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Headless Mt. Desert In the mid-1970s the U.S. Coast Guard removed the lantern from Maine’s Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse. This was done to make room for large rotating aerobeacons. Even though the lighthouse is located twenty miles out to sea from Mt. Desert Island, the removal of the lantern created a public outrage. However, when continuous storm damaged caused havoc with the exposed aerobeacons, in 1985 the Coast Guard reinstalled a lantern. Although this pleased the public, most could never understand why the Coast Guard destroyed the original historic lantern in the first place.

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Still Intact at Little RiverThis aerial view of Maine’s Little River Lighthouse was taken in 1956 when Robert Cale, Sr. was the Coast Guard lighthouse keeper. The roofs of both the keeper’s house and the barn appear to be in very poor condition at this time. The entire station was still intact at this time, however it wasn’t too long after this that the barn and the bell tower were demolished.

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Life Saving Exercise?This old post card was given to us a number of years ago by Lighthouse Digest subscriber Judi Kearney, but we have no idea what is going on here. It appears to be some type of life saving activity. One person is carrying lots of rope and one lady has a life ring and while the other lady is looking through binoculars, the other women is shouting through a megaphone. One man is holding a grappling hook of some kind and he is also holding a rolled up line that would be thrown to someone in distress. There is no date on the post card and the name of the publisher is not indicated. The photo appears to have been staged, and might well have been done so to somewhat recreate an actual event. If any of our readers know the story behind this old post card or have any ideas, we welcome your thoughts to Editor@LighthouseDigest.com.

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Lens WorkA lens specialist at the Staten Island Lighthouse Depot in Staten Island, New York is shown working on a Fresnel lens in 1930. Unfortunately, we don’t know what lighthouse the lens came from or where it might have been destined for. The Staten Island Lighthouse Depot was the largest lighthouse depot in nation. Unfortunately the Staten Island Lighthouse Depot was closed and abandoned years ago and left to fall into ruin. Today the new National Lighthouse Museum occupies one of the buildings at the site.

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In the ComicsThis was the last strip in a six page layout in the Treasure Chest Comic book of December 30, 1965 about the brief history of lighthouses. It really seems to sums it up.

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Lost in USVIShown here are two antique post cards of the Muhlenfeldt Point Lighthouse in the Danish West Indies. The cards appear to be identical, but reversed. One card is postmarked with a postage stamp from Denmark in 1912. In 1917-18 Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for $25 million in gold, after which it became known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. Little if anything is known about this lighthouse. If any of our readers can help to locate information about it, we’d appreciate hearing from you by mail at P.O. Box 250, East Machias, ME 04630 or by e-mail to Editor@LighthouseDigest.com.

This story appeared in the Nov/Dec 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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