You can stand there on the rocks between the sea and the
forest of spruce and fir and feel, backing you up, the whole
expanse and power of this country, reaching away behind you to
the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. It's quite a sensation.
-- Louise Dickinson Rich, The Coast of Maine.
The passage through all the rocky galleries of the Pine
Tree Coast culminates at Quoddy Bay in a masterpiece.
-- Samuel Adams Drake, The Pine Tree Coast.
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Red and white candy-striped
West Quoddy Head Light is one of the most frequently depicted
American lighthouses on calendars and posters. The picturesque
lighthouse stands on the easternmost point of the United States
mainland.
In 1806, a group of concerned citizens chose West Quoddy Head
as a suitable place for a lighthouse to help mariners coming
into the south entrance to Quoddy Roads, between the mainland
and Campobello Island.
Congress appropriated $5000 for the light station on April
21, 1806. The contractors Beal and Thaxter built the first wooden
lighthouse on the site, along with a small dwelling, in 1808.
It was the first American lighthouse east of Penobscot Bay.
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The first keeper was Thomas Dexter, at a salary of $250 per
year. There was not enough soil near the lighthouse for a garden,
so Dexter was forced to travel a great distance to Lubec to obtain
all his food and supplies. His salary was raised in 1810 to $300.
Peter Godfrey, the second keeper, was at West Quoddy Head
from 1813 until his death at age 82 in 1839.
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At one time, West Quoddy Head, like Boston Light, had a fog
cannon to warn mariners away from dangerous Sail Rocks nearby.
The station received one of the nation's first fog bells in 1820.
It has been said that the Bay of Fundy is where fog is manufactured,
and the keeper at West Quoddy Head had plenty of extra work operating
the bell. Congress decided in 1827 that "the keeper of Quoddy
Head Lighthouse, in the State of Maine, shall be allowed, in
addition to his present salary, the sum of sixty dollars annually,
for ringing the bell connected with said lighthouse, from the
time he commenced ringing said bell."
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Sail Rocks with Grand Manan Island in the distance |
Over the next 17 years, four different fog bells were tried
at West Quoddy, but all of them were difficult to hear offshore.
Even an unusual 14-foot steel bar was tried in place of a bell.
The first lighthouse was so poorly constructed that it required
rebuilding by 1830. Congress appropriated $8000, and the contractor
Joseph Berry rebuilt the tower in 1831 for $2350. The new rubblestone
lighthouse, 49 feet tall, went into service on August 1, 1831.
Keeper Alfred Godfrey related some not-too-pretty details
of life at West Quoddy in an 1842 report, made to I.W. P. Lewis
for his important 1843 examination of the Lighthouse Establishment.
Godfrey wrote:
My salary is $410 [yearly]. I have a family of seven persons.
The climate here forbids the use of a garden or farm. My leisure
time is occupied in boat building. I sometimes pilot vessels
into Eastport, when no other pilot is at hand. Wrecks occur on
the Sail rock as often as once a year... The dwelling house contains
6 rooms, kitchen, parlor and 4 chambers. The house leaks all
about in rainy weather. The chimneys smoke badly . . . The tower
is built of rubble stone, badly laid. In winter, the inside of
the walls are coated with ice, from the effect of leakage . .
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- U.S. Coast Guard photo
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The present 49-foot brick tower was erected in 1857, after
a Congressional appropriation of $15,000. The new lighthouse
received a third-order Fresnel lens. A one-and-one-half-story
Victorian keeper's house was built at the same time.
West Quoddy Head Light's famous red and white stripes appear
to have been added soon after the present tower was built. Red
stripes on lighthouses were common in Canada, where it helped
them stand out against snow. Only one other lighthouse in the
United States -- Assateague Light in Virginia -- has horizontal
red and white stripes.
In 1869, a Daboll trumpet fog whistle was installed in place
of the earlier bells. The signal was described as similar to
the blast from a steam locomotive.
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In Down East magazine Ruth L.W. Draper recalled visiting
West Quoddy Head as a girl in the early 1900s:
The keeper of 'The Light,' Cap'n Ephie Johnson, and his
wife Ada , were pure gold... Cap'n Ephie, his bronzed kindly
face wrinkled at the eyes by many years of looking seaward, could
predict the weather with utmost accuracy. . . . He'd say laconically,
'Land loom. Weather breeder. Rain tomorrow.' We scoffed, but
sure enough the next day it would rain.
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- West Quoddy Head Light c. 1900, from
the collection of Edward Rowe Snow, courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell
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- From "Stebbins Illustrated Coast
Pilot," 1902
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On one visit Ruth and a friend were awakened by the "fearsome
shrieks" of the fog horn, which proceeded to blast for 56
straight hours. The girls escaped the sound by taking walks in
the woods, where they found "masses of pitcher plants and
an occasional fringed orchid."
Jenine Marston Christensen is the granddaughter of Keeper
Arthur Marston, who was at West Quoddy in the 1920s. She remembers
a conversation she had with him. While on a visit to the lighthouse,
she asked him if the fog horn kept him awake. She remembers that
he answered, "Only when it stops!"
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The keepers' children had to walk about two miles to school
in Lubec. One day in the 1920s, the children of Keeper Marston
found some lumber that had washed ashore. One of the boys took
the lumber and built a cabin in the woods that long served as
a meeting place for local children and was still standing into
the 1990s.
