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Down in the valley, the valley so low, (as the song goes) proudly stands the new Dries Lighthouse in East Texas, Pennsylvania.

It really all started about eight years ago when Cindy Dries started collecting lighthouses after she became fascinated with the lighthouses of the rugged coast of Maine. She fell in love with the isolation and peacefulness of those magnificent beacons. She would often remark, to her husband Larry, that someday she would love to live in a lighthouse.

One day when Cindy came home from shopping, she was surprised to see the foundation laid for a lighthouse. Never in a million years did she think her husband had ever considered building her the lighthouse she had always dreamed of. The East Texas Lighthouse is patterned after Cindy's favorite which is Maine's Bass Harbor Light.

The completed lighthouse, with 1600 cinder blocks, completes a first floor extension of their master bedroom. The second floor will be Cindy's lighthouse room to display her ever growing collection of over 300 lighthouse collectibles, including every lighthouse made by Cats Meow. The top floor, which includes the lantern room offers views of Lehigh Valley and where Larry will set up his telescope to gaze at the stars.

Larry and Cindy had a lot of help building the lighthouse from a group of friends they nicknamed "The Lighthouse Hall of Famers," and one of them even donated a fog bell. Since no ships are allowed in the area at night time, the beacon in the tower is turned off every night at 10pm.

Now that she has her own lighthouse, what does Cindy want next. The answer is simple, she wants to be able to say she has visited every Maine lighthouse. With some of Maine's nearly 70 lighthouses, many of them on remote islands, that may be a real task. But knowing Cindy, she will eventually do it.

This story appeared in the February 1997 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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