Light Hearted

February 25 is the birthday of a woman who is arguably the most famous lighthouse keeper in American history — Ida Lewis of Lime Rock in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. She was born in Newport on February 25, 1842. And to celebrate Ida Lewis’s birthday, the guest in this episode of Light Hearted is Lenore Skomal, author of one of the best books ever written about Ida Lewis, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter.

Officially, Ida Lewis is credited with 18 lives saved, but the number was possibly as high as 35; the modest Ida kept no records of her lifesaving exploits. She became the official keeper at Lime Rock in 1879 and held the position for 32 years. She became a celebrated national heroine. The former Lime Rock Lighthouse is now the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, and in 1995 a Coast Guard buoy tender was named in her honor.

Lenore Skomal is the winner of multiple awards for literature, biography, and humor, with over 30 years of professional writing experience as a journalist, columnist, author, and playwright, and 17 books published to date. You can read more about her books, plays, and other works at lenoreskomal.org.

Lenore’s book on Ida Lewis, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, was originally published in 2002. Booklist called it “[a] sensitive biography. . . . A remarkable story of an ordinary woman who did some extraordinary things,” and the Oakland Press wrote: “Fascinating. A lively, fast moving account to hold the reader’s interest. Spellbinding.” The book has now been optioned to be adapted into a motion picture.

This episode of Light Hearted featured an interview with the owners of one of the most rugged and remote lighthouses in New England. Congress authorized the building of a lighthouse on the east point of 30-acre Mistake Island, about five miles offshore from Jonesport, Maine, in March 1825. The station was established in October 1826. A 24-foot-tall round rubblestone tower and dwelling were originally constructed; the 57-foot brick tower that stands today was built in 1851. A new two-family house was completed in 1903. In 1982, a decade after the station was automated and de-staffed, a military team blew up the keeper’s house as a training exercise.

Under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, the lighthouse was sold via online auction in 2012. It was later sold to Jeremey Richardson and Miriam Davidson. Jeremey was born in Bangor, Maine, and has lived in the state his entire life. Miriam was born and raised in Colorado, but has spent time in New England throughout her life. She says she is drawn to the region’s history and cold weather.

Miriam moved to Maine full-time in 2013 and currently works for the Maine Department of Corrections as a Forensic Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Jeremey enjoys varying occupations and claims to be impartial to the days of the week. Together, with their five dogs, the couple enjoys outdoor adventures and is excited for the opportunities Moose Peak Lighthouse and Mistake Island present.  

GoFundMe Page for Moose Peak

Instagram for Moose Peak Lighthouse

Article by Bob Trapani Jr.

(Use the player at the bottom of the page to hear the podcast)

There are many creative ways to raise money for lighthouse preservation, and the two interview subjects in this episode of Light Hearted have found one of the most creative. Alison Richardson, a summer resident of Isle au Haut in Maine, and Molly Siegel, an Island Institute fellow on the island, decided to do something special to help raise funds for the island’s lighthouse – they swam all the way around the island in the summer of 2019. The island is 18 miles around, and they raised more than $33,000.

GoFundMe page for Isle Au Haut Lighthouse

Friends of the Isle Au Haut Lighthouse

Gary Sredzienski, in addition to being an amazing swimmer, is an accomplished musician and composer who has been playing the piano accordion for more than 40 years. Always an avid swimmer, Gary started experimenting with special gear so that he could swim in winter. In January 2008 he swam about six miles to the island group known as the Isles of Shoals, raising $17,000 for the Krempels Brain Injury Foundation and Stepping Stones of Portsmouth.

Since then, he has completed several more winter swims for various charities, raising more than $80,000, including three swims to raise funds for lighthouse preservation. His first swim for lighthouses was in February 2011, and it raised about $10,000 for Whaleback Lighthouse in Kittery, Maine. The air temperature was about 27F, and the water was about 38F.

Gary Sredzienski’s web site

Gary’s radio show, “Polka Party,” on WUNH-FM

Listen here:

Lake Champlain, bordering New York, Vermont and Quebec, was once a bustling waterway. More than ten lighthouses were built on the lake in the nineteenth century, on the New York and Vermont sides. A light was established at Isle La Motte, at the northern end of the lake, about 1829 – actually a lantern placed in an upper window of a house. The present 25-foot cast iron lighthouse was built in 1880 along with a wooden keeper’s dwelling. A skeleton tower with an automatic beacon replaced the lighthouse in 1933. The station was sold into private hands, and the lighthouse remained dark for nearly 70 years. In 1949 the property was bought by the Clark family.

