Light Hearted

Matthew Cohen is a nautical photographer with more than 20 years of experience. Matthew acquired his love of boating as a child and raced with the successful Roger Williams University Varsity Team. Following that, he became an accomplished sailing instructor for 15 years at the Sail Newport Sailing Center, and he’s logged over 30,000 ocean miles as a sailor. Sakonnet Lighthouse, RI. Photo by Matth...

This edition of Light Hearted Lite features several edited interviews that were originally heard in two episodes back in the spring of 2020. The subject is the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s popular lighthouse passport program. The program provides enthusiasts the opportunity to help preserve lighthouses, and a great way for them to keep a pictorial history of their lighthouse adventures. Small d...

Stratford Point Light Station in 2015, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont David Wright Stratford, Connecticut, was an active port in coastal trade, shipbuilding and oystering in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To mark the entrance to the harbor, the first Stratford Point Lighthouse was built on the west side of the dangerous mouth of the Housatonic River in 1822. The present tower, 35 feet...

Conimicut Lighthouse in 2007. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. This episode has two segments. First is a new interview with Mayor Frank Picozzi of Warwick, Rhode Island, about the recent exterior restoration of Conimicut Lighthouse, which is owned by the city. The major project at the 1883 cast-iron caisson “sparkplug style” tower was carried out in 2024 by Abcore Restoration. Sakonn...

Prudence Island Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont Prudence Island, about seven miles long, is the third largest island in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. It was determined around 1850 that a lighthouse was needed to guide vessels passing between Sandy Point, at the island’s easternmost extremity, and Aquidneck Island, about a mile to the east. Instead of building a new lig...

There are three segments in this episode. The first recaps a recent virtual conference that the USLHS held in late March. The conference celebrated the 25 th anniversary of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, with presenters and attendees sharing their stories of lighthouse stewardship and preservation. Next is an abridged version of a conversation with John Potvin first hea...

T he strait between Bristol and Portsmouth, Rhode Island, was busy in the early 1800s, with all manner of vessels passing between Narragansett Bay to the west and Mount Hope Bay to the east. A lighthouse was built on the Bristol side in 1855, with a small brick dwelling and a lighthouse tower attached to its southern end. The lighthouse’s days as an aid to navigation ended with the construct...

This is an edited version of the second part of an interview with Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse in outer Boston Harbor, a classic wave-swept granite tower on a barren, rocky ledge. The interview was first heard in May 2020 in episode 61. L to R: Bob Trapani Jr., Dave Waller, and Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont in 2020 Dave Waller built this first-order Fresnel lens...

Neil Hurley Neil Hurley’s interest in Florida lighthouses goes back to the mid-1980s. He was serving as a staff officer for the Seventh Coast Guard s District Aids to Navigation Branch, and he often had to answer questions about lighthouses in Florida. Neil decided to make Florida lighthouse history his off-duty hobby. That led to countless hours of research, and he’s been the historian for...

This is an edited version of an interview that was first heard in episode 60 in May 2020. The guest is Dave Waller, the owner of Graves Light in Boston Harbor. This is part one of two parts. Graves Light in June 2001, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont Dave Waller The ledges in outer Boston Harbor called the Graves – about 10 acres in all – have been home to a lighthouse since 1905. The 113-foot to...

Barcelona Light Station, photo by Mike and Carol McKinney In 1828, Congress appropriated five thousand dollars to construct a lighthouse in Barcelona Harbor on Lake Erie in New York. The harbor had just been designated an official port of entry when the lighthouse was built. In the early 1800s, lumber, salt, flour, and fish were shipped to and from the port. The lighthouse is a conical stone tower...

Fred Mikkelsen This is an edited version of an interview first heard in episode 43 in January 2020. Conimicut Lighthouse is a cast-iron caisson structure built in 1883 to mark a dangerous shoal at the mouth of the Providence River. 18-year-old Coast Guardsman Frederick Mikkelsen was assigned to the station in 1958. One of his most memorable experiences in his three years at the lighthouse was a 19...

