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Depot Dispatch
Maine’s Governor John Baldacci to attend Grand Opening of the Museum of Lighthouse History
Public invited to the Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
The newly expanded Museum of Lighthouse History in Wells, Maine, will celebrate its Grand Opening and Dedication on National Lighthouse Weekend, August 6 and 7. There will be events all weekend long including a Yard Sale for Lighthouse Preservation, hot dogs, hourly raffle and door prizes, a silent auction on both days, balloons, a coloring contest for the kids, a Saturday Evening Dinner with raffles and auction, and much more.
Donations of good quality items are needed for the Yard Sale for Lighthouse Restoration and can be sent to the Museum of Lighthouse History, 2190 Post Rd., U. S. Rt. One, P. O. Box 889, Wells, Maine 04090.
There will be an evening dinner for lighthouse enthusiasts to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Museum on Saturday evening at 6 PM at Jonathan’s Restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine. Cost of dinner tickets is $30.00 per person. Please RSVP at 207-646-0245. Members and the public are invited, however space is limited so be sure to RSVP early..
Serial # 1 of Maine’s Halfway Rock Lighthouse by Harbour Lights will be auctioned off at the museum at 1 PM on Sunday. You do not need to be present to bid; bids can be e-mailed to Dee@LHDigest.com by sending your name, mailing address and maximum bid by Friday August 5, 2005.
The actual ribbon cutting ceremony will take place on National Lighthouse Day, Sunday, August 7 at 11 am. With Maine’s Governor John Baldacci in attendance, along with State Representative Ron Collins, and other local and state dignitaries, your attendance is requested and needed to show support for the lighthouse preservation movement.
Volunteers are also needed. To volunteer E-mail ALF@LighthouseFoundation.org. More details of the events will be posted at www.LighthouseFoundation.org as they become available, or FMI call 207-646-0245.
New Lighthouse Movie to be released.
"Yours, Mine and Ours," starring Dennis Quaid, Jerry O’Connell, Linda Hunt, and Rip Torn, is scheduled to be released this fall or early next year to movie theaters nationwide. Basically, it’s a remake of the 1968 movie by the same name that starred Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. One difference is that Dennis Quaid’s character is a Coast Guard Admiral instead of a Navy Admiral. Also, instead of taking place in San Francisco, it takes place in New London, Connecticut. The story centers around the large family, dad, mom, a housekeeper and 18 children moving into an old run-down, dilapidated, lighthouse simply because it was the only large structure that could house the entire newly combined family. In the midst of restoring the lighthouse, chaos ensues in this entertaining comedy made for the entire family.
Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Celebration
Michigan’s Point aux Barques Lighthouse will hold its second annual Heritage Day’s Festival on August 13 and 14. The light tower will be open for tours and there will be a Civil War Encampment, a catered diner on Saturday night, a silent auction, vendors and entertainment for young people. The lighthouse is located seven miles north of Port Hope, Michigan, in the upper part of the state’s thumb. All funds raised go to the restoration of the lighthouse.
Ontonagon Lighthouse Journal Available
There are a limited number of copies of the original hand-written journal containing the daily activities of Thomas Stripe who kept the Ontonagon Lighthouse from 1864-1883 and James Corgan who kept the light from 1883-1919. Copies are available for $30.00 plus $5.00 shipping from the Ontonagon Lighthouse Historical Society, P.O. Box 92, 422 River St., Ontonagon, MI 49953.
Pomham Rocks Restoration Underway
Thanks to the efforts of the American Lighthouse Foundation and its Friends of Pomham Rocks chapter along with a partnership with ExxonMobil, restoration of Rhode Island’s Pomham Rocks Lighthouse has now started. Look for more news on this in the next issue of Tower Notes the official publication of the American Lighthouse Foundation, (ALF). If you are not yet a member of ALF, membership is available online at www.LighthouseFoundation.org.
Avery Point to be relit
Thanks to the efforts of the Avery Point Lighthouse Society, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, Connecticut’s newly restored Avery Point Lighthouse will be rededicated and re-lit in a gala ceremony now tentatively planned for September 24, 2005. The commemorative brick walkway is now under construction and is expected to be completed in time for the ceremony. Updates will be posted on the ALF web site at www.LighthouseFoundation.org.
Rockland Breakwater Light-to-Light Art Festival
Artists are needed for the Light-to-Light Festival to benefit Maine’s Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation. The event will take place on August 20 from 8 AM to 3 PM and, the rain date will be the following day. Artists may choose any location around the Rockland Harbor as their subject and the painting must be completed the day of the festival. The auction to sell the paintings will be held at the Samoset Resort in Rockland, Maine on August 21 starting at 4 PM. The auction is open to the public and there will be light refreshments and a cash bar. For more information, go to www.LighthouseFoundation.org and then click on the Rockland Breakwater chapter.
New Maine Lighthouse Museum Opens
In a gala Grand Opening Ceremony, Phase One of the new Maine Lighthouse Museum opened this past June 25, on Rockland’s historic waterfront. The museum, founded by former Coast Guardsman, Ken Black, has the largest collection of Fresnel lenses and other lighthouse equipment under one roof of any museum in the United States. Although it will be nearly one year before all the items will be on display, what is already on display is extremely impressive. The layout and design of the exhibits are first class. You will want to make this a "must see" this year to view first hand the expanding museum. Lighthouse Depot operates the large gift shop inside the new museum.
DeTour Gets Award
Michigan’s DeTour Reef Lighthouse has received the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation. The DeTour Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society are to be congratulated for an amazing restoration project. To learn more about the lighthouse, visit www.DRLPS.com.
