Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse Centennial
Like many of its sister sentries on the West Coast, Lime Kiln Lighthouse had an ignoble beginning. It was an important site located along the vital route north from Puget Sound into the Strait of Georgia, the sheltered portal at the southern end of the Inside Passage to Alaska.
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Point Wilson Lighthouse
The Point Wilson Lighthouse, marking the entrance to Admiralty Inlet, was built by the Lighthouse Service. At 51 feet above the water, the lens is the highest of all the lighthouses on Puget Sound. The 1914 lighthouse replaced an earlier wooden lighthouse which was constructed in 1879. The Point Wilson Lighthouse, located in Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend, is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Washington State Heritage Register. It is one of the most important navigational aids in Washington, a link connecting Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
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Myths, Misnomers & Mistakes
This article is an attempt to correct some of the myths that have been perpetuated for some time concerning lighthouse locations, lighthouse structures and, most importantly, the illuminating apparatus used in them. I have little expectation that I will put an end to such tales, but if I can correct any of the confusion that exists about lighthouses, then this will have been a worthwhile effort.
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The Keeper's Library
About 1876, the Lighthouse Service decided it would be a good idea to provide a small library at isolated stations to improve morale. The Annual Report of that year States, "During the past year the board has collected fifty small libraries, consisting of about 40 volumes each, for use at the more isolated light stations. It is intended that each library remain about six months at a place, when it will be exchanged for another."
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St. Simons Island Lighthouse
In October 1804, John Cooper (or Couper) sold four acres of land, known as Couper’s Point to the government for one dollar. Finally, three years later, an act passed on March 3, 1807, authorizing $19,000 to build the lighthouse. This amount far exceeds funds authorized for other lighthouses in this era. As an example, in 1806 $5,000 was authorized for each of the following lighthouses: on Fairweather Island, Connecticut, and Franklin Island, Maine, and a two-towered station at Chatham, Massachusetts.
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Cape Henry Lighthouse
The tower of the old Cape Henry Lighthouse still stands, gaunt and silent, perched atop a dominating sand dune at the edge of the sea at the junction of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Though its light is gone and repairs would be helpful, it continues as a noted, familiar and ancient landmark. Such it has been since its construction was begun in 1791.
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Newport Harbor Lighthouse
No location is more emblematic of the blend—or clash, depending on how you view it—of Newport’s maritime past with modern development than Goat Island, where this modest and relatively ancient stone lighthouse stands alongside a massive hotel. For almost 350 years, Goat Island, about six-tenths of a mile long in a north-south direction and now attached to the rest of the city by a causeway, has been utilized in just about every way imaginable—from fort to hotel, torpedo station to marina, barracks to condominiums.
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Point Conception Lighthouse
One third of the way up the California coast from Mexico, the shoreline curves west and then makes an abrupt 90-degree tum north. Early on, this point of land, this cape, was termed the Cape Horn of the Pacific. One 19th century mariner sailing north in the relative calm of the Santa Barbara Channel, responded to a new seaman who thought the sailing conditions idyllic, "It may be fine now, but when we get north of Conception we'll catch hell!"
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