Light Hearted

Harbor Beach Lighthouse, Michigan (USLHS archives) The Michigan Lighthouse Alliance (MLA), founded in 2003, encompasses more than 50 preservation groups and lighthouse stakeholders from around the state of Michigan. The purpose of the Alliance is to advocate for the preservation of the historic aids to navigation on the Great Lakes. The MLA holds a conference every two years, and this year’s will...

This is an edited version of an interview that was featured in Light Hearted episode 44 in January 2020. Joseph Smith  has been a theatrical performer based in New York City since 1995. His passion is to create excitement and curiosity about history by giving voice to stories that celebrate the human spirit. He has written and performed a portrayal of Augustin Fresnel, the inventor of the Fresnel...

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse (courtesy photo) Hereford Inlet, a break in the barrier islands along the east side of Cape May, New Jersey, was used by whalers as far back as the 17 th century. Shifting sands and a strong current made the inlet dangerous for mariners. As coastal shipping and the use of the inlet increased, funds for a lighthouse were appropriated in 1872. A wood frame combined keeper’s...

We’ve produced almost 300 episodes of the podcast Light Hearted i n the past five years. Most of the interviews we’ve done have been a half hour to an hour. We realize that listening to an hour-long podcast is not something everyone wants to do, so we’re introducing something we call Light Hearted Lite . In this new series, some favorite interviews from the past five years have been edited d...

Dani and Guin doing what they love There are three segments in this episode. First, 11-year-old Guinevere Porter and her best friend Dani, Kentucky residents, talk about their visits to some beautiful and very tall lighthouses in Georgia, Florida, and elsewhere. As they correctly point out, we need kids to get interested in lighthouses. They will be the ones caring for them in the future, and also...

The seas off the northern California coast are notoriously rough, and no area is more treacherous than St. George Reef, which is the tip of a submerged volcanic mountain about six miles offshore. Construction of a lighthouse on the reef began in 1883. It took nine years to complete the massive 90-foot-tall granite tower on top of a 50-foot-tall base. A powerful first-order Fresnel lens was install...

Whale Rock Lighthouse (U.S. Coast Guard) Walter Eberle with his wife Agnes Whale Rock Light, a typical cast-iron “spark plug” type lighthouse, was constructed at the entrance to the west passage of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay in 1882 to help mariners past a treacherous reef. Isolated Whale Rock was not a desirable location for keepers, and 16 different men served as head keeper between 1...

The area in Southern California known as San Pedro saw Spanish use dating back to the 1540s. Once a separate township, it’s now part of Los Angeles. After the Mexican-American War, San Pedro’s harbor was expanded and improved. Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse at Point Fermin, San Pedro’s southernmost point, in 1854. The light began service on December 15, 1874. Point Fermin Lighthouse,...

Mukilteo Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont On the east side of Washington’s Puget Sound, Mukilteo grew as a port in the late 1800s, with salmon canning and lumber as leading industries. Funds were appropriated by Congress for a lighthouse at Mukilteo in 1903, and construction began in 1905. A 30-foot tower was built, attached to a fog signal building, with two large, separate dwellings...

Old Point Loma Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Congress authorized lighthouses at several California locations in 1850, including San Diego. Construction began in 1854 on a lighthouse on a high bluff at the end of Point Loma, more than 400 feet above the sea. The lighthouse began service in November 1855. Its active life was fairly short, as it turned out. The great height of the li...

Cornelia Cesari Maine’s Baker Island is about four miles southeast of the much larger Mount Desert Island. A lighthouse was established on the highest point of the island in 1828. The early history of the light station is very much tied into the history of the family of William and Hannah Gilley. The Gilleys had taken possession of the island in the early 1800s, and William was appointed as...

Julie Barrow at Pigeon Point Light Station, California. Courtesy of Julie Barrow. California’s iconic Pigeon Point Lighthouse , located on the central coast between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, has been guiding mariners since 1872.  Today, the historic light station is managed by California State Parks, and the former keepers’ housing serves as a youth hostel. The lighthouse has been closed...

