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Comments about Cape Elizabeth

My God, the nerve and insensitivity of the blackguard! Here was a piece of history callously trampled on by some insensitive lout who not only will not allow anyone to visit the property, but tears down the keeper's dwelling and alters what remains just to be a big frog in a small puddle.

My grandmother owned a place over on the Cape between Two Lights and Portland Head Light, just up on the ridge from Cundy's Reef. I used to spend my summers there before WWII when I was growing up. Two Lights and the Head Light were old friends. Now this north end of a southbound horse comes along and out of pure meanness shucks it all. Well, all I can say is, what goes around comes around. Wonder how many will be there for him when he needs help? This makes me very upset.

Seth Benson

Millen, GA

Editor's note - Mr. Benson is of course referring to our cover story in the March, 99 issue of Lighthouse Digest about the recent tragedy at Cape Elizabeth-Two Lights, Maine.

Finally Made It

We Baumans appreciated your publishing the memoriam to my Dottie in the January 1999 issue of Lighthouse Digest. Friends with many happy memories contacted me after reading the piece in your widely distributed magazine. When I read it over I recall the enjoyment Dottie and my mutual interacting hobbies brought us. I have not subscribed to the Internet wave that is sweeping the country. I fear that if I went on the internet I would do little else around here. My children found Dottie's article on your lighthouse web page. We finally made it on the Net!

R. A. Bauman Rear Admiral, USCG (Ret)

More on Two Lights

Although I live in Michigan, my earliest memories of lighthouses are of Maine's Portland Head and Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. My maternal grandparents lived in South Portland, near the Cape, and my mother graduated from Cape Elizabeth High School. Every other summer, we would spent hours at both places and I'll never forget the Keepers Quarters at Two Lights. It is a shame that the owner was unable to strike a historical compromise with the town mothers and fathers.

I am wondering about the meaning of the quote, "The inability of the town to offer legal objection." Would that mean that the town was legally unable or unwilling to spend the money it would take to challenge the owner?

On my next trip to Maine, I'll be certain to stop and view the changes at Two Lights. Or, then again, maybe I won't. Some things are better left to memory . . .

Sue Hill

Durand, MI

And a Little More on Two Lights

We have hundreds of lighthouses in North America that we love and cherished. However, there is a small handful whose image of strength, safety and beauty extend beyond local and regional interests. They sit atop as crown jewels of our national treasures. Cape Elizabeth is one such lighthouse.

I don't know all the facts about the event, but one question stands out: Why wasn't the house included when the Maine Commission for Historic Preservation entered the lighthouse tower into the National Register of Historic Places?

Doubtless, there are other Cape Elizabeth's waiting to happen. What can we do? If not now, when? If not Cape Elizabeth, where?

Robert M. Britain

Kansas City, MO

Dear LHD

I am new to this Internet business and have been doing a little research where my grandfather, Alex V. Peterson, who was born in a lighthouse, left off. Today I stumbled across your article of Jan. 1999, I believe, about the Willapa Bay Lighthouse, and almost fell out of my chair! Thank you! I have so much to say, I don't know where to begin. My great-grandfather's name was Rasmus Petersen, not H.Petersen as was presented in the article and that is him standing next to the lighthouse in your opening photo. My grandfather tried to do some research on the lighthouse and his father who died when he was a child, but had to communicate by snail mail and was given the old run around by DC officials and Coast Guard historians who apparently didn't want to be bothered. He has since passed away and is buried in Raymond. Since no more burials are allowed in the cemetery that has been moved as mentioned in your story. I am interested in any and all information on the Willapa Bay Lighthouse and surrounding area. My mother still lives in Tokeland along with my brother who is a fisherman on Willapa Bay, in fact one of his vessels is named The Willapa. He was also stationed in the Coast Guard at Tokeland, and was a tender at a temporary lighthouse on the North Cove dunes. Any information that your readers can help with would be greatly appreciated.

Christi Lewis

Puyallup, WA

Inspiration of Hope

I am a comparatively new subscriber to Lighthouse Digest, a wonderful magazine which I never knew existed before. I want you to know I'll eliminate every other magazine I get (if need be) in order to continue receiving it until I pass away.

I grew up on Penobscot Bay, in Saturday Cove, Northport, Maine and graduated from Cosby High in Belfast, class of 1947. I still have family in Searsport and Stockton Springs.

I want to thank you for the recent article on Barcelona Light at Barcelona, New York on Lake Erie. I spend many hours when weather breaks at the light with my daughter and grandchild. We love Barcelona Shore and hope to visit the light this spring. I had intended on writing you to ask if you had ever heard of it and the fact that of its being the first "natural gas: light in the country, BUT YOU HAD HEARD AND YOU WROTE OF IT, THANK YOU.

It breaks my heart to hear monthly of the lights that are fighting for even their historic existence. So many are being dismantled. Because of that also, of course the demise of the lightships is inevitable. I remember as a child, peeking out my "under the eaves" window and seeing far in the distance the lights of the light vessel serving Cape Rosier which was a long way from our farm that looked out on the Penobscot. We used to see the headlights of the men coming home from work in the winter on Isleboro, too. I used to think any light showing from the bay was a German U-Boat in my young mind. We were in black-out mode and I remember the auto headlamps painted black halfway and curtains drawn at dusk so no lamp would be visible from the bay.

I believe the Fresnel Lens is the most beautiful glass work of art in existence and surely they are most celebrated for having saved so many lives for so many years. I'm glad the Shore Village Museum in Rockland has been able to house a collection of them for future generations to come and admire and appreciate.

I have a "New Hope" seaport village I set up behind glass in my den, complete with harbor, lighthouses, lightkeepers (I purchased the Harbour Lights Keeper and friends from Lighthouse Depot), gulls, wharf and wooden houses, and coastal people and children. It is about five feet long, 24 inches high and completely enclosed under plate glass and I change it for each season of the year. It is a bit of home that keeps me going in my old age. I'm seventy, and I write poetry of Maine and the sea.

Keep up your wonderful magazine, Mr. Harrison. God bless you for giving us news about something we've loved for years and feel sorrow at its passing into oblivion forever. Lighthouses indeed were too good to be appreciated for what they truly were, which was more than just "guiding lights." My headstone has been set, and it has a lighthouse on a bluff of rock-bound coast with a verse from the Bible, 1 Timothy 1:19 reads, "We should follow your shafts of light lest we suffer shipwreck of our faith." An appropriate verse, I thought, to have on it.

Christel Basford Ellis

This story appeared in the June 1999 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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