Meet the World’s Oldest Active Lighthouse: Torre de Hércules
The Torre de Hercules, the world’s oldest active lighthouse, is in the city of A Coruna in the Spanish province of Galicia. It stands some 180 feet high and was […]
The United States Lighthouse Service: What’s in a Name?
er…that’s the United States Lighthouse Establishment. The Lighthouse Board? Oh, wait a minute, it says here: The United States Bureau of Lighthouses? Ahem, what’s a Coast Guard? Where did that […]
You’ll Never Get Rich….
United States Lighthouse Keepers were paid a lower-middle class wage, and, yes it frequently came with housing.* Boston’s first keeper, George Worthylake, the first known American lighthouse keeper, received what […]
Lighting a Nation: Early American Lighthouses and Federal Leadership
Let’s look at the early American lighthouses and the leadership of America’s lighthouses. From the get-go in 1716, until the establishment of the Ninth Act of Congress federalizing American lighthouse, […]
So, You Want To Be A Keeper?
In 1887, Principal Keeper William Rowlinski, was paid $720 a year Two year later, he got a raise to $760. The extra pay was to compensate for the fact that […]
The First Female Lighthouse Keeper: Hannah Thomas, 1776
Between 1828 and 1947 there were 138 women who were officially employed by The United States Lighthouse Establishment or Lighthouse Service as keepers. “Officially employed” does not credit the hundreds […]
The Amazing Screw-pile Lighthouse
A screw-pile lighthouse is a tower which stands on metal piles screwed into sandy bedrock on the sea, the land, and either river or even lake bottoms. The first screw-pile […]
Ponce Inlet’s Role in Early Bird Conservation and the Christmas Bird Count
Today, January 5, ends this year’s longest running national community science project called The Christmas Bird Count. The count began this year on December14. The Christmas Bird Count, or CBC […]
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Almost Folly
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, at a height of 194, 199 or 211 feet, depending on whose chart you will stumble upon, is the tallest lighthouse in the United States. Located […]
Memories of Life at Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse
…as told to me by my father Thomas John O’Hagan and Irene Ball Oral history of Helen O’Hagan Sintes, Keeper Granddaughter – 2005 Thomas Patrick O’Hagan and Julia O’Hagan arrived […]