Coast Guard Tug Sailors
The Coast Guard Tug Sailors Association will be holding their 2nd annual Reunion this August 14 & 15, in New London, CT. FMI contact C. A. Schwaab at 401-364-1004 or email him at snsschwaab@cox.net.
Passing
Robert E. Cahill, who wrote many books about New England’s maritime history, including lighthouses, has passed away at age 70. Before writing his many books, including one on lighthouses, Cahill had served for many years as Sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts.
Kids Saving White Island
The Lighthouse Kids, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, recently presented the Governor of New Hampshire with a check for $110,000 to begin the restoration of the Isles of Shoals Lighthouse on White Island, New Hampshire. The lighthouse has been listed by Lighthouse Digest as the most endangered lighthouse in New England. The check represented the first phase of the money the Lighthouse Kids have raised through private and corporate donations. They are still in the process of raising an additional $190,000 to complete the restoration. The State of New Hampshire, which has a proven track record of being a poor steward of preservation, was given the lighthouse by the Coast Guard a number of years ago. Later, state officials said they were unaware that by being given the lighthouse they would also have to maintain it, and there was no money in the state budget. The Lighthouse Kids was then formed to try to save the lighthouse. It’s amazing that the "Kids" could do what government officials could not.
Marquette to get Makeover
Michigan’s Marquette Harbor Lighthouse will get a makeover thanks to a $40,000 grant from the Waterfront Redevelopment Grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The Coast Guard licensed the historic structure in 2002, to be used as a maritime museum.
Saving a Light Causes Problems
Saving Wisconsin’s North Point Lighthouse near Milwaukee is no easy task, especially when some local residents oppose the plans. It seems some of the well to do neighbors of the lighthouse feel that restoration will draw too many tourists to their neighborhood. What do you think?
Fog Horn Stopped
The Canadian Coast Guard’s inability to silence a mechanically operated foghorn when there was no fog lead to it being silenced forever. Complaints from some residents in the nearby upscale Bishops Landing development in Halifax Harbor near Georges Island that the foghorn was always on and was annoying them caused the Canadian Coast Guard to deactivate the foghorn on Georges Island. And, another part of lighthouse history has been silenced forever.
Tours Shut Down
Public tours at Canada’s Flowerpot Lighthouse were discontinued when the local volunteer group was told by the government that they must lease the lighthouse and provide for their own liability insurance if tours were to continue. The group refused, feeling that it was not their responsibility to provide insurance. One member said they should not be put in the position of possibly being sued out of existence. Unbelievable!
However, a recent agreement seems to have been reached with government officials and the lighthouse will again be open to the public.
Pontchartrain Looking For Info
The historical group working to restore and save Tchefuncte River Light Station near Madisonville, Louisiana, is looking for the names of the keepers who served at the lighthouse from 1912 through 1920. If you can help them or guide them to someone who can, contact Jerry Andrews at jpa_70471@yahoo.com
Last E-News Trivia Question
The trivia question of the last Depot Dispatch was, "To squelch rumors of buried treasure, in the mid 1930’s, the government hired a man to spend a full year on this island to search for the treasure. What is the name of the lighthouse on the island?" The correct answer was Seguin Island Lighthouse in Maine. Unfortunately, no correct answers were submitted.
This Issue’s Trivia Question
I was once a twin lighthouse. In the 1920s, I was moved to replace another lighthouse, which once had two other identical lighthouses. What was my name at the time I was moved? Send your answer along with your name and mailing address to Dee@LHDigest.com. We will randomly select one entry from among the winning answers to receive a wonderful prize from Lighthouse Depot.
Marker to be dedicated at West Quoddy
A new granite marker at Maine’s West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine, marking the spot as the "Easternmost Point of the U.S.A" will be dedicated in a ceremony to be held July 30 at 2 PM at the lighthouse. One of the speakers will be Tim Harrison, editor of Lighthouse Digest magazine and President of the American Lighthouse Foundation. The ceremony is open to the public. Mathew Qualey of Bangor, Maine donated the marker.
Restoration Donations Needed
The American Lighthouse Foundation is making immense progress in restoring the remote Little River Light Station in Cutler, Maine. Listed by Maine Preservation, as one of state’s "Ten Most Endangered Historic Properties," restoration is about 75% complete, but funds are desperately needed to complete the restoration. Donations can be sent to Friends of Little River Lighthouse, P.O. Box 889, Wells, Maine 04090.
Many New Lighthouse Products
Lighthouse Depot’s retail gift store in Wells, Maine, has many new and great lighthouse products in the store. Many of these products are not featured in the catalog, and because of limited availability never will be. So, when visiting Maine this year be sure to stop by and visit the "World’s Largest Lighthouse Gift Store" on U. S. Rt. 1, in Wells, Maine. Also, be sure to visit the Lighthouse Depot’s mid-coast location at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine.
LIGHTHOUSE TOURS
There are still spots available on the Lighthouse Depot Lighthouse Tours. Coming up soon are the Prince Edward Island Lighthouse Tour on Aug. 27-Sept. 1; the Maine Lighthouse Tours on Sept. 9-18 and Sept. 30-Oct. 9; and the Eastern Lake Michigan/Western Lake Huron Tour on Sept 16-25.
Clearance Central
Be sure to visit the Lighthouse Depot Clearance Central where there is an ever-changing array of discontinued and closeout items.
Researching Lighthouses
If you are researching lighthouses be sure to visit the Lighthouse Depot Explorer Database where there is now information on over 3,500 lighthouses worldwide. Simply type in the name of the lighthouse that you are looking for in the Search Box and you will be led to the information that is available in the Lighthouse Explorer Database.
Lighthouse Depot, "Saving Lighthouses, One Gift At A Time." 
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