Stan and I traveled to Maryland to see a total of eight lighthouses this past weekend. We left on Friday, May 25th and stopped to photograph the present New Castle Range Lights. I had the printout of information on these lights from Lighthousefriends.com, the source I generally use as they give coordinates for the lighthouses which I program into our GPS.

We stopped at the Front Range Light first located in New Castle, DE and met with Jeanne Butler who resides there with her husband. Jeanne, nee Cross, is the 5th generation to reside in the keeper’s dwelling since the 1930s. Jeanne & Wayne Butler have pictures showing them holding the finial that was at the tip of the original tower that was torn down by the Coast Guard in the 1960s. The Butlers intended to incorporate that finial on the keeper’s dwelling that they were renovating but determined that the workmen had inadvertently threw it into the dumpster during cleanup, so it, too, has been lost forever. The original tower was detached from the dwelling in 1886 and moved 30' west to correct the rangeline, so the HL sculpture depicts the moved light. The present steel tower shown below displays its light from 56' above mean high water. The dwelling, a well, a privy, and a brick oil house are still standing.

Jeanne and I chatted while Stan took pictures from all angles. The look on her face was priceless when I asked if she was the Jeanne Butler who moved into the dwelling in the mid-80s to care for her parents. She asked where I’d gotten that information from and I handed her the printout to which she remarked, “You mean I’m on the internet?!” When I told her Harbour Lights had just introduced a sculpture of New Castle Front Range Light and were going to follow that up with New Castle Rear Range Light, I thought she was going to burst into tears. I am really tickled that we stopped and asked permission to take photographs and the email that was waiting here for our return on Sunday indicates that she, too, is just as delighted as I am:

“I just wanted to thank you SO MUCH for visiting "our" lighthouse and giving me the information you did. We would have never, ever known anything about it.

I am going to join Harbour Lights so I can get one of our lighthouse replicas. And also going to buy the Rear Range Light replica.

Once again. Thanks so very much.

It was so nice to meet you and your husband and talk with you. Five generations of my family have lived here and I am hoping that either my granddaughter's or grandson's children one day will make it six.

Have a great cruise.

Jeanne Butler”




Next stop was to view the present New Castle Range Rear Light. The original light was displayed from a square tower that was 50' tall from its base to the focal plane of the light. Replaced by the automated beacon shown here on a 110' skeleton tower, the tower and dwelling was sold to the public. It was a rental property for a while, and a meeting hall after that, and following years of neglect and a fire, the lighthouse was condemned and eventually deliberately burned to the ground in November of 1982.



Saturday morning found us aboard one of Captain Phil Langley’s boats (Fish the Bay Charters, LLC) for a Middle Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Cruise to see six lighthouses.

First stop was Point No Point, MD which stands 2 miles from the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, and 6 miles north of Point Lookout and the entrance to the Potomac River. The first floor contained the kitchen and living space, the upper level housed bedrooms for the keepers. The watchroom is located within the mansard roof which has four gabled dormer windows. A hexagonal iron privy with a pyramidal roof is constructed such that only one end is fixed over the edge of the lower balcony. Manned by the Coast Guard until 1962 when the light was converted to an unmanned operation, the lack of live-in maintenance workers resulted in the station’s deterioration. Still an active aid to navigation, the maintenance costs led to the federal government making it available to non-profits, government agencies and other groups in May of 2006. If no agency or non-profit takes responsibility for the lighthouse, it was to be auctioned off by the GSA to private interests. I couldn’t find any current information as its status:




Hooper Island, MD was next. One of only 11 in the US that rests on top of a caisson foundation that used the pneumatic process in which a cast-iron cylinder was mounted on top of a wooden caisson containing an airtight compartment. This was towed to the construction site and water was pumped out of the chamber. Workers then shoveled sand and sludge away from the edges of the caisson and the heavy concrete and stone inside the cylinder caused the entire structure to sink.

One of only four Chesapeake lighthouses erected during the 20th century, Hooper Island LH still required human keepers and all the expensive amenities and equipment required by them. A 4-story tower topped with a watchroom and lantern room was built on the foundation to house the keepers and the station’s equipment. Although the station was completed in February of 1902, its 4th-Order Fresnel lens did not shine until June of that year.

