wife,
(04:19):
sounded the gong at 12 sharp and all gathered around the dining table loaded down with goodies prepared by the housewives.
Quite needless to say, it was a jolly party for the remainder of the day and evening.
Everyone joined in playing games and the phonograph wasn't idle. Nice.
The phonograph like 1925 seems late in my head for a phonograph.
(04:42):
Like by then we had what's a phonograph? It's the you know, you play records and oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20s. I think that's accurate. Yeah, probably. They were well developed by that time.
Like they were I think covering lighthouses has stunted my like my idea of how old things are.
Because a lot of times we're talking about lighthouses being built in like mid eighteen hundreds.
(05:05):
And so then I think the lines are getting blurred for me for technology.
I think Jamie at work told me the other day optimists are always late
because I think about where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do. And that's one of the reasons I'm always late everywhere I go.
So I'm like, oh, yeah, it'll be right downstairs. That's five minutes. Definitely true.
(05:28):
It took me that long to process what. And here's where we're tied back.
I'm not just having a schizophrenic break right now. Schizophrenic. Also, sorry, everyone.
Also, looking at history, we learn about technology.
We learn about this is when this happened, this and this happened in this year.
What else happened? And it frames it. And so as we've I mean, I have history in public school growing up,
(05:55):
but I really enjoyed American history and some world history.
But it's so just a speck of dust on the event. Like, what was the Coliseum like? Oh, like that was a day.
History. I find history really I mean, so we have a historical podcast kind of shows.
But we're talking mostly about late 1800s to early 1900s. Yeah.
(06:17):
So that hundred years and even in there, my mind is blown on how things have changed.
And then I think about today and I'm like, yeah, nothing's changing today compared to back then.
But that's actually inversely true. Yeah. The change today is exponential.
So technologies and now we've got robotic dogs guarding people's houses with machine guns and flamethrowers.
(06:39):
Oh, what is this in reference to? I'm just saying, like, that's crazy.
What makes you do we have one of those? Not us. We don't. But the American has them.
Yeah. Chinese also. They released this is totally off topic. That's OK.
They released a video. I don't know who they are. OK. OK.
I saw a video of a Chinese robotic dog, which we have had like Boston Dynamics.
(07:03):
Yeah. Really well known for their instruments.
They've had that for a couple of years, that type of technology in better and better development, like doing gymnastics.
Oh, yeah. Crazy robotics and controls.
Now, the Chinese, some Chinese company has one that has a wheeled feet. Oh, gosh.
Like four or five inch wheels. And they show it going through a forest like a forest at like 20 miles an hour.
(07:25):
Oh, like terrifying jumping, going over rocks around trees.
And it has a machine gun. It has like a six barrel like I'm telling you, machine gun war these days would be terrifying.
The top comment was like, imagine being chased by this.
And someone said, I always pick the bear. It's like, oh, no. It's scary.
(07:48):
But yeah, although the to go back to the topic. OK. Think about beacon technology, lighting technology.
Yeah, I think maybe it's oversimplified because that's how history is. We can't know everything.
But as we look back, there's X number of years of this style of beacon and then the Fresnel lens development and then this style of fuel was adopted.
(08:09):
And they're like, there's a lot to know in the history of lighting and beacons today.
We don't there's not even a thought of like, what do people use? It's how many technologies are in place for lighting and bleeding edge, new things all the way down to what's built into your cell phone,
which when I was in school and I'm still kind of a young person, my teachers, probably like yours, said, you're never going to have a calculator everywhere you go.
(08:36):
Hello, built in. You have a calculator with our first phones. We didn't even have flashlights on them.
Yeah. Or it was a big deal to make it like when it got a text, you light up the flashlight to show off you have a flashlight or your phone fell on the couch.
I forgot about that. Like I was like your flashlight would flash.
Not only do we have a calculator in our pocket, we have more technology than all of the breaking it breaking lighthouses, the best lighthouses in all of history, let alone the computer that sent rockets men to the moon.
(09:08):
Yeah, not rocket. You know, the whole package, but also rockets, but just and then we just, you know, watch Tick Tock or we're like, what's the weather today? Yeah.
