posted 08-22-2000 03:01 PM            

Wednesday morning when we woke up it was raining, not looking good at all. Then it
started to clear, then it poured again. But thankfully it once again cleared up and turned out to be really nice.

We left the motel to meet Lucky and Rob at Isle La Motte. To do this we returned to
Alburg on Rt. 2, this time taking Rt. 129 which which went west then north. Turning
west again we crossed another bridge to Isle La Motte. Turning right on Shrine Rd.
brought us to a junction with a dirt road which was the meeting place.

As we were early we went left to check out St. Anne’s Shrine a short ways down. There
is a beautiful outdoor chapel and way up the hill is where the monks live I guess. On the
lake side of the road in a lovely setting on the lakeshore is a Stations of the Cross area
with a sign that says “no picnicing in here”. There were however, just beyond, picnic tables for that. Fort St. Anne was the site of the first white settlement in Vermont (1666). The French named all their forts after Saints. There is also a statue here honoring Sam Champlain. As no one knew exactly what he looked like the scultptor had to guess. I think he looks pretty gallant. One of his Indian buddies is also commemorated.

Pictures here:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=39476&a=8073133

We returned to the meeting place and after a short wait along came Lucky and Rob! We
followed them to the end of the dirt road and stopped while Lucky hopped out of the car
to open the gate. Lucky is a very spry “early 80’s”. Rob is his only son. We parked and got ourselves all introduced while Lucky went into the keepers house for the key to the tower having said, “It was raining like hell when we left home”!

The first light on Isle La Motte dates to 1829. It was a private light displayed in an
upstairs window of a stone house which we had passed on Shrine Rd. Unfortunately I
neglected to take a picture of it. The first light authorized by the Lighthouse Board at the current site was a lantern atop a stone pryamid which was tended by a local farmer. The current light was constructed in 1881, a 25’ cast iron light painted red but which is now faded. Its focal plane was 46 feet and it displayed a fixed white light in a 6th order lens visible for 13 miles. The light was replaced by a light in a steel skeletal tower in 1933. The separate farmhouse style keepers house remains, as does the fog bell, oil house and
a combination woodshed/privy.

Lucky returned with the key and we entered the tower, Lucky showing I.O. how the
sections are bolted together. Rob went up first, then me, then I.O. who had no choice as Lucky was waiting behind him. Just a couple ladder type sections here are the way up. Rob pointed out the hooks where the curtains once hung to protect the lens. Then we crawled out onto the walkway. I asked Lucky how he came to own the light. He told us that his Dad bought it in 1949. They had owned a very small cabin just down the road at the time. Lucky said his sister had gone to the dentist one day “to get her teeth fixed” and the dentist asked her if she wanted to buy a lighthouse. She still lives here in the keepers house. The original property was only about an acre but subsequent land purchases have substantually increased the property so that the grounds occupy the whole northwest point of the island. The house faces west affording a magnificent view of the lake and the NY mainland. Lucky and Rob stated that their taxes had gone up quite a bit lately as a new elementary school was needed on the island, for 36 kids! We went back
down and checked out the oil house. It and the base of the tower are used for storage.
Rob explained the daymark on the steel tower, saying that the Vermont towers have a
black and white diamond shape, this one with an “M” on it for La Motte. The New York
towers, he said were marked red and white. I snapped a few pictures and we were off.

More pictures here:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=39476&a=8073193

I.O. and I followed Lucky and Rob, leaving Isle La Motte and returning to Alburg. We
headed north along the western edge of the peninsula and taking Rt.2 again, back-tracked
west to Windmill Point Rd. We turned left onto this road and continued until Lucky and Rob took a right onto a road that just petered out but - these guys just kept on going! As the car was jumping up and down I.O. and I were saying, “Where the heck are they going?” We were heading straight for the lake when they turned left and proceeded to drive across the front yards of at least half a dozen fancy houses! The lake was directly on our right, like right there! Some of these folks have huge boulders positioned so that you had to drive between them. Suddenly we stopped as we’d reached another gate. It’s a two person gate
this time so both Lucky and Rob had to jump out to open it.

After we parked and remarked on the unconventional roadway Lucky explained that he was not able to purchase additional property and that the new homeowners were forced to give him a right-of-way to the light.

Windmill Point Lighthouse is the third of the “Three Sisters” constructed in 1858. It is a 40’ octagonal blue limestone tower with a focal plane of 52’. Its lantern room panes are trapezoidal as are the other two. The light was a fixed white in a 6th order lens visible for 13 miles. The attached keepers house, although similar in style to the other “sisters”, is made of the same stone instead of being a wooden dwelling. This light remained active until 1931 when it was replaced by a skeletal tower.

Rob told us that the small wooden addition was constructed around 1900 and served as a
kitchen. Previously the kitchen had been in the front portion of the house. Oil and wood
storage was in the passageway. They have added the porch in the above picture
which faces the lake. They have also enclosed the back porch.