Meanwhile, a handsome 40-foot stone lighthouse tower was built in 1858 at Windmill Point in Alburg, Vermont, about six miles north of Isle La Motte. In 1931, the light was removed from the lighthouse at Windmill Point, and it was relocated to a nearly steel skeleton tower. The lighthouse and keeper’s house passed into private hands. In 1963, Lockwood Clark, better known as Lucky Clark, purchased the property, making two lighthouses in the family.

In 2001 the Coast Guard began looking at the possibility of reactivating some of Lake Champlain’s lighthouses. On August 7, 2002, National Lighthouse Day, over 300 onlookers cheered as the lighthouse was relighted at Windmill Point. For the first time in almost seven decades, Lake Champlain had a working lighthouse. Then, on the evening of October 5, 2002, the Isle la Motte Lighthouse returned to service at dusk.

Rob Clark, son of Lucky Clark and the longtime owner of these two lighthouses, is the interview subject in this episode of Light Hearted.

Joseph Smith has been a theatrical performer based in New York City since 1995. He decided to take his love of acting and his love of history and to bring them together as a performing artist of living history. His passion is to create excitement and curiosity about history by giving voice to stories that celebrate the human spirit.

In recent years he has written and performed a portrayal of Augustin Fresnel, the inventor of the Fresnel lens that revolutionized lighthouse lighting. It is a portrayal of one man’s fascination with “finding the solution to the many questions in the inexhaustible range of science.”

He has performed the program, entitled Augustin Fresnel: Through a New Lens in a number of venues, including: 2019 Florida Lighthouse Association Fall Meeting; 2019 Michigan Lighthouse Festival; 2019 American Lighthouse Foundation Annual Gala; 2017 and 2018 Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society; 2018 Montauk Lighthouse; 2018 Michigan Lighthouse Alliance; Horton Point Lighthouse (Southold Historical Society); New London Maritime Society; and the National Lighthouse Museum, Staten Island, NY.

Of his Augustin Fresnel portrayal, Marge Ellenberger, director of the Michigan Lighthouse Festival, said, “Joseph Smith is a magical artist who gives his portrayals in such a unique manner that he makes the audience feel that they have gone back in time! He leaves the audience in awe and they want to hear more!”

Joseph Smith: Raising History website

Frederick Mikkelsen was a Coast Guard light keeper at Conimicut Lighthouse in Rhode Island circa 1958 to 1961. The cast-iron “sparkplug” style lighthouse was built at the mouth of the Providence River in 1883. Conimicut was the one of the last lighthouses in the nation to be converted to electricity. The light was automated and the resident keepers were reassigned in 1963. On September 29, 2004, a ceremony was held to announce the transfer of the lighthouse to the City of Warwick under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.

One of Fred Mikkelsen’s most memorable experiences in his three years at the lighthouse was a 1960 hurricane. Fred still lives in Rhode Island, and he sometimes gives presentations on his lighthouse keeping days entitled “Checked Main Light – Lighthouse Life in the 1950s.” His family calls Conimicut Light Station “Grandpa’s Lighthouse.”

East Point Lighthouse began service in September 1849. It’s a type of building known as a Cape Cod-style lighthouse, because a number of them were build on Cape Cod in the early 1800s. It consists of a lantern on the roof of a two-story keeper’s dwelling. The light was automated in 1911 with the use of an acetylene gas system. The light was darkened due to World War II, and it was subsequently discontinued. Then, in the 1950s, the property was transferred to the State of New Jersey. The building was boarded up and fell into disrepair.

The Maurice River Historical Society was working to save the lighthouse when an accidental fire started by trespassers nearly destroyed the building in July 1971. The historical society was able to raise funds to have the lantern and roof rebuilt and the Coast Guard relighted the lighthouse as a navigational aid on July 2, 1980. Five rooms in the restored lighthouse are now furnished with period antiques. In 2017, two pump stations were installed in the building’s basement to push out encroaching floodwaters.

A dune system that was protecting the lighthouse was breached by a storm in March 2019, putting the site in grave danger. In May 2019, the nonprofit Preservation New Jersey chose the East Point Lighthouse as one of the 10 most endangered historic sites in the state. Click here for a recent series of photos showing the battle with a erosion near the East Point Lighthouse

Nancy Patterson, guest on this episode of Light Hearted, is president of the Maurice River Historical Society, and she manages the East Point Lighthouse. Nancy is also an artist and has written and illustrated two children’s books. Click here for her website.