Imagine how do I get from here to there? I was just thinking the other day about how crazy maps used to be.
And like, if you didn't know your way around, it was actually terrifying.
(09:29):
Like you can just go to a new town and just be like, I just put it into my phone. If you get lost, like you're actually in trouble. Touch people. Yeah. Trust people. That's kind of how maybe the world is going downhill.
Maybe we should get back on track.
I was just like, wow, you've really. Everybody who's watching and listening coffee is excellent. Yeah. And it's also Saturday morning so we have a lot to live for.
(09:57):
Okay. The second.
The second story is from 1910 Boone Island light had an eventful night before Thanksgiving. Yes, I'm sorry. I haven't turned her up.
But it's relevant. It's relevant. My hand is up.
You said on the first story, she rang a gong. Yeah. And then people came for dinner. I don't know. Do you think that's because they couldn't ring a triangle or a bell or yell because there's like those mean other things because someone's yelling.
(10:26):
They need help. So this rock.
From what I've gathered was very.
It was like in the middle of the ocean, like no obstructions at all. Often had a gong. So like I think it was extremely windy.
And so maybe they needed a loud sound in order to gather people on the island. Yeah, but I'm saying they wouldn't want to mistake it for a fog signal. Oh, or any other auditory signal that they would have.
(10:55):
Yeah, maybe that light station. I bet it was just some kind of fun, goofy like dinner and was it a gong or was it like a pot, you know?
Yeah, maybe it's a metaphorical gong. Maybe they were just like she told us to come to dinner. She rang the gong and we're like, what kind of gone?
I think it's zeroed in. But yeah, so I'm sorry. I heard that there was lots of people like he said housewives. There was like several families and one time one of them had like 14 children or something at a time.
(11:26):
So like, I mean, what else are you doing? Well, we'll have to cover that light because that sounds kind of insane.
Like a whole town on one little rock.
So anyway, Boone Island, we're going to Boone Island. So I'm going to read here, quote, the holiday was approaching and I think this is from like a I linked it in my show notes, but it's from a website.
(11:48):
So it's quoting from website. The holiday was approaching and as nobody had been ashore for several weeks, they had gone down very close to nothing in the hearty line.
Basically, they don't have like a lot of food left. Oh, no. He keeper Williams was standing just inside the light tower on the evening before Thanksgiving and wondering what he and the boys were going to have the next day for the
(12:09):
for the holiday. Sorry, it says repast repast.
That is probably an old word. I don't know. Yeah.
Suddenly, without any warning, he heard a terrific blow struck against the deck, anxious to find out
that I'm sorry that thought went through my head like that pause where it's pause and then say deck is going to sound edited.
(12:33):
There's a lot of like things when I'm editing. I'm like that sounds edited because we have really nice headphones. Yeah, nice microphones. It sounds like I cut something out and then said, sorry, anxious to find out just what had happened.
He went outside and they're laying on the deck were four pair of black duck dead as a doornail, thinking that it took more than just that to make such a thump. He went around the base of the tower among the rocks.
(12:57):
He found four more. The birds were in unusual fine condition and he and the boys had some Thanksgiving dinner for which they were only too glad to give thanks to the creator for remembering them at such a time.
So I just like this. You're saying I'm going to call them a murder because I don't know what they're called a murder of ducks flock. You just say flock. That makes sense.
The birds. Yeah, but so are crows. Anyways, a flock of ducks.
(13:24):
Accidentally flew into the light tower with such speed that they died. Yes, or at least they appear to be dead as a doornail quote.
Eight, which yeah, which was not abnormal. Like Bert ducks often died. But yeah, eight is kind of shocking. And just as he was like, oh crap, what are we going to eat tomorrow?
(13:47):
It's like, oh, here's a bunch of ducks. Black ducks is interesting. I've never heard of black ducks. Probably don't have them here in the Midwest.
Yeah, I don't know. Ducks. I don't know my ducks. Sure. The coast is a different story. Also ducks flying far out in the ocean.
