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Plymouth, Massachusetts is best known to the public for a famous rock and a meal shared between the local Indians and a group of newcomers. But there are two lighthouses in the vicinity of Plymouth Harbor that are as notable as any on the east coast, and lighthouse buffs can rest assured that these beacons are in the best possible hands.
Duxbury Pier Lighthouse, built in 1871 on the north side of the main channel in Plymouth Harbor to mark the dangerous shoal off Saquish Head, is locally known as “Bug Light” or simply “the Bug.” It occupies an important niche in lighthouse history as the first offshore cast iron, caisson “spark plug” type lighthouse in the United States.
The unusual coffeepot-shaped lighthouse was automated in 1964 and the keepers were removed. Over the next two decades Duxbury Pier Light fell victim to much vandalism, and seabirds made themselves at home in the interior.
In 1983, Duxbury Pier Light was slated by the Coast Guard to be replaced by a fiberglass tower much like the one that had replaced Boston Harbor’s old Deer Island Lighthouse. A group of concerned local residents formed Project Bug Light to save the structure. Aided by Congressman Gerry Studds, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and State Senator Edward P. Kirby, the group convinced the Coast Guard to alter their plans. A five-year lease was granted to the preservation committee.
Project Bug Light raised $20,000 from local businesses, as well as from sales of T-shirts and bumper stickers, a fashion show, baseball games, and raffling a painting. They used this money to restore the upper parts and the interior, including the rebuilding of the roof and the catwalk. The Coast Guard sandblasted and painted the structure and did some repair work between 1983 and 1985. Solar power replaced the older battery system.
In the late 1980s, vandals broke into the lantern room, leaving it susceptible to leaks. The weather deteriorated the wood interior so much that all the wood had to be removed, leaving bare iron walls.
After a few years Project Bug Light virtually dissolved as an organization, and the five-year lease expired. In 1993, the Coast Guard again talked of replacing the lighthouse with a fiberglass pole, or at least removing the lantern room. This time Dr. Don Muirhead of Duxbury, an avid sailor, spearheaded a new preservation effort. The Coast Guard refurbished the lighthouse in 1996.
Dolly Bicknell remembers being contacted by Don Muirhead in 1993. “He was trying to save the light once again, as the lease had been allowed to expire,” she recalls. “He asked me to become part of Project Bug Light. I was honored to be asked, but not exactly sure just what I could do to help. Soon I found out — I could scrape and paint the lighthouse. The next thing I knew I was vice president, and then president!”
Bicknell had much inspiration to draw on as she got involved with the lighthouse. “My late father-in-law, Alvin Bicknell, used to enjoy taking us sailing out to Bug Light from his home in Duxbury,” she says. “Along with many of his friends and neighbors, he was involved with the original group that saved the structure in 1983. I was quite interested in what they were doing because of what happened to Deer Island Light in Boston Harbor.”
Dolly Bicknell’s own father was a man who inspired many to become involved in preserving the maritime history of New England. He was Edward Rowe Snow — historian, storyteller, treasure hunter and for more than 40 years “Flying Santa” to lighthouse keepers and their families. Snow led the fight to save Boston Harbor’s Fort Warren in Boston Harbor as a public park, and a granite memorial to him now stands next to the fort. The removal of Deer Island Lighthouse, located close to Snow’s childhood home of Winthrop, Massachusetts, occurred just after Snow’s death in 1982. “I remember thinking how pleased my father would have been to know that a group of people were able to save a lighthouse,” says Bicknell about the rescue of “Bug Light.”
Major repairs are presently needed at Duxbury Pier Light, including replacing the roof, filling a crack in a seam, painting the red lower portion of the tower and touching up the white paint, and replacing some of the deterrents that keep the cormorants from perching on the roof and railings. Says Bicknell, “This will be a huge undertaking.” The Coast Guard has told the group that they currently have no funds to help maintain the lighthouse.
Project Bug Light is now responsible for the care of Plymouth (“Gurnet”) Light as well, and they have changed the name of the organization to match the mission. The volunteers of Project Gurnet & Bug Lights, Inc. continue to do maintenance at Duxbury Pier Light and to raise funds for the continued preservation of “The Bug.” The group’s founder, Don Muirhead, died earlier this year at the age of 69.