She sits in 18' of water and her foundation extends 18' above the high waterline. The focal plane of the light is 63'. Fully automated in November of 1961, when the Coast Guard called at the lighthouse during a regular visit on September 15, 1976, it was discovered that the original 4th-Order Fresnel lens had been stolen. A solar-powered beacon was installed at that time.



Next stop was at the remains of Holland Island Bar Light, MD. Holland Island was a 160-acre island, but erosion has reduced it to 80 acres. A hexagonal screwpile light was built in 1889 to mark the approach to the Kedges Straits which pass between South Marsh Island and Smith Island. A fixed 4th-Order lens with a red panel to indicate the Straits and a fog bell completed the station. Located in the enter of the bay, its isolation made it a more difficult assignment than some of the other bay lights. The information gleaned from www.rudyalicelighthouse.net indicates there was some hanky-panky at the lighthouse that may have contributed to the mysterious death of keeper Ullman Owens in 1931.

The screwpile light survived the elements, collisions, and a rocket attack before it was dismantled by the Coast Guard in 1960. The automated beacon shown here is placed on its screwpile foundation.

Solomons Lump, MD was the next stop. The original 1875-built lighthouse at this location was a screwpile on five wrought-iron piles, square in plan, with a lantern surmounting the keeper’s dwelling. It lasted 18 years, but was destroyed by pressures from the winter ice in January of 1893. The Lighthouse Board decided that a sturdy caisson foundation was a better choice for replacement and work was initiated in April of 1895. One of the 11 light structures in the US sunk by the pneumatic process, the foundation, which has a diameter of 25' was filled with concrete to a point about 6' above the high water line. On top of this filler, two 2,000-gallon water cisterns and the cellar were constructed. The cylindrical foundation is 37' tall but only half of its length is visible above high tide. A 25' tall, octagonal brick keeper’s dwelling was built on the cylinder, but this was, it is thought, demolished in 1971. The dwelling was built around a square brick lantern tower which formed two of the eight sides of the house. A 5th-Order Fresnel lens was in use initially, but that lens was swapped for a 4th-order one from the Cherry Stone Lighthouse in VA in 1919.

Converted to unmanned status in April of 1950, when it was nominated in 1996 for registry in the National Register of Historic Places, the station was considered ineligible because the “station’s integrity was compromised when the integral keeper’s quarters was demolished.” This functional, peculiar-looking lighthouse faces an uncertain future.



Smith Point, VA was next. Over the years, four different lighthouses and multiple floating lightships have marked Smith Point and the shoals located nearby. A screwpile lighthouse was constructed in 1868 and served for 25 years. An 1895 ice storm wrenched the entire structure from its foundation and carried it away. It was decided to build a lighthouse with a massive and sturdy caisson foundation that could resist the worst of any ice. In April of 1897 its foundation was towed to the offshore site. The caisson was sunk to a depth of 15' 5" in the seabed and workers filled the caisson with concrete and piled over 700 tons of riprap stone around the base. Smith Point’s caisson stands in 24' of water and is 52' tall. The 4th-Order Fresnel lens and the fog bell apparatus from the 1895-destroyed screwpile had been recovered by divers and were installed in the new light. Built to the same specifications as the Wolf Trap Lighthouse, both stations were intended to resemble the average family dwelling of the mid-1800s.

The station became unmanned in 1971 when a 3-mile-long submarine power cable was run between the station and the shore. A 2-volt battery backup system was activated to power a small emergency light on the outside of the lantern room when the cable power was interrupted.

Auctioned off in 2005, Smith Point was sold for $170,000. The Coast Guard still maintains the beacon and the owner is required to preserve access to it. New doors and windows have been installed as shown in the following picture. Might be a unique B&B if the owner provides transportation.




Last stop on Saturday was Point Lookout, MD. Reportedly haunted, this unusual station has two porches attached to the front and back of the keeper’s dwelling and provided enough room for two lighthouse keepers and their families. In 1883 the station was made into a buoy depot, receiving coal and buoy sheds and a wharf. The new structures were taller than the bell tower and interfered with its sound, so the tower was relocated to a more advantageous spot.

