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 do…

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 1…

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 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 activ…

Joseph Hindley and his daughter Betty. Courtesy of Betty Hindley Hatzikon. Joseph Hindley had a long career as a lighthouse keeper that spanned from the late 1920s to 1972, when he retired as the last civilian keeper in the New England region. He served at offshore stations early in his career: Whale Rock (RI), Butler Flats (MA), and Sakonnet Point…

Manitowoc North Breakwater Lighthouse, USLHS photo by Tom Tag The city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is on the west shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Manitowoc River. The Manitowoc North Breakwater Lighthouse, built in 1918, is one of the area’s most familiar icons. The lighthouse property was auctioned by the federal government in 2010 under …

Cape Canaveral Lighthouse on Florida’s east coast is owned by the United States Space Force and maintained as an active aid to navigation by the Coast Guard. Visits to the lighthouse are made available by the nonprofit Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation. The Foundation completed the construction of a new replica keeper’s house in 2019. Funding ha…

This is an edited version of an interview first heard in episode 21 in August 2019. Halfway Rock Lighthouse is a 76-foot granite tower built in 1871 on a windswept ledge far out in Maine’s Casco Bay. The property was bought at auction in 2014 by entrepreneur Ford Reiche. Ford Reiche in 2017; photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. His amazing restoration has …

To celebrate the 300th episode of this podcast, host Jeremy D’Entremont spoke with almost every person who’s served as a co-host in the past five-plus years. He asked each person a simple question – What has been your most memorable lighthouse experience? The answers are all over the map, which points out that there are an infinite number of ways t…

Nick Korstad Nick Korstad, who is originally from Portland, Oregon, fell in love with lighthouses when he was in middle school. When Borden Flats Light in Fall River, Massachusetts, came up for sale via government auction in 2010, Nick saw a great opportunity. He achieved his dream of public access when he opened the lighthouse for overnight stays …

Lightship Overfalls, photo by Jeremy D'EntremontThe Lightship Overfalls, more properly known as the LV-118 or the WAL 539, was the last lightship built under the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Built in East Boothbay, Maine, in 1938, the 116-foot-long vessel incorporated the latest features of lightship design at the time. The LV-118 saw duty in several l…

Henry and Chris with two of their grandkidsThis is part two of a two-part interview with Henry Gonzalez, who became the president of the U.S. Lighthouse Society this past spring after 25 years in a vice presidential role. Chris and Henry at Fastnet Lighthouse in Ireland.Henry has lighthouses in his blood. He’s the great-great-grandson of a lighthou…

Henry Gonzalez and his wife, Chris, at Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, Maryland.This week's guest, Henry Gonzalez, was the U.S. Lighthouse Society's Vice President for East Coast Operations from 1999 until 2006. He assumed a broader role as the Society's sole Vice President until March 2024, when he began a four-year term as president. Henry also se…

Jeremy D'Entremont and Malcom Rouse at Owls Head Light Station in 1988. Photo by Charlotte Raczkowsi.The three interviews heard in this episode date back to the summer of 1988, when Light Hearted host Jeremy D'Entremont traveled up the Maine coast to visit lighthouses. The first interview is with Maurice Babcock Jr., at his home in Lubec, Maine. Hi…

Christian Taber is a 17-year-old high school student and athlete living in Upstate New York. Christian is a speaker, author, and entrepeneur. A passion for lighthouses has figured heavily in his work. Christian has written for the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s journal “The Keeper’s Log” and for our news blog.As the founder and CEO of NavigatorTeen, Chr…

The badly rusted lantern was lifted off the building for restoration in 2013. (Courtesy of Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse)Three-acre Cedar Island is on the South Fork of Long Island, New York, on the approach to Sag Harbor, which was a busy whaling port in the first half of the nineteenth century. A wooden lighthouse was established on Ceda…

The town of Scituate, Massachusetts, on Boston’s South Shore, developed a significant fishing industry by the late 1800s. A stone lighthouse tower was built at Cedar Point, and it began service in April 1812. A major restoration of the lighthouse has taken place over the past two years. Bob Gallagher spoke at the event on August 7Much work on the l…