Plymouth Light, known to most local residents as the Gurnet Light because of its location at the end of the long peninsula called the Gurnet, also holds a special place in the memories of Dolly Bicknell. “I remember flying over the lighthouse in a small plane with my Dad when he was the Flying Santa at Christmas time,” she says. “Also, my father used to lead a group of people — the Harbor Ramblers — on adventures around New England. One of my very favorite trips as a child was by beach buggy to Gurnet Light. We traveled in an open air army-type vehicle that held perhaps 30 people, and it would bounce and jostle its way on the sandy beach. What fun it was! At the end of the ride we would all pile out and explore the Gurnet area, including the Coast Guard building where I was allowed to play pool with the Coast Guardsmen. Of course, then there was the wonderfully bumpy ride home, back over the sand — not the road that we use now.”
Like “the Bug,” the “Gurnet” Light figures prominently in lighthouse history. Built in 1843, it is the oldest wooden lighthouse tower in the nation, not including a couple of small towers built on the roofs of dwellings (Rhode Island’s Poplar Point Light and New York’s Selkirk Light). The first lighthouse on the Gurnet was erected in 1769 at a cost of 660 pounds. This structure took the form of a house with two lantern rooms on the roof, one at each end, making Plymouth the site of North America’s first “twin lights.”
The original Plymouth Light was built on the land of John and Hannah Thomas. John Thomas, later a general in the Revolution, became the first keeper of the light, and after his death Hannah Thomas became America’s first woman lighthouse keeper.
The present lighthouse is one of a pair built in 1843. In 1924, the northeast light at the Gurnet was discontinued and torn down, ending 156 years of twin lights on the site.
In the late 1980s, Plymouth Light was leased by the Coast Guard to the Massachusetts Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Volunteers lived in the 1963 ranch keeper’s house, and the property was open to overnight visitors. Caretakers Bill and Debbi Ricci were even married at the lighthouse.
The lease later reverted back to the Coast Guard. The lighthouse was moved back from the eroding cliff by the Northern Construction Service, LLC, of Hingham, Massachusetts, in December 1998. The tower was moved approximately 140 feet.
Project Gurnet and Bug Lights took responsibility for Plymouth Light in 1999. The lighthouse is now in excellent shape, as volunteers painted the first floor area last year. A window was replaced and the exterior of the tower was painted this past spring. In addition, rugosa roses and bayberry bushes were planted to guard against erosion. There are plans to paint the second floor of the interior this fall.
Automobile access to the area called the Gurnet is officially limited to residents, so the public’s best views of Plymouth Light are usually from the water. An open house was held in May 2001 as part of an Opening of the Bay festival in Duxbury, and this open house might become a regular offering.
Bicknell says that the open house met with a “great response from committee members, general public and residents of the Gurnet — many of whom had never even climbed the light before.” An added attraction at the open house was the opening of the nearby circa 1891-92 Gurnet Point Lifesaving Station, owned by Richard Boonisar. Boonisar has amassed a very impressive collection of artifacts of the U.S. Lifesaving and Lighthouse services, including an early 1940s surf boat. It’s a rare treat for history buffs to tour the station at the Gurnet.
Anyone who remembers Edward Rowe Snow knows what he would think about this group of preservationists. “I think my father would be very pleased with what has been accomplished,” says Dolly Bicknell. “I can almost feel him smiling sometimes.”
To learn more or contribute to Project Gurnet & Bug Lights, Inc.:
Project Gurnet & Bug Lights, Inc.
P.O. Box 2167
Duxbury, MA 02331
Website: www.buglight.org
Email: cindyr0713@mediaone.net
Edward Rowe Snow wrote over 100 publications about maritime history and legends. Many of his books can be found in libraries and used bookstores, and there is an effort underway to get some of his titles back into print. The Flying Santa flights, which were started by Bill Wincapaw and continued for over 40 years by Edward Rowe Snow, are still maintained by the Friends of Flying Santa; see www.flyingsanta.com
This story appeared in the
September 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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