I don't know that. I thought they were lake. I thought so too. But we're also not near water. So yeah, we don't know these things. It is interesting. We're so far from water. We don't even know what kind of birds live over there.
(14:19):
We're like, oh, we got seagulls and like albatross and pass that. I'm like, there are no birds. That's why when we're on vacation, we go to these lighthouse locations. We're like in awe as we wait for dinner at some like roadside shack.
Like, wow, look at the water because what's so normal to somebody else is just a novel to us. Like if I saw black ducks, I'd be like, are those ducks? Cool.
(14:47):
Yeah. So that was the story of Boone Island. I think they had a pretty rough conditions out there too. Obviously, weather so bad they can't even get more food. Yeah, that's scary.
And I'm pretty sure.
So I also have one from Tillamook Rock and then I'll be done. But Tillamook Rock we tried to cover for like our second episode or something. But it was ambitious. We weren't recording. It was tragic.
(15:13):
But Tillamook Rock, it sounds like only one keeper got to go home for Thanksgiving and the rest of them had to stay out there. Tillamook was one of those places where they shipped stuff to there.
You know, like to the yeah, like a lighthouse tinder or something would bring out food. And so it looks like they actually got a Thanksgiving shipment for that. And I wish it had specified what it was going to be. But it was definitely used to have turkey.
(15:41):
So in 1913, the weather was too poor for them to deliver this shipment and quote, the holiday looked bleak for the keepers who wondered what they had to be thankful for in such dismal conditions.
Not only would they be without their families, they'd missed the traditional feast. No turkey would be enjoyed on Tillamook Rock.
Just when things looked their worst, two ducks crashed into the lantern and fell dead on the metal gallery.
(16:06):
The keepers wasted no time preparing the birds for dinner and enjoyed roasted duck for their Thanksgiving meal, truly thankful for the gift from heaven, which fell at just the right time.
So here's the question. Seems to be a common theme. That's incredible.
Here's the question. Were men more capable back then? Yes. And they all knew how to take a duck from the dead deck to dinner.
(16:29):
I just I was just thinking and you'll hear about it later in this episode. More capable, all subject to stuff. Or did they pick men for lighthouse keepers?
I can't believe you interrupt me. You interrupt me. Who were these type of dudes? Oh, that's good. Like gruff necks.
I think you're right that and that's another episode I want to do is what qualified you to be a lighthouse keeper. And a lot of lighthouse keepers, especially like today, I'm going to mention it.
(17:01):
They kept animals. And so a lot of them had experience. Livestock. Yeah. Not pets. Keeping livestock and like chickens and things.
I don't know if that made you qualified, but I think keepers didn't used to be engineers or like people who knew how to work the foghorn and stuff, because they didn't have that kind of stuff at the very beginning.
(17:26):
So I don't know. Yeah. A lot of early, early lighthouse keepers. They talked about where they keep their animals and well, and the women who took over a lot of those roles as we've learned your history and they were head keepers and their assistants.
They weren't like, oh, well, I guess I'll have to leave. Like, yeah, they all knew all the skills because they were around, whether they brought those skills with them or they learned them at the lighthouse. Right. That's crazy. Cool.
(17:53):
That was my last story. Very cool. What a nice story. Kind of boring. But I mean, a lot of keepers didn't get the chance to celebrate. And there's all these stories of rescues.
And like, if you look up Thanksgiving at lighthouses, most of them are like crazy rescues that happened and shipwrecks and things. Yeah. So maybe take this time to be thankful this Thanksgiving that you're not a lighthouse keeper diving into icy cold waters to save shipwrecked people and probably dying yourself.
(18:23):
Possibly. It's possible.
And that's my history. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Happy Thanksgiving. It was interesting. I like that a lot. Good. We haven't had one like that in a while. I believe this is a trumpet. There. Everything on the screen is actually a trumpet.
Oh, gosh, our avid listeners will know what Vince is talking about.
(18:44):
Moving on our lighthouse of the day to listener lighthouse. Like I said, thank you to Heather and I believe it's pronounced Gwyn for sending this one in. And by the way, if you type this lighthouse into Google, it shows you the wrong lighthouse.
