Light Hearted

In part two of Jeremy D’Entremont’s two-part interview with Sally Snowman, keeper of Boston Light Station on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor, Sally discusses Sammy the Boston Light Dog, subject of a children’s book that Sally wrote. Sally and Jeremy then share some of the ghost stories of America’s oldest light station.

Sally tells what it’s like on Little Brewster Island in bad storms, and talks about her favorite parts of island life. The recent storm damage and the future of public tours on the island is discussed.

Jeremy and co-host Cindy Johnson also review the history of fog signals on Little Brewster Island, beginning with the 1719 fog cannon — the first fog signal on the North American continent.

In 1989, the U.S. Coast Guard was planning for Boston Light on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor to be the last light station in the United States to be automated and destaffed. Instead, Congress mandated that the station be operated and staffed permanently by the Coast Guard.

In 2003, the active duty Coast Guard personnel that had been assigned to the island were relocated to meet the needs of Homeland Security, and Sally Snowman was named the new keeper. She became the first civilian keeper since 1941, and the first woman keeper in Boston Light’s long history, which stretches back to 1716. She is the only official light keeper in the U.S. still employed by the Coast Guard.

In this episode of Light Hearted, we hear part one of a two-part interview with Sally Snowman. With host Jeremy D’Entremont, she discusses how she came to be the keeper of America’s oldest light station. She also talks about the recent 300th anniversary celebrations and about life on an island in Boston Harbor. She and her husband, Jay Thomson, discuss their 1994 wedding on Little Brewster Island. Sally also tells the story of being with some of the children of a Boston Light keeper in a boat in Boston Harbor on a memorable day — September 11, 2001.

Also featured is a segment with Jeremy and co-host Michelle Jewell Shaw about the “Lighthouse Tragedy” of 1718 that took the lives of Boston Light’s first keeper, George Worthylake, and five other people. Benjamin Franklin, 12 years old at the time, was urged by his brother to write a poem based on the disaster. The young Franklin wrote a poem called The Lighthouse Tragedy and sold copies on the streets of Boston. No copy of the poem was known to exist until 1940, when a copy was discovered on a nearby island by Maurice Babcock Jr., son of the principal keeper of Boston Light.

In this episode, host Jeremy D’Entremont interviews Jack San Filippo, program manager for the Point San Luis Lighthouse on the central California coast. The Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers, a dedicated group of preservationists established in 1995, have brought the building back to life as one of the prettiest lighthouses on California’s central coast.

Jeremy and co-host Cindy Johnson tell the story of Emily Maitland Fish of the Point Pinos Light Station at the southern entrance to Monterey Bay, California. She earned the “Socialite Keeper” nickname because of her regard for fashion and style as well as her habit of entertaining artists, writers and other guests at the lighthouse. 

Next, Jeremy interviews Misty Anderson, General Manager and Events Coordinator for the Heceta Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast. Heceta Head, about halfway up the Oregon coast, is one of the iconic light stations of the Pacific Northwest. The former keepers’ house has been a B&B since 1995. That seven-course breakfast sounds amazing.

In this episode host Jeremy D’Entremont interviews Eric and Fran Chetwynd of the Swans Island Lighthouse Committee in Maine about the restoration of the 1872 Burnt Coat Harbor Lighthouse. The still-active automated light is still maintained by Coast Guard aids to navigation personnel, while the light station became the property of the Town of Swans Island in 1994. The second floor of the keeper’s house is available for rent. The island is about six miles south of Mount Desert Island and is accessible by ferry from Bass Harbor.

Jeremy also interviews Kim Sanborn, director of the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum — a gem of a small museum packed with fascinating artifacts, including a number of items related to lighthouses. Kittery is the oldest town in Maine (1647).

In the history segment, Jeremy and co-host Michelle Jewell Shaw relate the saga of longtime Rhode Island light keeper Horace Arnold. In 1875, Arnold was at the dwelling at Conimicut Lighthouse with his young son when drifting ice smashed into the structure. The Arnolds were lucky to escape with their lives as the house broke apart.

This episode is hosted by Jeremy D’Entremont and Cindy Johnson, and the featured interview is the award-winning maritime historian Eric Jay Dolin.

Eric has written

But the book that’s discussed at length in the Light Hearted interview is Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse, published in 2016.

C. Douglas Kroll, Sea History Magazine, wrote of Brilliant Beacons: “A must-read for anyone interested in lighthouses or America’s maritime history…This history of American lighthouses is both engaging and enjoyable, whether for academics, who will not be disappointed in the thoroughness of the author’s research, or for lighthouse history buffs who will enjoy its compelling narrative.”

Click here for Eric Jay Dolin’s website.

Eric Jay Dolin on Wikipedia

The featured interview in this episode is Terry Rowden, a native of Michigan. Bob Trapani, Jr., executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation, joined Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont to take part in this interview, which was recorded inside the keeper’s house at Little River Light Station.

Terry Rowden served as a keeper at Little River Light Station in Cutler, Maine, for the U.S. Coast Guard from 1968 to 1970. It was then that he met a young Cutler native named Cynthia, and Terry and Cynthia eventually married.