As we went inside the house we could see that a good bit of remodeling was underway. The downstairs is basically two rooms front and rear and they are chock full of old furniture as the upstairs is being worked on presently. Both rooms have fireplaces, the back one original. The kitchen addition has had the yellow paint removed from the common wall to reveal the stone as it had previously been an exterior wall. There is no electricity, so everything, including the lights is fueled by gas. Upstairs there are two bedrooms plus two smaller rooms. The walls and ceilings have been prepped but Rob said they still have to remove the paint from the wooden floors to match those on the first floor.

Going downstairs again we moved to the passageway where a modern bath is in the
process of being installed. Then we went into and climbed the tower which is solid
granite. It is nice and bright as the walls have been painted white. We did not go
outside this time. Rob pointed out vents in the lantern room that were used to regulate
the flame of the lamps. We noticed that one of the window panes is broken and Rob said
he has to go outside to fix it as there is a metal frame out there that has to come out. The view was spectacular, 270 degree water view!

Now these guys do everything. They kept saying, “We have to do this and we have to do
that.” About the only thing that they no longer do is the lawn. Rob said it was actually less expensive to have the lawns done than for them to have to maintain the equipment, etc. Lucky was a machinist, later working in the purchasing department for a company until they closed. He worked there 50 years! Rob has a machine shop business in their home. So they are two handy fellows.

Once again I asked how they came to own this light. Lucky said that in 1963 he was
going to show his bride-to-be the old railroad trestle at Alburg when his Dad said, “Why don’t you show her the lighthouse too?” As they were walking out to the light the owner approached them and said, “Are you the folks who are interested in buying the
lighthouse?” So Lucky bought it for his bride.

As I took my pictures we noticed that it was clouding up quite a bit. The forecast was for more rain in the early afternoon. We said goodbye to Lucky and Rob and thanked them for taking the time to show us their lighthouses. What a thrill it was, and to have met such great people!

More pictures here:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=39476&a=8073134

Returning to Rt. 2 we stopped in the town of Alburg for lunch. There are no restaurants
so we got a sub from the local deli/grocery and ate it on the front porch. Alburg and the Islands are pretty rural, mostly farms and tourists in the summer. Winters are for ice fishermen.

Now we high-tailed it back through N. Hero, Grand Isle and S. Hero crossing into
mainland Vermont. We picked up Rt. 7 South heading for Burlington. Somehow we
must have gotten a bit off track as I was driving and hit a bunch of stop signs. This was after a bit of contruction delay. This is when I.O. got a little cranky. All turned out well as we hit the main drag again. On my left I noticed what seemed to be a restaurant that looked just like Colchester Reef but wider. No chance for a picture though. We drove straight through Burlington taking Bay Rd. west then Harbor Rd. north to the Shelburne Peninsula. This is where I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Juniper Island Lighthouse. Juniper Island is pretty far out and I’m not sure if I’m seeing it or something called Rock
Dunder. In any event I don’t see any lighthouse.

Juniper Island light has been owned by the same family since 1952. A fire destroyed the
keepers house 10 years later. I understand that improvement have recently been made to
the other outbuildings. Jeremy D’Entremont says that he is hoping to get over to see this light in September. This was the first light built on Lake Champlain (1826) and the
island also served as a depot for the other lights.

You can read more about this light here:
http://www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/light/juniper.htm http://lighthouse.cc/juniperisland/index.html

Returning down Harbor Rd. takes you to the entrance of Shelburne Farms. Shelburne
Farms was a model agricultural estate founded in 1886 by Dr. William Seward. His wife was a Vanderbilt. Their eldest son married Electra Havemeyer who founded the
Shelburne Museum. Interesting but no time to stop. You can read its story here:
http://www.shelburnefarms.org/

Returning to Rt. 7 we arrived at the museum around 3:15pm. Admission to the museum
is $17.50 which gets you in two days. After 2:30pm it costs $8.75. If you have a good
camera you can actually take a picture from the highway, as it’s that close. As we only
wanted to see the lighthouse and the Ticonderoga this is the deal for us. The sky had cleared beautifully. We all know the story of the Colchester Reef Lighhouse so I won’t bother to repeat it here.

You can go into the lighthouse but not into the lantern room, maybe because the lens is still there. There is a small musuem inside including a room that shows details of its contruction and of its move. Somehow, after the morning tour this seemed like no big deal.

More pictures here:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=39476&a=8085176

The Ticonderoga was the last of the steam powered paddlewheelers on Lake Champlain.

She plied the waters of the lake from 1906 to 1953. In all there were 29 of these boats
the earliest dating from 1809. The Ti was moved overland from Shelburne Bay to the
museum in 1955, a distance of over 4 miles. Ralph Nading Hill’s book has a detailed
description of this feat. The boat is kept in beautiful condition and you can walk all over it.

Another photo here with the lighthouse in the background:
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=39476&a=775388&p=26775642&Sequence=1

As it’s really hot now we decided to call it a day. Heading north a bit on Rt. 7 we found
a room at Days Inn where I couldn’t seem to get any cold water out of the facet. Dinner
at the Sirloin Saloon a bit further north was good. Feeling adventurous I ordered bison. It does not taste like chicken!

Tomorrow we head for home after seeing 8 of the 10 lights, not bad at all.

But then, could there be another light to see?