Like, you know how it kind of cycles through pictures. Yeah, it shows you the wrong lighthouse. And that's because it's like house recovering is Goat Island light. And there's a lighthouse called Newport Harbor light, which has goats can also be called Goat Island light or green light, allegedly, if I remember correctly.
(19:26):
And that one's in Rhode Island. So it's not the official name of the lighthouse. But Google put those images right in there. It's also a cool one. So maybe we'll cover that one later, too. But this one is in Maine, the coast of southern Maine, east of the Kinnebunk River in
Porpoise Bay, which is like a small group of islands and rock ledges. This is not far from Germany, right? How did you know that by Kennebunk, Kinnebunk? Well, just the south of Maine. Kinnebunk. Oh, my gosh. Hold on one second.
(20:00):
I seem to remember he was near Portsmouth. Oh, yeah, it is just north of that. Portsmouth is just on the other side of the border of Maine.
So, yeah, and I see Kinnebunk. I see it on the map. Okay. Kinnebunk port. Yeah, not far. Thank you. You're welcome.
Shout out to Jeremy. Yeah. Goat Island is about a mile offshore and about three and a half acres in size. So it's a good little island. It's not like the other ones we're talking about out in the middle of the ocean, rock and, you know, the wind.
(20:33):
This is I feel a nice spot to be stationed. In 1831, Congress appropriated $6,000 for a lighthouse in or around the bay, and the island was purchased from Adam McCulloch for $300 and a 20-foot rubble stone tower and dwelling were built and lit in 1833.
(20:56):
You can see from this, if you listen to our previous episodes, who built this, you can tell right away.
Oh, no. So, its fate is sealed by who built it. I'll tell you though. It wasn't our last episode, was it? Two episodes ago? I never can be quoted accurately on that. Okay, because you went last.
(21:20):
So it had to have been at least two episodes ago. These guys knew how to pose though. My question is if they're doing that for scale or probably like we are for people that can't see we got one guy standing on the gallery, which is, which is normal.
And we got one guy standing on the roof of the conjoining walkway. Why are you standing on the roof?
(21:44):
I don't know. It's got to be, maybe he didn't stand out enough in the photo against the walkway because it's dark. And so he's like, I'll just stand on the roof.
I don't know. Pretty cool though. Cool photo.
So this was built by Winslow Lewis. So you can tell that by 1842, it was in very poor shape when IWP Lewis made his report that we talked about in that episode as well.
(22:16):
Noted the tower was quote, laid up in lime mortar of bad quality with a loose and leaky roof and decaying woodwork. And given that only $27,000, $2700 of the $6,000 budget was used, they kind of got what they paid for on that as well.
Never take the low bid. If they think it's going to take $6,000 to build, they're probably going to be closer to $6,000. Less than half, that's pretty bad.
(22:43):
It's not good. The second keeper Hutchins noted that the condensation was so bad in the lantern room that he had to wipe the lens off three times per night, which there should be no water in there.
That's the thing is like you shouldn't have to wipe off the lens of water. Your thing should be sealed appropriately because you know it's near water.
(23:05):
Well, the lens is also warm. So yeah, if you're wiping off a warm lens, then it should be. That's a ton of compensation. Yeah, and this wasn't a Fresnel lens at that time. So yeah, we've got open flame, there should be no water.
And he also said the walls of the dwelling were so cracked that he couldn't live there in the winter. I'm like, where would you go? Like the keepers house was built the same time as the tower. They both stunk. There were no outbuildings. So where the heck did you go to the bathroom? Probably a pale and you threw it on the window.
(23:40):
He had a boat but no boathouse and animals with no barn. Though he said he paid $6 a year to the previous keeper, the first keeper here to rent a building that he built himself on the island. We've seen that once before. Yeah. Yeah, we've mentioned that.
That was a while ago. So I don't know which lighthouse but it happens. So 1857 the order was made to rebuild the light quote as rapidly as the means will permit. So it's obviously in really bad shape. Tower was rebuilt as a 25 foot brick cylinder tower. So instead of having this conical shape, yeah, no taper. It's just straight up and down.