Rose Island Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D'EntremontLocated a mile offshore from Newport, Rhode Island, is Rose Island Lighthouse, which began service in 1870. It consists of an octagonal lighthouse tower rising from the west side of a mansard roof on top of a one-and-one-half-story wooden keeper's dwelling. The light lost its importance as a naviga…

Suellen Wedmore and a first-order Fresnel lens on display at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachuetts.Melanie CorreiaSuellan Wedmore‘s poetry has appeared in many publications and she has won numerous awards, including first place in both the Writer’s Digest Rhyming and the Non-Rhyming Poem contests. The poems in Suellen’s book A Fixed White…

The fog bell house at Pemaquid Point after the storms of January 2024The lighthouse tower at Pemaquid Point in the town of Bristol, Maine, was built in 1835, which makes it one of the oldest on the New England coast. The historic fog bell building at Pemaquid Point was badly damaged by storms in January – the same storms that damaged more than 20 l…

Key West Lighthouse, courtesy of KWAHSKey West Lighthouse has stood as a well-loved landmark in one of America’s most colorful cities since 1848, when it replaced an earlier lighthouse that began service in early 1826. The original tower was destroyed by a hurricane in 1846. The tower that stands today is constructed of brick and stands 73 feet tal…

Larry Wright is a national gold medal award winning photographer who has been involved with lighthouse preservation since 1991. He was on the Board of Directors for the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association based in Mackinac, Michigan, for 20 years. Larry has co-written four books about lighthouses on the Great Lakes along with his wife Pat. T…

Piney Point Lighthouse and keepers house, Maryland. Photo by Jeremy D'EntremontThis episode has three segments. In the first, photographer Pete Lerro describes a photo workshop he will be leading in Maine in October. In the third segment, Judianne Point discusses some exciting happenings at Chatham Light in Massachusetts and Beavertail Light in Rho…

Concord Point Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D'EntremontConcord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace, Maryland, was built in 1827. That makes it the second oldest standing lighthouse in the state. The conical, 36-foot tower was built of stone that was barged down the Susquehannah River from Port Deposit. In 1918, the light was automated. After that, the…

Thomas Point Shoal LighthouseThe Annapolis Maritime Museum and Park, or AMM, is devoted to teaching people about the area’s maritime heritage and Chesapeake Bay ecology through exhibits, programs, and events. The museum is also the starting point for public tours of Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, a national historic landmark. Interviewed in this ep…

Ida LewisThis is an edited version of an interview first heard in episode 48 in February 2020. The guest is author Lenore Skomal.Ida Lewis was possibly the most famous lighthouse keeper in American history. She was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1842. She became the official keeper at Lime Rock in Newport Harbor in 1879 and held the position for…

Sea Girt LighthouseBefore Sea Girt Light was established in 1896, there was a long stretch of more than 38 miles with no lighthouses on the New Jersey coast from the Navesink Twin Lights south to Barnegat Light. In addition to helping coastal maritime traffic, the lighthouse served to aid mariners entering Sea Girt Inlet and Wreck Pond. The design …

Terry RowdenThis is an edited version of an interview that originally appeared in Light Hearted episode 25 in September 2019. Terry Rowden, a native of Michigan, served as a keeper at Little River Light Station in Cutler, Maine, for the U.S. Coast Guard from 1968 to 1970. Almost four decades later, when the Friends of Little River Lighthouse was fo…

Cape May Lighthouse, New Jersey. USLHS photo by James Hill.Cape May Lighthouse stands at the southern tip of the state of New Jersey, on the north side of the entrance to Delaware Bay. The first lighthouse on the site was built in 1823, and the second in 1847. The locations of the first two lighthouses are now underwater. The extant 157-foot brick …

This installment features highlights from an interview that was originally recorded in March 2019. Matt Rosenberg is a high school English teacher and also the seasonal caretaker and modern day keeper of the famous Cape Neddick Light Station in York, better known as the Nubble Light.Nubble Light Station, York, MaineThe light station is owned by the…

Drum Point LighthouseCove Point LighthouseThe exhibits at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland, focus on maritime heritage and the natural history of the Chesapeake Bay. On the museum grounds is Drum Point Lighthouse, a cottage-style screw-pile structure that was originally located on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent Riv…

