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It was two years ago that the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society’s plans for a quick restoration of the lantern room of the historic St. George lighthouse were dashed when the lantern room, while being removed by helicopter, smashed to pieces on the beach after being airlifted from the lighthouse to the mainland. We covered the story extensively in Lighthouse Digest. For those of you who saw the recent program “Save Our History-American Lighthouses” on the History Channel, this past April, you viewed the crashing of lens as it was caught on film. It made a lot of us want to cry.

However, two years later the lantern room was finally restored, a major feat in itself, but the small nonprofit group did not have the $24,000 needed to bring the lantern room back to the off shore lighthouse.

Enter Bob Bolen, a man who knows what saving history is all about. To refresh our reader’s memories we ask that you refer to the April 2001 issue of Lighthouse Digest for a story titled, “Bob Bolen - What Volunteerism is all about.” By reading that story you will soon come to realize that Bob Bolen is truly one of America’s lighthouse heroes.

When Bob Bolen heard that funds were not available to bring the restored lantern room back to the lighthouse, he decided he would do something about it. Bob Bolen is a man of modest means. He lives in an assisted care facility and uses a wheelchair to get around. Bob sold a home (part of his retirement income) and donated the $24,000 needed to bring the lens back to the lighthouse. He had only one request, that he be allowed to have a seat in the chase helicopter and watch the lantern room being replaced.

The day the event was to happen, Bob was not content to wait for the transportation to take him to the site. Instead he drove his electric wheelchair from his care home in North Crescent City, CA, the 3 1/2 miles to the Whalers Island Pier Parking Lot, which was the staging area where the lantern room awaited to be airlifted back to its rightful place atop the lighthouse. This is one determined man! Unfortunately, fog prevented the lantern room to be airlifted that day. Bob would have to wait until tomorrow. He headed home, and halfway back the battery on his electric wheel chair died. It was left at an accommodating business and he hitched a ride home.

The next morning Bob arrived in a car, with just a regular wheelchair. And minutes later he was right where he wanted to be, in the front seat of the chase helicopter and lift off was at 9:20AM PDT. Bob Bolen, at 82 years of age, a paraplegic, leaving the safety of his wheelchair, flew off into history, to watch history that he had caused to happen. At one point, the lantern, dangling in the air, passed over the Battery Point Lighthouse, an event not likely to ever occur again. Within 10 minutes the lantern room was again resting (after a two year absence) on the spot where it had been since about 1890. Bob had seen his dream fulfilled.

There are other heroes to this story. One is Dale Long, owner of Fashion Blacksmith, Inc., a marine construction and craftsmen repair facility in Crescent City, CA. When the lantern room crashed onto the beach two years ago it was almost at Dale’s business yard about 1/4 mile away. Dale had the equipment, which could transport the approximate 10,000 top of the dome. He voluntarily moved it to his property where it was located for two years while being repaired. The tragic event was softened by the fact that there was not anyone on the northwest coast who could have been better qualified to engineer, design, fabricate and assemble the lens room. No charge was made for storage or equipment. Only his costs for material and labor were expected. The repairs logged 362 fabrication hours, all of which Dale personally provided. The many hours of meeting the Historical Society’s members and the general public seeking information was not accounted for.

The next hero on the list is Guy “Marty” Martin, the pilot for Erickson Air-Crane Co., of Central Point, Oregon. His knowledge and skills proved invaluable in safely lifting off the lantern room, without prop wash turning it over and then placing it on top of the pedestal, lining up 32 holes in the base plate, each of which are 1 1/4” in diameter. The lens room was then bolted down. Marty used an Erickson S-64E Air-Crane with two Pratt & Whitney jet engines with 4500 horsepower each turning a 72-foot diameter rotor. The lifting capacity of the 881/2-foot long Air-Crane is 20,000 pounds, which is about twice the weight of the lantern room. Marty’s expertise and abilities showed. His care for the important historical cargo, and safety for the ground crew and volunteers on top of the lighthouse was most important. Marty, his ground crew and his company will be recorded in history of the second placement of the lantern room. It took about 20 minutes to complete the task. The first time, in the late 1800’s it tool several months.

Naturally there are many other heroes that were involved in this project, namely the volunteers. As with any nonprofit group the volunteers are always the ones who get the least recognition, they are the unsung heroes.

Bob Bolen is a former pilot and for obvious reasons there is a bumper sticker on the back of his wheelchair that says, “I’d rather be flying”. Bob Bolen is proof of that old adage, “You can’t keep a good man down!” YES, ANGELS DO FLY!

This story appeared in the July 2002 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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