(24:16):
Connected to the existing keepers dwelling by walkway like the previous tower. So which is nice. We like to keep that. And it also got a fifth order for Nellyn's. Keeping up with the times. Looks much better. Yeah. New picture up. Looks sturdier. It looks like a hard ground to build on. Yeah, it's all just loose rock. For some reason I see trees in the background. So for some reason I thought this was more of a green way out there. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe that's the shore or something. I don't know. It's not that far.
(24:46):
From the mainland. So yeah, they gave it a good coat of paint and got a new lens in there. All good things. The house looks the same. So yeah, the house stayed. Yeah. And just probably did some like renovation on it. Gosh, these are such small quarters to live in permanently. I know other guys.
And usually with your families too, only in like some cases was it a stag light where you could only have the keepers living there and then your families would live on the mainland. That was also sad reading about Thanksgiving instances where it's like, oh, like at Tillamook Rock, you don't get your families. It's kind of sad.
(25:25):
Haven't seen him in 20 years. No. So this lighthouse, like most lighthouses, had a wonderful repertoire with the town, the townspeople. Between 1865 and 1920, 46 vessels wrecked near the lighthouse, with 28 of those being total losses.
(25:46):
And nobody died because the keepers at this lighthouse were so vigilant that they always caught it early enough and then like called the mainland and rode out and actually helped. They're good lifesavers. Yes. But the signal's not so good.
It's just that I'll pull up a picture later after this one that I think shows the islands pretty well. It's just like a lot of islands. Okay. Unavoidable. Yeah. So I think it's just really difficult even now to sail in to the port.
(26:17):
And like recently they put in, they had one marker of like how to sneak into the bay. And then on their Facebook, on this lighthouse's Facebook, they put like very excitedly that the second one had been placed, which made it like a channel that you pass through.
And so even now it's a struggle to even be on the water around there. So crazy. Obviously a good place for a lighthouse, but it wasn't. It's hard. You can't have a lighthouse on every spot. Yeah. There's danger because it's difficult.
(26:52):
So anyway, nobody died. George Wakefield was the 12th keeper at the light and passed away there in 1921 after 33 years of service. The town remembered him quote for his unusual care and watchfulness, which saved lives because he was able to act quickly to bring rescue to sinking vessels.
And this was true for a lot of the keepers at the station. So much so that in 1976, the locals petitioned to keep the Coast Guard from automating the station, which already would have been a little late. 76 is late.
(27:23):
The local fishermen said quote, you're damn right. We fought for the light. That lighthouse just isn't something for the tourists to gawk at. There's a man up there and we know he watches out for us. A machine can't do that.
And quote. So obviously they felt very strongly about that. And if you think about how many lives they saved just from being up there, like it's true. You can't automate someone keeping an eye out for like people like that.
(27:49):
So the Coast Guard listened and it remained staffed until 1990, which is the last light in Maine to be automated and the last in the US behind Boston Harbor Light. So this was the second to last lighthouse in the US to be automated.
That's incredible. Very cool. 1990. Yeah, that's five years later. Patrick Mahomes, Post Malone and Vincent Bailey. We were all born.
(28:18):
What a good world became a better place.
Only missed only miss this on my five years.
After automation, the Fresnel lens was replaced with a modern optic and became began having island caretakers after the station was leased to the
Kennebunk Port Conservation Trust in 1992. Okay, nice. So 1994, the caretaker was Richard Dick Curtis, known for his jokes, smiles and laughter. And he continued in his role through the trust receiving the title through the Maine lives program 1998.
(28:51):
So 2002, Curtis fell overboard and drowned while out on a boat in the harbor. It's interesting to hear about it happening.
In modern day. Yeah, that's post 9-11. Exactly. That's crazy.
The caretaker after him Scott Dombrovsky, who is still there today, believes, like many other locals that Curtis's spirit still resides on the island. And I'll give you some examples.
(29:24):
It wasn't the first one to die there though. No. Okay. There was the there was one other guy in 1921, I believe.
