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We were not aware of the opportunity to stay overnight in the lighthouse keeper’s house on Whitehead Island, off the coast of Maine, until receiving an email from friends Tom & Arlene Pregman, who had booked a room last autumn for October 11 – 13. Several of the seven bedrooms were still available, each with its own bathroom, so my wife, MJ, and I booked a room as did mutual friends Jim & Irma Streeter of Groton Connecticut. It wasn’t long before all of the bedrooms were spoken for and we were anxious with the thoughts of who we would be sharing this island sanctuary with and hoping that the weather would cooperate.
Money for Maine’s Whitehead Island Light Station was appropriated in 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president. The current 41-foot granite tower was built in 1852 and once held a third order Fresnel lens, which is now located in the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine. Today there is a 300 mm green lens operated by solar power that was installed in 2001. In 1996 the lighthouse was transferred from the USCG to Pine Island Camp, a non-profit that has done a good job with restoration of the keeper’s house, schoolhouse, and whistle house. The metal lantern room atop the granite tower needs some work and is on the to-do list of the Swan family who manage the Pine Island Camp and Whitehead Light Station.
When the time for our visit and overnight stay came, we all met at the Emery’s Wharf in Spruce Head, Maine where we were picked up by Captain Matt in BISCUIT, the Whitehead Island 32-foot lobster boat, for a short ride across the harbor to the granite dock, next to the Whitehead Island Boat House. The lighthouse was not visible from the dock on the mainland side of the island. Once our bags were loaded into a USCG trailer attached to a small tractor, we began our walk across the island up a dirt road through the dense spruce woods among a blanket of moss and ferns about a quarter mile to the light station. We arrived at the lighthouse located on the northeast corner of the island on a grassy knoll among the large granite outcroppings.
Shortly after arriving at the lighthouse, our bags were delivered to our rooms and a lunch of chicken enchiladas and salad was served with plenty of lemonade and other refreshments. We sat around the large dining room table and introduced ourselves. The guests came from CT, NY, MA, OH, RI, and as far away as Copenhagen, Denmark. It wasn’t long before our new friends felt like family and the keeper’s house felt like home.
The absence of distractions like television, computers, and cell phones allowed time to enjoy the sounds of ocean waves meeting the granite shoreline, the red squirrels chirping as they raced after one another, and the ding of a distant buoy bell. The tranquility of this island, coupled with the delicious meals and new friendships, was something I did not expect. There was plenty of time to walk along one of the trails through the woods, watch passing vessels while relaxing in Adirondack chairs, read the keeper’s logs from years gone by, view the many surrounding islands, enjoy the red flash of light from the beacon of Two Bush Island Lighthouse across the bay, and just soak up the peace of this location. On our final day we enjoyed a lobster boil down on the rocks with delicious fish chowder, corn on the cob, lobster, coleslaw, and warm apple cider. We finished with the fun of cooking marshmallows over the fire to make s’mores.
You may be a guest at Whitehead Island Light and enjoy one of the programs that they offer throughout the year or you may wish to rent the keeper’s house for your own event. Either way you must make it a point to put this jewel on your bucket list.
To learn more, visit the website
www.whiteheadlightstation.org.
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2015 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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