When the Friends of Little River Lighthouse was founded as a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation in 2008, Terry became a volunteer. For the past few years, Terry has been the resident caretaker on the island. His wife Cynthia is also a valuable volunteer. At the American Lighthouse Foundation annual gala in 2016, Terry was awarded a President’s Award for his exemplary commitment to the organization’s historic lighthouse preservation mission.

In the history segment, hosts Jeremy D’Entremont and Michelle Jewell Shaw tell the tale of William S. Moore, who became the first keeper of Bird Island Light in Marion, Massachusetts, when the station went into operation in 1819.

Persistent local legend claims that Moore was a pirate who was banished to Bird Island as punishment. Some accounts also claim that Moore murdered his wife, and there are those who say the island has been haunted or cursed ever since.

The featured interview in this episode is with Tom Tag, who is the technical advisor for the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Tom’s passion for the history of lighthouse optics has made him the premier American authority on the history and technology of lamps and lenses. He formerly served on the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Board of Directors, along with lead roles in several other lighthouse organizations.

Tom Tag was born in Chicago but grew up in Laporte, Indiana. After retiring from a career in management of computer programmers, he was looking for something different to do. Tom has written many articles on lighthouse technology for the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s journal The Keeper’s Log.

His work as a lighthouse researcher earned Tom an F. Ross Holland Award from the American Lighthouse Council. He also has had a major hand in the development of what is now the J. Candace Clifford Lighthouse Research Catalog, and he has developed many other historical resources on the U.S. Lighthouse Society website.

In the history segment, hosts Jeremy D’Entremont and Cindy Johnson recount the story of Theodore “Crazy” Judson, longtime light keeper and raconteur of Stratford Point, Connecticut. Judson’s interviews with newspaper reporters described sightings of mermaids and a 200-foot sea serpent.

In this episode, host Jeremy D’Entremont interviews Canadian author and former lighthouse keeper Chris Mills. Chris is originally from Ontario, but he has lived most of his life in Nova Scotia. He built his first lighthouse when he was six years old, and landed his first three-week job as a relief assistant on Cross Island, near Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, at the age of 24. Between 1989 and 1997, Chris worked as a light keeper at 11 different light stations in three provinces on both the east and west coasts of Canada.

Chris was a founding member of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society. For years, he has recorded the oral histories of light keepers and their families. Chris has authored two books: Vanishing Lights and Lighthouse Legacies: Stories of Nova Scotia’s Lightkeeping Families.

Chris lives in Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia. He works for the Canadian Coast Guard as a deckhand on a lifeboat. He’s also had a career as a radio DJ and news announcer. His observational skills as a writer and radio commentator, combined with his experience as a light keeper and preservationist, give him a unique and very special perspective on lighthouses.

Join Jeremy D’Entremont and co-host Cindy Johnson for an interview with Mark Kuehn of the North Point Lighthouse Museum in Wisconsin.

North Point Lighthouse is in Lake Park on the East Side of Milwaukee. The lighthouse and the Queen Anne-style keeper’s house have been restored to their early twentieth century charm through the determined efforts of a group of volunteers, the North Point Lighthouse Friends, Inc., formed in 2002.  Since completion of restoration in the fall of 2007, the historic site is open to the public for tours. The original keepers’ quarters now serves as a museum.

Mark Kuehn is the curator of the North Point Lighthouse Museum. He’s been on the board of directors for seven years and he’s been the curator for six years. Mark is also creative director for an advertising and marketing firm called Anthologie in Milwaukee, and he serves on the board of directors for All Hands Boatworks, an organization that teaches young people wooden boat building skills. He is also an artist who works in watercolor, graphite, and collage, and he is a graduate of the Portland School of Art and Design in Portland, Maine. Mark is a maritime history buff and has worked as a lobster fisherman in Maine. He gives lectures about the maritime history of Milwaukee and the North Point Lighthouse. You can catch his talks on the tall ship Denis Sullivan dressed in a Lighthouse Service keeper’s uniform.

Also featured in this episode of Light Hearted is the incredibly harrowing story of the first keeper of Maine’s Saddleback Ledge Lighthouse, Watson Y. Hopkins. Hopkins and his family (seven children!) lived in three rooms inside the granite tower on a remote, wave-swept ledge for a decade.

The episode closes with the poem “A Lightkeeper’s Dream” by Forest Wilcox of Gannet Rock Lighthouse in New Brunswick, Canada.

Listen to the podcast here:

Join hosts Jeremy D’Entremont and Michelle Jewell Shaw for an interview with Ford Reiche, the award-winning owner of remote Halfway Rock Lighthouse in Casco Bay in Maine.

Ford Reiche has been an attorney and an entrepreneur; in 2008 he was named the Maine Small Businessperson of the Year and the Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year. He is also a trustee of Maine Preservation.

Ford has acquired and restored several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including his most recent project, a railroad station in Yarmouth. The subject of the interview in this episode of Light Hearted is his amazing restoration of Halfway Rock Lighthouse, far out in Casco Bay, 10 miles from Portland.

The granite lighthouse, which was built in 1871, gets its name because it’s halfway between Cape Elizabeth to the south and Cape Small to the north. Ford Reiche bought the lighthouse at auction from the federal government in 2014.

The Maine Preservation Association recognized the project with its 2016 Preservation Award, and the American Lighthouse Foundation presented Ford Reiche a 2017 “Keeper of the Light” award honoring his “contribution to the preservation of America’s lighthouses and their rich tradition.”