This guy is stuck around, which is also strange. It's like a modern day haunting. Yeah, this is the recent history. Yeah, this is the one I should have covered for Halloween.
Instead, I'm doing it for Thanksgiving.
(29:46):
Oh, very fast.
I was ready to write out the entire sound effect.
Anyway, shortly after Curtis's death, a woman on a tour said to Scott that the place was haunted and she had a message from Curtis, quote, that he was all right and that he was going to make his presence known.
End quote. I would be like, no, no, that's okay. Please move on. That's all right.
(30:09):
I've got to go. Go live your best afterlife.
So at that point, items had started to go missing on the island and would eventually turn up always on the kitchen table.
This is something Scott would say that like if he missed play something, it would always show up on the kitchen table. That's scary. Very spooky.
(30:30):
And then one day, Dombrowski remembers, quote, it was cold and I was exhausted. So I sat in Dick's easy chair and said, Dicky, give me some heat.
There was an old electric heater that hadn't worked for years. And at that moment, it turned on.
I was like, no.
I'd be like, ah, would you keep the ghost chair around? I don't know if I could. Well, if you think I have a bunch of my grandma stuff.
(30:55):
Yeah, but she didn't die in, I guess he didn't die in his chair.
I don't know where I was going with that. If somebody died in a chair. Yes, I would get rid of the chair.
If you left the chair there after your death, I may use the chair. Yeah. Yep.
(31:16):
Unless it's haunted, which this appears to be in 2007, they began having problems with the foghorn.
And at this point, the foghorn was automated or like automatic. Yeah.
And so it's like a little less. A little less spooky because it could be like problems, but I'll go on with it.
Goat Island had a great view of Walker's Point. You know what that is?
(31:40):
No, actually, it's where President George W. Bush had his estate. Oh, yeah.
And because of this view, the Secret Service men were often stationed there during the presidency of George H.W. Bush because they could see the estate from Goat Island.
Oh, I actually have this where I have a picture. That's so funny.
So there's a red pin on Walker's Point and then you can see Goat Island by lighthouse over here.
(32:01):
So it's still a pretty good distance. And I don't know what's going on with Bumpkin Island. Bumpkin Island.
I don't want to use. They don't probably they probably don't like the name Bumpkin. Yes.
And in this picture, you can see all of the island in the shallow water that I was talking about.
I'm surprised the Secret Service like someone going to launch a rocket. Yeah.
What are they going to do? It must just be like surveillance or something. I don't even know.
(32:23):
It's so far away because the lighthouse is high. Maybe they went up to the gallery and they're like, yep, only 25 still there.
Yeah. But yeah, on the waterfront, 25 feet is pretty good.
Yeah. Anyway, it's interesting. In 2007, Scott said, quote, quote, Bush Senior came on his boat and took pictures.
Then he brought his son and President Putin and said there's something going on at that time around for a long time.
(32:50):
Yeah. But what was the first Bush? I think he's dead. Yeah. From old age. I think so.
And Bush W. Junior is he was president when I was a kid. Is the current President Putin the same dictator?
Wow. Interesting. Bush said, see, our people want us to work together.
(33:13):
Scott asked out loud because he lives at the lighthouse.
He said, quote, Hey, Dick, what do you think of that? And the foghorn, which have been quiet, suddenly sounded.
And since then, the foghorn would sound more often even on clear days.
And they were getting complaints from people around there because it's like, why is the foghorn going off?
If there's no fog, it should be like accurate warnings.
(33:36):
So then they tested like new signals, like they added new signals and then they disconnected power altogether and it still went off.
Yep. That's where it's spooky. And then they replaced the entire foghorn and it stopped doing it.
That's crazy. Yeah. We had that at a house.
We had a doorbell that would ring and then we discovered that because our house was haunted.
(34:00):
We discovered that it was totally disconnected. And yet somehow it would still ring.
That's what you get for being rich. We were renting the house.
Oh, what? I thought this was your White House. No, no, no. This is in Colorado.
Oh, because the White House would have been spookier because it's so like big and vast.
Yeah. This is this. Yeah. This is in Colorado.