Harry Duvall and Dan May. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Harry Duvall enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in the 1960s and trained as an electronics technician. After graduating from college, he returned to the Coast Guard as a civilian employee based at the district engineering office in Boston. For well over 30 years, he coordinated all the lighthouse automation and modernization projects for t...

A day beacon (or daybeacon) is defined simply as an unlighted nautical sea mark, serving to aid navigation during the day. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains many modern day beacons around the country, but the subject of this episode is the historic day beacons of New England. Some of them date back more than 200 years, and they have fascinating stories to tell — tales of shipwrecks, pirate...

Little Mark Island—about one acre in size—is in Maine’s Casco Bay, near the town of Harpswell. On the island is a 50-foot tall, stone, pyramidal tower that was built in 1827. It’s known as the Little Mark Island Monument.  It wasn’t built as a lighthouse—it was originally intended to serve as a day beacon or day marker to aid local navigation. In 1927, a navigational light was added to the to...

Sally Snowman and her husband Jay Thomson on the occasion of Sally’s retirement on December 15, 2023. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. At the end of this year, Sally Snowman will retire after 20 years as keeper of Boston Light in Massachusetts, America’s oldest light station. As a civilian employee of the Coast Guard, she oversaw tours and managed the Boston Light Augmentation Program, und...

In 2003, the active duty Coast Guard personnel that had been assigned to Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, America’s oldest light station, were reassigned to meet the needs of Homeland Security. Sally Snowman was named the new keeper. She became the first woman keeper in Boston Light’s long history, which dates back to 1716. Sally Snowman (U.S. Postal Service photo by Dan Afzal) Boston Light...

RADM Dan May, USCG (ret.) Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Daniel R. May graduated with a degree in ocean engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, in the class of 1979. During his time as the ocean engineer for the Fifth Coast Guard District, Dan worked on lighthouse projects from Delaware Bay to the Carolinas. Dan eventually moved to Civil Engineering Unit Provi...

Stamford Harbor Lighthouse in May 2023. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. The entrance to Stamford Harbor in Connecticut, on Long Island Sound, is obstructed by treacherous ledges. One of them is known as Chatham Ledge. The construction of a lighthouse to mark the dangerous location was completed in 1882. The finished tower, 3,600 feet from shore, was a fairly typical cast-iron “sparkplug&#...

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, North Carolina. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Alisa Hardin-Lapp andi “Light Hearted” host Jeremy D’Entremont. Photo by John Havel. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is one of the most visited lighthouses in the world. Offshore from Cape Hatteras is a dangerous twelve-mile long sandbar called Diamond Shoals. Countless shipwreck...

Bodie Island Light Station, North Carolina. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Bodie Island (pronounced “body”) is a long, narrow peninsula at the northern part of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The original Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1847 in a location that is now underwater. That tower was abandoned in 1859 due to its poor condition. The second lighthouse was an 80-foot...

Old Cape Henry Lighthouse, Virginia. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. There are two lighthouses at Cape Henry in Virginia, marking the south side of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. The older of the two lighthouses was built in 1792, and it was the first federally funded public works project of the newly formed United States government. It was authorized by President George Washington and ove...

The Povyshevs family with their 34-foot sailboat Ellls in the background. L to R: Valeriia, Anna, Stanislav, and Darina. This episode is dedicated to the simple pleasure of visiting lighthouses. The guests in the first interview are Anna Povyshevs (also known as Anna Fox) and her daughter Valeriia (Val). Anna is originally from Ukraine and Val was born there. Along with Anna’s husband and another...

The first-order Fresnel lens from Cape Charles Lighthouse in the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. The collection of the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, includes a vast art collection, boats from around the world, a first-order Fresnel lens from Cape Charles Lighthouse, and much more. Among the museum’s projects has been the cons...

The historic twin light station on Thacher Island, off the east side of Cape Ann in Massachusetts. is one of the small number of lighthouse sites in the U.S. that are designated National Historic Landmarks. In 1771, there were nine lighthouses in operation in North America. The original twin lighthouses built on Thacher Island in 1771 were the first built to mark a dangerous spot rather than a har...