Cape Porpoise village is built around the shores of its
harbor, which a cluster of large and small islands protects.
On one of them stands the baby lighthouse of the coast. This
harbor -- or perhaps we should say harbors, since there are two
basins -- is remarkable for being the only one between Portsmouth
and the Saco...
-- Samuel Adams Drake, The Pine Tree Coast,
1891.
|
Cape Porpoise was named by Capt.
John Smith for a school of porpoises he saw there. Established
in August 1833 for $6,000, Goat Island Light was established
to help guide mariners into the sheltered harbor at Cape Porpoise,
a busy fishing center for many years. A 20-foot stone tower and
dwelling were built, and John Lord of Kennebunk became the first
keeper at a salary of $350 per year.
In 1859, the tower and house were rebuilt. The new tower received
a fifth-order Fresnel lens. For many years, the tower was connected
to the 1 1/2-story house by a covered walkway. A boathouse was
added in 1905 and an oil house in 1907.
|
- The first Goat Island Lighthouse,
U.S. Coast Guard photo
|
 |
Dangerous rocks near Goat Island continued to claim vessels,
including 46 between 1865 and 1920. There was not one death in
all the wrecks, partly due to the keepers at Goat Island picking
up survivors near the island. In 1930, a schooner, the Margery
Austin, went aground near the lighthouse.
Keeper James M. Anderson went out in rough seas and helped
refloat the vessel.
|
|
George Wakefield of Saco kept the light from 1887 to 1921,
the longest stint of any keeper at the station. Wakefield moonlighted
as a harbor pilot and fisherman.
James
M. Anderson was keeper in 1929 when the famous aviator Charles
Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, anchored their yacht
near Goat Island during their honeymoon. Anderson and his family
watched with binoculars as the Lindberghs moved around on the boat, and
the keeper told a reporter that the lights were turned off on the yacht
at 8:25 p.m. |
 |
Coast Guard Keeper Joseph Bakken, who lived on Goat Island
with his wife and three children, told historian Edward Rowe
Snow about his experience during a particularly severe storm
in 1947. The waves washed over the island and damaged the walkway
and the boat slip and ripped out a fence. In the commotion the
family forgot about their dog and her newborn puppies. Later that night, Bakken went into the cellar and found several
feet of water. Floating in the seawater was the box that contained
the dog and her puppies. All were safe and sound and the keeper
brought them upstairs out of harm's way.
Julie Owyang, whose brother Mark Brooke was the Coast Guard's
officer in charge for two years in the 1970s, wrote the following
note in January 2009:
I came and spent two weeks with them Christmas of '73.
My Mom and Dad and I took the train up from western North Carolina
to Boston, and Mark picked us up there. What a treat! I'll never
forget the piles of lobster we had for dinner in the kitchen
with the table covered with newspapers. We had kept them alive
in the sink that had the saltwater faucet in it until it was
time to cook them.
- U.S. Coast Guard photo
|
The Coast Guard initially planned to automate Goat Island
Light in 1976. Local residents felt that having a keeper on Goat
Island was important to protect the island and lighthouse station
from vandalism, so the automation plans were postponed.
In 1990, Goat Island Light became the last lighthouse in Maine
to be automated. Its Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern 300mm
optic. Brad Culp, his wife Lisa and their two children Christian
and Dakota were Maine's last traditional lighthouse family. Lisa
Culp said of her eight-year old son Christian, "I think
it's something he'll carry with him all his life."
For a time during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, secret
service agents lived at Goat Island, which offers a good vantage
point on Bush's estate at Walker's Point. The island served as
an air-sea command center complete with a radar beacon.
|
In 1992, Goat Island was leased to the Kennebunkport
Conservation Trust. In 1998, under the Maine Lights Program,
the lighthouse officially became the property of the trust, which
since its founding in 1969 has protected 560 acres of town land
from development.
|
Scott Dombrowski, the island overseer for the trust, has spent
some summers on the island with his wife, Karen, and their two
sons, Eric and Gregory.
Scott Dombrowski has been decorating Goat Island Light with
an elaborate display of Christmas lights the last several holiday
seasons.
|
- Scott Dombrowski
|
 |
For about eight years the caretaker on the island for most
of the year was Dick Curtis.
Curtis died in a boating accident near the island in May 2002
and is deeply missed by the members of the Kennebunkport Conservation
Trust and local residents.
|
|
Goat Island Light remains an active aid to navigation. The
lighthouse can be seen at a distance from the public wharf in
Cape Porpoise. Visitors with private boats are welcome to the
island and tour boats from Kennebunkport pass nearby.
The station's old fog bell is on display at the Kennebunkport
Historical Society on North Street. Kennebunkport and neighboring
Kennebunk are popular tourist destinations with a variety of
shops and historic homes.
|
- The old fog bell at the Kennebunkport
Historical Society
|
- Keepers: John Lord (1834-1841); Thatcher Hutchins
(1841-1846); George Fletcher (1846-1850); Samuel Grant (1850-1858);
George Averill (1858-1862); Joseph Huff (1862-1866); ? Illsley
(1866-1873); Brad Emerson (1873-1878); John Emerson (1878-1887);
Leander White (1887-1888); George Wakefield (1888-1921); Leo Allen (1921-1926); James M.
Anderson (1926-1939); Justin Foss, Sr. (1939-1942); Austin Lamont
Sinnett (c. 1940s?); Joseph Bakken (Coast Guard, 1946-1950);
Robert McWilliams (Coast Guard, 1950-1953); Bruce Jordan (Coast
Guard, 1953-?); Howard Charles Worrell (1970-1973); Mark Brooke
(c. 1973-1975); Brad Culp (Coast Guard, ?-1990).
|