So what kind of house did you have in Colorado? Dad moved a couple of times.
(34:21):
I know. I'm just saying like was it was a big house. OK. Big like bigger than the White House.
Yeah, because you had a ranch on it. No different house. What?
This is in town in Pueblo, Colorado. Oh, and we rented the house.
It had like a mother's quarters in the basement. So my dad like let his partner at work,
(34:44):
like his co-workers mom live in our basement. Wilma, she's from the South.
She's a lot of fun. The point is the house is so big that we had two separate residences.
Oh, never saw unless we like intentionally went to hang out. Yeah. Never saw that lady.
This was an old house, old house, sounding mother's quarters.
(35:05):
Like, what is that? Supposedly, the guy who owned it was gay because there's lots of gay art that was there.
We moved in. OK. He died in the house. Oh, so that's the we suspect he was the one who was haunting the house.
He never did anything harmful. He would like set off. We had motion sensors.
He would set those off at nighttime. No one was out there.
The doorbell rang a couple of times and we were all home and we went to the front door.
(35:31):
No one was there. And then we called and they discovered that the doorbell.
They're like, you must be hearing something else because this is not connected.
They showed us the wires were never completed.
Like they were not they were not landed on any electrical source. Oh, my gosh.
So that was interesting. And then my dad one time had coffee.
And if it was just this story, everyone be like, you just forgot, right?
(35:54):
He had coffee. He just made it. It was too hot to drink.
So he put it on his desk and I went and got ready and put clothes on, came back and the coffee was gone.
But the cup was totally clean. Like, you know, ring in the bottom.
I know there's less than I remember. It's as if he never made the coffee.
So we went back to the coffee machine and he had made the coffee.
(36:15):
My dad has a fancy coffee machine. Yeah. So like.
Do you put the mug somewhere else? Did you have a mental break?
Like, what did the ghost drink coffee? Yeah, maybe he was like, thank God.
And nobody leaves their coffee alone right here.
So, again, this is a big house and two more stories.
One, we moved in, we found all the artwork and we were all fascinated.
(36:41):
Are we talking phallic or are we talking?
Like the kitchen had a giant paint, this beautiful painting with two roosters.
OK, and that was like that was the most underhand of like the could just I mean, we're in the like it's beautiful.
Yeah, and then ducks are roosters and chickens are common decorations,
(37:02):
but they're never too roosters to lots of male nudity. Oh, so like but but but classic classy like the statue of David.
Oh, the painting. OK, again, you could be like, yeah, what you're looking for it. You're looking for this bias.
Yeah. And then some others that were not statues I could know of in history or anything.
(37:23):
So and then the in the basement, there is a huge house storage space, unfinished basement space had I think there were between eight and 10 feet tall.
A nativity set that was creepy. Eight feet tall, eight to ten feet tall, huge, like life size cows bigger, bigger than life size.
(37:46):
What Jesus Mary and put them in the yard, baby Jesus.
But we didn't put them in the yard. They were just in the basement. I don't know what he did.
He clearly got him from a church. Oh, so he died and you guys moved in.
Oh, I moved his stuff. Oh, my gosh. So I could never.
I think he haunted. I didn't believe in ghosts at all. Yeah.
Zero percent until we lived in that house. And then I was you know, I was a kid. There was 10 to 12 somewhere in there.
(38:11):
Yeah, that type of stuff. It was just like, well, if if ghosts are real and if he's here, he seems friendly.
Yeah. So he's probably just going about his normal business.
Johnson for some coffee. Not noticing. Yeah.
Again, I've dragged this way off track. No, no, it's nice. The gay ghost realm.
(38:32):
Flamboyant. He probably wasn't gay. He's like, gosh.
He's like, I just liked the painting. I just understood travel and art.
You simple boy. Don't. Simple boy.
Back to our story. How did I drag us there?
It was the ghost thing. Yes. But it was at the tail end.
I just had one more note that Scott said, quote, it was just a very calming, wonderful presence.
(38:57):
And I wish he would still show himself.
So probably the last way that he showed himself was fog.
I use the foghorn and now that it's new and probably something he's unfamiliar with working.