Beginning in 1927, major changes were made to the lighthouse. The dwelling was enlarged to its present size and remodeled to provide two separate apartments, each with 6 rooms and a bath. A “wind-electric generating plant” was added to the station, the first such installation by the Lighthouse Service in the US. The electricity generated by the windmill was stored in an array of 16 batteries and provided light for the lighthouse beacon and the two apartments.

The lighthouse was turned over to the State of MD in 2006 in a land swap deal, Occasional daytime open houses are available as well as night “paranormal investigations.”




We passed by the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum on our way back to the motel we stayed at on Friday and Saturday nights. On the grounds of that Museum is the Cedar Point cupola which Stan photographed on Sunday morning as we were leaving for CT. Cedar Point Lighthouse was on the southern side at the mouth of the Patuxent River and marked a dangerous sand bar. It was a 3-story brick and cedar-shingle house crowned by a 50' tower housing a 4th-Order Fresnel lens. The 1.54 acres also contained a fog bell tower, oil house, boathouse, outhouse, and barn. The lighthouse was 33' in length and 27' in width with the peak of the roof rising 43' above the ground. The lantern above the wooden tower was 50' above ground level. The first story was of brick; the second story was shingled up to the line of the tops of the windows. Hastened by local sand dredging, Cedar Point quickly eroded. When the lighthouse was abandoned in 1928 by the Coast Guard, it stood on an island.

Considered too decrepit to save, the lighthouse was torn down in the late 1990s. The bell was removed to the entrance to the Patuxent Naval Air Station in 1981; the lantern room is on the grounds of the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum; the sunburst pattern of wood slats from under the eaves of the roofline is at Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, MD.



We’re off to Seattle, WA in early June and an expedition to Alaska. Plan on seeing a number of Seattle-area lights, but don’t know if the expedition route will take us near any Alaska lights.

Special hello to Judy Castleberry and Ken Reese who were along for the cruise on Saturday. Judy might have to pass along my greeting to Ken unless he’s lurking in the shadows and will read this himself.

Hope everyone enjoyed our latest excursion. . . .

Sandy

Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

This is another trip to add to my list of things to do one of these dats.

Dennis

It was neat spending time on the water with Sandy and Stan last Saturday on the Chesapeake Charm. We were a small group of 10 plus the crew, and had a great time. Since I have much the same in photos except for the Delaware lights, I won't repeat what Sandy has reported.

Phil Langley's cruise was excellent and I would highly recommend him. He is expanding his lighthouse cruises this year.

Captain Phil


This was near where we boarded,


and I already was entranced with life on the Chesapeake Bay,


A Crane tries to elude me,


Captain Phil was able to get us up close & personal to several of the lights!


Our tour organizer, Vycki, gets a turn at the wheel,


As we reluctantly leave one light, but go on towards another...


Judy

Dinner Saturday night was cream of crab soup and perfect crab cakes (no filling and only enough breading to hold them together.) No pictures...too busy enjoying the Maryland delacacies.

Sunday morning, we also visited the Cedar Point cupola and other exhibits at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, and then headed for the Calvert Marine Museum...




A sailboat race was in progress...radio controlled models,






Then off for lunch before the next lighthouse stop for...more crab cakes, of course!

Judy

Last stop for the day was Cove Point.







A great weekend!

Judy

Sandy and Judy, Great photos!!!

I too will be adding this cruise to my future lighthousing calander.

Sounds like a great trip. I would love the info for that boat ride so maybe I can plan that trip in the future.

Thanks for taking us along... it brings back alot of fond memories of our trips on and along the Chesapeake Bay!!

Judy,

You DO take some beautiful pictures. Will you teach me sometime?

bobo

Fran,

http://www.mdcharterfishing.com will get you to the page giving details, then click on charter info. He's only recently begun to offer lighthouse cruises.

Sandy

P.S. Really went out of his way to make it a thoroughly enjoyable trip.

Great photos and comentary! Thanks!

Thanks Sandy