Robert G. Bachand

Congress was quick to respond to the 1874 petition for establishing a lighthouse at the entrance of Cold Spring Harbor but it would be another 15 years before construction began. The appropriation, which amounted to $20,000, called for erecting either range lights or a lighthouse. The Light House Service preferred range lights since, it was reasoned, the beacons would allow mariners to more easily avoid the shallows on the west side of the harbor's entrance.

The March 2, 1827 appropriation of $1,500 was woefully inadequate. How could a lighthouse be constructed on Whale's Back Ledge, Portsmouth, NH, asked Fifth Auditor and Superintendent of Lighthouses Stephen Pleasonton, when others in the area of "the lowest grade," had cost no less than $5,000? Further he noted, "to the southward of New Jersey, from five to eight thousand may be estimated as the cost."

The harbor was cloaked in an early morning haze as the 28-foot Cape Dory set out for Little Gull Island; it was Ed Whitford's first visit to the lighthouse in nearly 50 years. Ed's father, Edgar M. Whitford, was appointed head keeper of Little Gull Island in October of 1929. The light house, which is located at the eastern end of Long Island Sound and is surrounded by water, had no schools available in the vicinity. Thus, for the most part, the family resided at their Warwick, RI, home and spent only their summers and school vacations at the light station.