He just he was on duty and they're like, yeah, they're like.
2011, a one million dollar renovation project was completed by the trust to restore the station to 1950s condition, which was good.
(39:21):
Right. Yes. But just like how it looked, especially on the inside.
Eleven million dollars, one million dollars. OK.
One million. I don't know. It's the golf course in 2011.
That's funny. So, yeah, the Keepers House has had some changes since then, it appears.
So maybe they rebuilt it or I don't know. It looks a little different to me.
(39:45):
Well, we're looking at a different side of it. That's true.
All the other previous pictures were from where the sun is that screen. Right. Right.
So maybe those like there's four windows, I think, on that wall.
Yeah. So maybe visually, it just looks a little different.
But yeah. And then 2002, sorry, 2022, the submarine cable failed.
We heard about that. We've heard of that story.
(40:06):
And in June 2024, so very recently, solar panels were set up on the walkway to supply power to the station.
So now it's supports itself out there. And they have a Facebook page.
So Scott and Karen Dabrowski live. I know like your siblings
live in the Keepers cottage and you can visit by boat during the summer months during high tide.
(40:27):
So they have a tiny little dock where you can pull up.
And they said if Scott and Karen are home, then they'll give you a tour of the lighthouse or you can just like be on the grounds.
So they're private owners of this. They spent the million dollars.
The trust did. But they work for them. Oh, they're probably on the board.
Yeah. Maybe I don't know. I guess I didn't. Maybe they do double duty.
(40:50):
They live there and take care of it as well. Yeah, that's definitely.
Yeah, they've had caretakers since they took over in 1992. So that's great.
Yeah. So it's got to be in good shape because there's actually people out there caring about it.
You see that tall post by the tower. What do you think that is?
It's probably weather related. A lot of lighthouses nowadays have posts like that.
(41:12):
I was going to say it's not a lightning rod because it's higher than the lightning rod.
It's well, lightning rods would be. I mean, there's one on top of the tower.
Yeah. But if you wanted to save it. Oh, so it's a historical landing rod or something.
But you. That's true. I think you would have to have ferrous materials.
That appears to be aluminum or. Polish stainless.
(41:33):
It doesn't matter. Cool. Thanks. Scott and Karen shout out.
Yeah, thanks for taking care of a lighthouse.
Someday we're going to lose a lot of these lighthouses and we got to have people caring for once that'll stick around.
It's just going to keep happening, unfortunately. Yeah.
You know, the folks that we keep in contact with talking about this.
(41:55):
Trying to prevent that. Yeah. But also celebrate the time we do have.
So we're not we're never adding more lighthouses, so we only have the ones that we have now.
And moving on, it'll probably be less and less. So we got to appreciate our lighthouses as they stand.
Looks good. Looks like it's in great shape. Yeah, it's really good.
(42:16):
Yeah, that's Goat Island Lighthouse, the one in Maine, not the one in Rhode Island.
But we'll cover Rhode Island. Some terrible sidetracks on my side of the table.
So they're not terrible. They're nice.
You know, we're just we're a very casual podcast. We just talk.
We are the people that probably still listening who listen on YouTube have like I don't know how it's worked.
(42:37):
We don't have that many listens right now, but those who do listen, listen a lot to the whole thing.
Stick around. So thank you all. Thank you. You're still here this deep.
Yeah. Appreciate you. And we love comments.
We love reviews. Leave us reviews. We haven't gotten a review since like early this year.
So if you like this episode, leave us review at the Lighthouse Lowdown dot com.
(42:59):
You can also watch our YouTube videos or be led to our YouTube channel.
You can leave a review. You can listen to all of our episodes or use the links to get to like
Spotify, Apple, et cetera. You can also check us out on Instagram where we post some pictures
for each lighthouse that we cover at the Lighthouse Lowdown.
(43:22):
And I think that's pretty much it. A happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners.
We all we love you so much. And we're very thankful that you stick around and listen to our stuff.
Appreciate you. OK, I was like, you look like you want to say something.
And we'll catch you next time on the Lighthouse Lowdown.
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