Desiree Heveroh at East Brother Light Station in Richmond, California Desiree Heveroh describes herself a steward and keeper of the history of the city of Richmond, California, located in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay region. She was a longtime board member of the East Brother Light Station, which is situated on an island in the strait that separates San Francisco Bay and San Pablo B...

Pencarrow Lighthouse (1859) was the first permanent lighthouse in New Zealand. Mary Jane Bennett – the first official lighthouse keeper in New Zealand, and the only woman to ever hold the role – is profiled in “Guiding Lights.” This is another episode of Light Hearted Lite, the series where we revisit interviews from the past six years of Light Hearted . First is a chat abo...

Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, photo by Gary Point Pomham Rocks Lighthouse is at the northern end of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, offshore from the community of Riverside. Alex Dias joined the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse (a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation) in 2012, but his fascination with lighthouses dates back to 2005 when he was in the 5th grade. He’s been involved with virt...

This is a re-edited version of an interview that was first heard on “Light Hearted” in 2019.  Jim Pope was a keeper at rugged Whaleback Lighthouse in Maine from 1960 to ’62, and the light was automated and de-staffed a short time later. Whaleback is a ledge on the northeast side of the entrance to the Piscataqua River, on the approach to the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Th...

Peter Halil and his wife, Isla This is part two of a two-part interview. Peter Halil was a lighthouse keeper in the UK from 1974 to 1997, and he was among the last traditional lighthouse keepers there before all the lights were automated. Peter Halil was keeper at South Stack Light Station in Wales 1980-83. USLHS archives. He also shot video at as many lighthouses as possible before they were auto...

Rob Benchley at Sankaty Head Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont This is re-edited version of an interview with Rob Benchley first heard in episode 81 in September 2020. Rob is the volunteer modern day keeper of Sankaty Head Lighthouse in the Sconset village on Nantucket in Massachusetts. He’s also an accomplished photojournalist who has been the staff photographer for three island newspapers,...

Peter Halil There are two segments in this episode. The first guest, Peter Halil, was a lighthouse keeper in the UK from 1974 to 1997. He was among the country’s final traditional lighthouse keepers before all the lights were automated. He was stationed at some well known light stations in England and Wales, including South Bishop, Dungeness, St. Catherines, Bishop Rock, the Lizard, and othe...

With the world’s longest coastline and more lakes than the rest of the world combined, Canada is also home to more than 750 lighthouses. In spite of automation, there continue to be 49 staffed lighthouses operated by the Government of Canada. Aerial view of Cape Beale, BC (Courtesy of Karen Zacharuk) The light station at Cape Beale is one of the 25 stations that remain staffed on the coast o...

In 1836, rumors of gold in a muddy river on the west shore of Lake Michigan near modern day Green Bay, Wisconsin, spurred the creation of what would become the City of Kewaunee. The arrival of a railroad in the late 1800s led to increased shipping in the area, and in 1880-81 two long piers were built at the entrance to the harbor. In the years that followed there were a number of reconfigurations...

Edward Rowe Snow, his daughter Dolly, and his wife Anna-Myrle prepare for a Flying Santa flight in 1964. (Friends of Flying Santa) The Flying Santa tradition traces its origins to a pioneering pilot in Maine named Bill Wincapaw. To show his appreciation to lighthouse keepers and their families, on Christmas Day in 1929 he loaded his plane with a dozen packages and dropped gifts for the lighthouse...

Fire Island Light Station, New York. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Fire Island is one of a chain of barrier islands running along the south shore of Long Island, New York. The first lighthouse on Fire Island was a 74-foot-high stone tower built in 1826. It was considered too short, so the much taller brick lighthouse that still stands was built in 1858. The new tower was fitted with a powerfu...

Ernie DeRaps, a native Mainer, spent several years in the 1950s and ‘60s as a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper at four Maine lighthouses – Monhegan, Fort Point, Heron Neck, and Browns Head. A book written by Ernie 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 b...

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, Wisconsin (courtesy photo) Eagle Bluff Lighthouse, established in 1868, is on a 76-foot bluff in Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin. The square tower, constructed of Cream City brick from Milwaukee, is connected to the keeper’s house. The light served to guide shipping through the Strawberry Channel. In its active history (1868-1926), there were only three...