Special guest co-host with Jeremy D’Entremont for this episode is Charlotte Raczkowski, a volunteer for Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses. Also featured is commentary from Judianne Point, a volunteer for Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse in East Providence, Rhode Island, who explains what she loves about volunteering.

This is a special edition of Light

A book by Ernie DeRaps and his wife, Pauline, was published by Foghorn Publishing in 2006. Ernie’s half of the book was called Lighthouse Keeping. If you turn the book over and upside down, the other half of the book, by Pauline Fitzgerald DeRaps, was called Light Housekeeping.

Ernie and Pauline were married for 64 years and had six children. Pauline passed away in 2015 and is, of course, greatly missed, but Ernie is staying busy with his painting, as well as his children, nine grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. Ernie celebrates his 92nd birthday this month.

The book Lighthouse Keeping / Light Housekeeping by Ernie and Pauline DeRaps is available from Foghorn Publishing. You can see some of Ernie’s paintings of Maine lighthouses at pigmentartstudio.com. You’ll see his Lighthouses of the Maine Coast series as well as some nature paintings and seascapes.

Note from producer/host Jeremy D’Entremont: I visited Ernie DeRaps at his home in Richmond, Maine, last February. With me was my friend Bob Trapani, Jr., executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation. Bob took part in the conversation with Ernie. The reason I waited until now to post this interview is that there was a problem with the sound. We recorded the conversation at Ernie’s kitchen table. As we spoke, Ernie kept tapping his fingers on the table. I was aware of it at the time, but I didn’t ask him to stop because I was afraid it might interrupt his thought process. I didn’t think the sound the tapping was making was very significant. It wasn’t until I listened to the recording later that I realized the tapping went right to the microphone stands and was recorded as a loud “boing” every time. For that reason, I shelved the interview for almost a year. But I recently listened to it again and I decided that it would be best to release it in spite of the problem. You can hear everything that’s said clearly, and Ernie’s great to listen to and I hated the thought of not using it because of a few little “boings.”

St. Marks is a small city on Florida’s gulf coast that’s part of the Tallahassee metropolitan area. It was founded by the Spanish in the 1600s. St. Marks became an important port of entry for the prosperous planting region of Middle Florida and South Georgia. A light station at St, Marks, Florida’s second, began service in 1831.

The light was automated in 1960. In the year 2000, although the Fresnel lens remained in the lantern room of the lighthouse, the navigational light was relocated to a modern solar-powered optic mounted outside the lantern. Today, St. Marks Light Station is located within the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. The lighthouse has recently undergone a major renovation. As part of the culmination of that work, a replica Fresnel lens was installed and illuminated as an active aid to navigation on October 31, 2019.

Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge is a non-profit volunteer organization that supports the conservation, education, and preservation work of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.  The Friends work closely with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and were very involved in the recent restoration project.

Tom Baird is the chairman of the Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge Lighthouse Committee and fundraising committee chair. At the October 31 relighting event, Tom was honored for his dedication.

St. Marks Wildlife Refuge website

St. Marks Wildlife Refuge phone (850) 925-6121 Email: [email protected]

Grosse Point Lighthouse, located at the southern end of Lake Michigan in Evanston, Illinois, was established in 1873 as the primary lighthouse marking the approach to Chicago. The lighthouse tower stands 113 feet tall and is constructed of Cream City brick encased in concrete. Still in use in the lantern is the original second-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by the Henry-Lepaute Company of Paris. In 1935, after the station was automated and destaffed, the federal government turned over the property, except for the lighthouse tower and light, to the City of Evanston.

Donald J. Terras is the director of the Lighthouse Park District in Evanston, and he manages the Grosse Point Light Station Museum. He is also the author of the books Grosse Point Lighthouse: Landmark to Maritime History and Culture and Lighthouses of Chicago Harbor: Their History, Architecture and Lore. Mr. Terras served on the steering committee to establish a National Lighthouse Museum and is a past president of the American Lighthouse Council. He is also a recipient of the American Lighthouse Council’s F. Ross Holland Distinguished Service Award.

In this interview, Don Terras looks back on nearly four decades of work at Grosse Point Light Station and in the broader world of lighthouse preservation.