This is an edited version of an interview first recorded in 2019 and appearing in Light Hearted episode 26. Eric Jay Dolin is the author of 14 books and dozens of articles on American history. The book that’s discussed in this interview is the acclaimed Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse, published in 2016.C. Douglas Kroll, in …

Seven Foot Knoll LighthouseLocated in the inner harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, Historic Ships IN Baltimore celebrates more than 200 years of Maryland's naval and maritime history. The site’s attractions include the sloop-of-war Constellation, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. Among the other highlights are the…

Borden Flats Lighthouse in Fall River, Massachusetts, was bought in 2011 by Nick Korstad under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, and Nick fixed it up and opened it up to the public for overnight stays. In 2018, it was bought by Kevin Ferias, who has continued to operate it as a very successful B&B. It’s now for sa…

Sandy Hook Light Station, photo by Jeremy D'Entremont.The lighthouse that stands at the end of the long spit of land known as Sandy Hook, on the approach to New York Harbor, began service in 1764, making it the oldest standing lighthouse tower in the United States. The octagonal rubblestone tower stands 103 feet tall.Tom HoffmanThe light remains ac…

Horton Point Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D'EntremontHorton Point Lighthouse is on the north side of eastern Long Island, New York, in the area known as the North Fork. The granite and brick building consists of a two floor keeper’s dwelling attached to a square, 59-foot-tall lighthouse tower. The building was nearly demolished after World War II, b…

Dianne BallonLocated in the historic shipbuilding city of Bath, Maine, the Maine Maritime Museum includes exhibits dedicated to the past, present, and future of Maine's storied waterways. For lighthouse buffs, there’s an exhibit called “Into the Lantern: A Lighthouse Experience.” Opening this past February, the exhibit “Lost and Found: Sounds of th…

Sally and Wayne WheelerThis is part two of a two part interview with Wayne and Sally Wheeler, recorded in Washington state in March 2024. Wayne is a former Coast Guard officer who founded the U.S. Lighthouse Society in San Francisco in 1984, and he is now the president emeritus of the Society.The idea for the formation of the Society blossomed when…

Wayne Wheeler in 1983The name Wayne Wheeler has become synonymous with lighthouse preservation and education. He’s one of the pioneers of the lighthouse preservation movement and one of the foremost experts on lighthouse history in the U.S. A 1962 graduate of Syracuse University, Wayne spent 23 years in the Coast Guard in the aids to navigation fie…

Edward Peppitt is the southeast England representative for the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, or ALK, and he produces and hosts a podcast called Keeping Watch. He’s also a fundraising ambassador for Shift MS, a charity aimed at keeping multiple sclerosis sufferers as active as possible. Ed Peppitt at Happisburgh Lighthouse in England.Ed has wri…

Gene Davis with a fourth-order Fresnel lens from New Dungeness Lighthouse, Washington.The Coast Guard Museum Northwest, located on an active Coast Guard base on the waterfront in Seattle, Washington, opened in 1976. The museum serves as a showcase for some of the Coast Guard’s most important stories, lessons, and accomplishments, and the museum’s e…

Tony Ashdon (left) with Light Hearted host Jeremy D'Entremont. Photo by John LopezThe guest in this episode, Tony Ashdon, spent 22 years in the Coast Guard including some time as a lighthouse keeper. Tony spent some years on an aids to navigation team that serviced lighthouses and other aids in District One, in the northeastern U.S. He was also par…

The podcast "The Lighthouse Lowdown" was launched in 2022 by two residents of Kansas City, Missouri, Emily Straight and Vince Bailey. To date they have published almost 50 episodes, covering history, spooky stories, and all the "things that make lighthouses cooler than your average tower."Emily Straight and Vince Bailey at Roanoke Marshes Lighthous…

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 …

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 …

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 17th 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 appr…

We've produced almost 300 episodes of the podcast Light Hearted in 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 f…

Dani and Guin doing what they loveThere 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 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 bas…

Whale Rock Lighthouse (U.S. Coast Guard)Walter Eberle with his wife AgnesWhale 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 dif…