Alcatraz Island Light - California

A naval officer was dispatched to Paris to buy eight Fresnel lenses. The officer purchased the first two lenses. Both of the third-order, and had them shipped to San Francisco, where they arrived in the fall of 1853. Finally locating someone to install the lens on the Alcatraz tower, the keeper touched the lucerne to the wick on the evening of June 1, 1854, and the West Coast had its first light.

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[This message has been edited by Randy Kremer (edited 06-01-2002).]

Scotch Cap Light - Alaska

Scotch Cap Light on the Pacific side of the pass, went into use on June 18, 1903, and was Alaska's first coastal lighthouse.

For more information and pictures of the...on, click here!

Sandy Hook Light - New Jersey

On the evening of June 11, 1764, the keeper trudged up the steps of the recently completed Sandy Hook Lighthouse and lit its oil lamps for the first time.

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Boston Light - Massachusetts

The first lighthouse built in the United States was the Boston Lighthouse. In was completed in 1716. On June 13, 1776, the British fleet blew up the tower before leaving Boston. It was not replaced until after the war.

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Congress Orders the Inspection of 1838

One outgrowth of this inspection was the introduction of professional seaman on a high level to look into the lighthouse situation. An act of June 7,1838, divided the Atlantic Coast into six districts and the Great Lakes into two. The act designated that a naval officer be assigned to each district, and that he report on the condition of aids to navigation in his district and select sites for new lighthouses.

Compensation for Lightkeepers

For many years the Lighthouse Service had no retirement system. Congress remedied this situation on June 20, 1918, when it passed an act that permitted retirement at age sixty-five with thirty years of service and compulsory retirement at age seventy. Only field employees were affected, but they could get up to three-quarters of their annual salary.

Minot's Ledge - Massachusetts

After the destruction of the original Minot's Ledge in a storm in 1851, the Lighthouse Board decided a stone tower should go up on Cohasset Rocks in the same location as the old skeleton tower, and General Joseph G. Totten of the Lighthouse Board submitted drawings that were followed almost to the letter in final construction. On June 20, 1855, work on the new edifice began. The workmen removed the stumps of the old tower and cut away the ledge to prepare a foundation for the stone base of the tower. Eight iron poles sunk in the old holes and running through the lower courses acted as a frame to hold the foundation stones in place. Two-inch, galvanized-iron bonding bolts and cement further held the courses of granite stones in place. This solid foundation rose up to forty feet, and an additional forty feet comprised the living, working, and storage space of the lighthouse.

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Cape Florida Light - Florida

In 1861, "a band of lawless persons" destroyed the illuminating apparatus, and the Cape Florida Lighthouse could not be restored until 1866. It remained in service until June 15, 1878, when the light was superseded by a new lighthouse at Fowey Rocks. Years later the abandoned tower became part of Cape Florida State Park, and in 1978 the Coast Guard re-established a light on it.

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Cape San Blas Light - Florida

The Lighthouse Board asked Congress for funds to erect a skeleton tower here after the last tower fell in the sea in 1882. Receiving the appropriation, the board erected the tower between 400 and 500 yards from the shoreline and lighted it on June 30, 1885. The third-order lens was eighty-five feet above sea level.

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Spectacle Reef Light - Michigan

Lighted in June, 1874, the light tower has served well through the years, and today the light exhibits a maximum candlepower of 400,000. For over 100 years this light has guided lake vessels past the dangerous reef and toward the Straits of Mackinac which lead into Lake Michigan.

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Santa Barbara Lighthouse - California

Built in 1856, it was one of a string of sixteen lights established by the U.S. government along the 2,500-mile western seaboard during the years following the California Gold Rush.

Shortly before dawn on the morning of June 29, 1925, an earthquake damaged the lighthouse beyond repair. It was never replaced.

Narrows Lighthouse - Massachusetts

Built in 1856, the Narrows Lighthouse stood on a sandy spit extending more than 3 miles into the harbor from Great Brewster Island. Its beacon was intended not so much to mark the spit itself as to warn ships away from Hardings Ledge, a deadly obstacle about 4 miles out. The dangers of the ledge were such that part of the spit came to be called "Dead Man's Cove" because of the number of bodies that washed up there.

The station's last keeper was Tom Small, who also took care of maintenance. One June day in 1929, Small was burning faded paint off the walls with a blowtorch and accidently set the station on fire. Unable to snuff out the flames, he finally had to take to the water and watch the station burn. It was never replaced.

Eldred Rock Light - Alaska

The station was originally scheduled for completion in 1905, but weather conditions repeatedly hampered the work. Finally lighted on June 1, 1906, Eldred Rock Light Station was the last major lighthouse commissioned in Alaska during the 1902-1906 surge of lighthouse construction.

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Fowey Rocks Light - Florida

The light at Fowey Rocks Lighthouse was lit for the first time on June 15, 1878. Both the lantern and lens had already been seen by thousands of people. The Lighthouse Board featured them both as part of a special display at one of the greatest exhibitions of the century - the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial.

For more information and pictures, click here!


[This message has been edited by Randy Kremer (edited 06-24-2002).]