|
These dramatic photos, especially of the cupola, of Maine’s 133-foot-tall Boon Island Lighthouse were taken from a helicopter by long-time Lighthouse Digest subscriber Hilari Seery.
Before the first lighthouse was built on Boon Island, a British ship, the Nottingham Galley, was wrecked at Boon Island in 1710; the shipwreck story, where the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism became the basis of a famous novel by Kenneth Roberts called Boon Island.
The lighthouse was licensed by the Coast Guard to the American Lighthouse Foundation in 2000. In 2003, Timothy Harrison, then president of the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF), launched “The Republic of Boon Island” that was an idea taken from the book and movie, The Mouse That Roared. Harrison then declared himself “The Regent Lord Master.” The American Lighthouse Foundation then sold citizenship papers and political appointments to help raise money for the American Lighthouse Foundation. The spoof drew local as well as national media attention.
After Harrison left the American Lighthouse Foundation in 2007, the organization, to the dismay of many, stopped promoting the unique fund raising idea. In 2012, under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, the federal government declared the lighthouse as excess property, and ownership of the lighthouse was offered free of charge to ALF. However, ALF declined to take ownership, saying that the lighthouse would be too expensive to maintain.
In 2014, the General Services Administration put the lighthouse up for auction to the highest bidder. On August 18, 2014, it was sold to a private individual for $78,000.
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2019 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.
All contents copyright © 1995-2024 by Lighthouse Digest®, Inc. No story, photograph, or any other item on this website may be reprinted or reproduced without the express permission of Lighthouse Digest. For contact information, click here.
|