Click here to see film taken
by historian Edward Rowe Snow at West Quoddy Head circa early
1950s (courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell). The keeper
seen is this clip is Bob Gray, who was at West Quoddy Head 1934-1952.
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This U.S. Postage stamp depicted
West Quoddy Head Light with 12 instead of its actual 15 stripes |
The last Coast Guard keeper at West Quoddy Head before its
1988 automation was Malcolm Rouse. Asked by the Boston Globe
what he thought of automation, Rouse responded:
What I think you can't print. . . . It's the best duty
a man can have for being with your family. I'm up when that sunshine
hits here -- it's the first place it hits -- and oh, I'll miss
that -- it sure is beautiful. It makes a pretty picture.
Click here to hear Malcolm
Rouse, last Coast Guard keeper at West Quoddy Head Light.
Lubec resident Maurice Babcock,Jr., whose father was the last
civilian keeper of Boston Light, said:
It's like losing a species of animal or plant. Once it's
gone, it's gone. All we'll have is a tower down there run by
computer chips.
Malcolm Rouse's wife, Carol, added, "It's a whole way
of life that is being put aside."
- U.S. Coast Guard photo
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The lighthouse grounds are now part of Quoddy Head State Park.
In 1998, under the Maine Lights Program, the station became the
property of the State of Maine. The light itself is still maintained
by the Coast Guard as an active aid to navigation.
A local group, the West
Quoddy Head Light Keepers Association, has formed to
enhance the experience of visitors to West Quoddy Head Light
with exhibits and displays. A seasonal visitor center is now
open in the former keeper's house.
The grounds are open to the public and trails through the
park wind along the shore and past the lighthouse.
Several species of whales can sometimes be seen offshore and
bald eagles nest in the area. A visit to West Quoddy Head is
well worth the trip.
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- The cast iron stairs inside the tower
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- Displays inside the visitor center
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- What's wrong with this picture? Nothing.
Whenever the stripes on West Quoddy Head Light are repainted,
a coat of gray primer goes on before the red stripes. This photo,
courtesy of Michelle Lemay and Keith Vachon, was taken while
the lighthouse was being repainted in September 2003.
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- A look inside the third-order Fresnel
lens from below
Keepers: Thomas Dexter (1808-1813); Peter Godfrey
(1813-1839); Alfred Godfrey (1839-1842); Ebenezer Wormell (c.
1840s-50s); William Coggins (?-1856); David Joy (assistant, c.
1850s); Loring Leavitt (assistant, 1861-1867); Albert H. Godfrey
(assistant, 1857-1861); William Godfrey (1856-1860); Loring A.
Leavitt (assistant, 1861-1867); Richard Richardson (1860-1861);
George A. Case (1861-1877); Lowell Chase (assistant, 1867-1878);
Daniel Thayer (1877-1879); Joseph Huckins (assistant, 1878-1880);
Henry M. Godfrey (1879-1882); Garrison Crowell (assistant, 1880-1882);
William Fanning (1882-1886); Walter B. Mowry (assistant, 1882-1886);
Alvin Eldrige (assistant, 1886-1887); John Connors (1886-1890);
Henry M. Godfrey (assistant, 1887-1889); George W. Sabin (assistant,
1889-1890); John W. Guptill (1890-1899); Irwin Young (1890-1893);
Edward L. Horn (assistant, 1893-1895); Edwin L. Eaton (assistant,
1895-1900); Fred M. Robbins (assistant, 1900-1901); Warren A.
Murch (1899-1905); Herbert Robinson (assistant, 1905-1907); Eugene
C. Ingalls (assistant, 1907-1912); Leo Allen (assistant, 1912-?);
Ephraim N. Johnson (assistant 1901-1905, principal keeper 1905-1931);
Ralph Temple Crowley (assistant? c.?1915?); Arthur Robie Marston
(assistant, c. 1920s); Eugene N. Larrabee (c. 1935); Nelson Geel
(?); Frank Mitchell (?); Almon Mitchell (1909-1911); Hoyt Cheney
(asst., c. 1950); Howard "Bob" Gray (1934-1952); Alex
Sneddon (Coast Guard, c. 1952); Don Ashby (Coast Guard, c. 1953);
Robert W. Brooks (Coast Guard Fireman First Class, c. early 1950s);
Pat Stevens Bradisport (Summer 1956 Officer in Charge, Coast
Guard); Paul Kessler (Coast Guard EN1, 1956); Russell Reilly
(Coast Guard, c. 1960-1961); Dave Hardman (Coast Guard EN2, c.
1960-1961); Howard Johnson (Coast Guard SN, 1960-1961); John
W. Willmott (1959-1961, Coast Guard assistant/engineer); Stephen
H. Rogers (December 1963, Coast Guard); Bruce Keene (1962-1964,
Coast Guard); John Wiley Grandey II (Coast Guard, 1963-1964);
Richard Copeland (1965, Coast Guard); Thomas Keene (1967, Coast
Guard); Richard "Gary" Craig (Coast Guard, 1968-1969);
Clifton Scofield (1974-1978, Coast Guard); Robert Marston (1975,
Coast Guard); Paul Latour (Coast Guard, 1980); George Eaton (1978-1982,
Coast Guard); Owen Gould (1982-1984, Coast Guard); John Richardson
(1984-1988, Coast Guard); Malcolm Rouse (Coast Guard, 1988).
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