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Managing Organization:
American Lighthouse Foundation
Telephone: 207-646-0245
Website: http://www.lighthousefoundation.org
Contact Address Information:
P.O. Box 889
Wells
Maine, 04090, United States
Notes:
Considered one of the most remote and lonely lighthouse stations in New England. A British ship, the Nottingham Galley, was wrecked at Boon Island in 1710; the shipwreck story became the basis of a novel by Kenneth Roberts called "Boon Island." The lighthouse was leased by the Coast Guard to the American Lighthouse Foundation in 2000.
Tower Height: 133
Height of Focal Plane: 137
Characteristic and Range: Flashing white every 5 seconds, visible for 19 nautical miles.
Description of Tower: Cylindrical granite tower.
This light is operational
Other Buildings?
Storage building.
Earlier Towers?
1799: wooden tower; 1805: stone tower; 1811: new tower, 32 feet above water; 1832: new tower.
Date Established: 1799
Date Present Tower Built: 1852-54 (activated 1/1/1855)
Date Automated: 1980
Optics: 1855: Second order Fresnel lens; 1993: solar powered VEGA VRB-25. Original Fresnel lens is now on display at the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum, Rogers Road, (207) 439-3080.
Fog Signal: 1890: Hand-rung fog bell on roof of oil house; now automated fog horn with one blast every 10 seconds. A fog bell from Boon Island is now at the South Shore Baptist Church in Hingham, Massachusetts.
Current Use: Active aid to navigation.
Open To Public? No.
Directions:
Can be seen distantly from Cape Neddick and Long Sands Beach in York. The Isles of Shoals Steamship Co. in Portsmouth, NH, offers occasional lighthouse cruises with views of Boon Island Light. Call (800) 441-4620 or (603) 431-5500 for information. The Friends of Flying Santa, based in Massachusetts, may offer occasional cruises past Boon Island; see www.flyingsanta.org for information.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Keepers: David Oliver (c. 1811); Thomas Hanna (c. 1811-1816); Eliphalet Grover (1816-1839); Mark Dennet (1840-1841); John Thompson (1841-1843); Morgan Trafton (1842, assistant keeper, lost in boating accident); John Kennard (1843-1846); Nathaniel Baker (1849); John Thompson (1846-1849); Hiram Tobey (1853); Caleb S. Gould (1853-1854); George Bowden (1854-1855); Josiah Tobey Jr. (assistant, 1855); Samuel S. Tobey (assistant, 1856); Christopher Littlefield (1854); Sam Philbrick (1854); Charles H. Tobey (assistant 1850, keeper1856); Charles E. Thompson (1858); John S. Baker (assistant, 1858); Nathaniel Baker (1859); William L. Baker (assistant, 1859); Cabin Gray (1861); George B. Wallace (June 1861-1866); Benjamin Bridges (1861); George E. Bridges (1864); Richard C. Yeaton (1864); Charles Ramsdell (assistant 1865); Joshua K. Card (1867-1874); George H. Yeaton (assistant 1867); Samuel Meloon (assistant, 1868); Nathan White Jr. (assistant 1870); Alfred J. Leavitt (1874-1886?); Leander White (1st assistant, 1874); Edwin J. Hobbs (assistant, 1874-1876); David R. Grogan (assistant, 1876, keeper 1879); George O. Leavitt (assistant, 1878); Walter S. Amee (Ames?) (2nd assistant, 1878); John Kennard (1884); William C. Williams (1st assistant 1885, then keeper 1885-1911); James Burke (2nd assistant, 1886-1887, 1st assistant 1887-1890); Orrin M. Lamprey (1886); Meshach M. Seaward (2nd assistant, 1886-1900); Leonidas H. Sawyer (2nd assistant, 1889. keeper 1889); Mitchell Blackwood (c. 1911); Harold Hutchins (c. 1923-1933); C. A. Tracy (c. 1935); Hoyt P. Smith (c. 1935); E. Stockbridge, assistant (c. 1935); Charles U. Gardner (Coast Guard relief keeper, c, 1942-1943); John H. Morris (Coast Guard, c. 1945); Ted Guice (Coast Guard assistant, c. 1945); Kendrick Capon (Coast Guard, c. 1950s); Charles Allen (1st assistant, c. 1957, served 6 years); Dave Wells (Coast Guard, 1966); August "Gus" Pfister (Coast Guard, 1967-1968); Bob Roberts (Coast Guard, 1970s); Bob Edwards (Coast Guard, 1970s).
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