A Grand Old Dame Turns 200 – West Quoddy Head Lighthouse by Fran Folsom  Standing proudly over Grand Manan Channel, which separates the United States from Canada’s Grand Manan Island, West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec Maine perches on the easternmost point of land in America. It has been protecting ships sailing through the channel for 200 years.
The first wooden lighthouse was built at West Quoddy in 1808 under President Thomas Jefferson. Its keeper Thomas Dexter served from 1808 to 1813, at a yearly salary of $250.00. Along with his numerous other duties Dexter had the onerous job of firing the fog cannon non-stop during heavy weather. A second lighthouse, this one made of stone, was built in 1830. Peter Godfrey served at West Quoddy for twenty-six years, retiring in 1839 and fared a little better than his predecessor; he was paid $410 a year. The extra $60 was for ringing the fog bell continuously during heavy fog and stormy weather to warn ships they were approaching the dangerous, rocky shoreline. It took an act of Congress in 1827 to get that pay increase instituted. The Bay of Fundy was, and still is, well known to mariners for its heavy fog and treacherous navigation. Back then winters were harsh, spring brought thunderous rains, the residence and the light leaked badly. Taking care of the oil-lit flame was full time work; the lenses had to be cleaned daily inside and out, no easy task in icy, wet weather with a high gale blowing. In winter ice had to be chipped off the inside and outside walls of the light. Not to mention the recording of weather, tides, ships that passed through the channel, distress calls answered and the routine daily goings-on at the light. And the work was not always successful: during a foggy night in 1906 the ship Ella G. Ellis ran aground smashing up against Sail Rocks. Only the captain survived.  Today, the third lighthouse, built in 1858, stands out against the bold blue of the ocean with its red and white horizontal stripes. There are only two striped lighthouses in America – West Quoddy and Assateague Light in Virginia. The installation of a Fresnel lens in the early 20th century ended the days of the oil burning light.
 Measuring 49 feet tall, West Quoddy is not the largest lighthouse in the country, but, it is greatly needed. Maine’s coastal cliffs and outcrops that surround the channel were created many eons ago from the frozen lava of volcanoes. They are hazardous both above and below the water. Archeological digs conducted on Grand Manan Island show that the Vikings were the first Europeans to land there.
The new lighthouse brought some much needed conveniences; a Victorian style house for the keeper and his family, and, a new compressed air trumpet fog whistle invented by C.L. Daboll in 1850. The trumpet measured seventeen inches in length, with a thirty-eight inch megaphone at its end; the keeper would pull the chain to sound a signal similar to that of a locomotive blast. With all the cannons, bells and trumpets going off all the time it’s a wonder that anyone living at or near the light kept their hearing and their sanity. Nowadays this dramatic past is kept alive by the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Association whose visitor center is in the old keepers house. The public learns about the life of a lighthouse keeper by viewing exhibits of old photographs and uniforms donated by keepers and their families, through instruments used to measure wind, and with interactive displays showing the wattage of a lighthouse bulb and what a fog horn sounds like. Visitors to the lighthouse can step back into the keeper’s lonely life, which in early years was not an easy one. Marooned on a tiny slip of wild, barren land not wide enough to raise farm animals or a garden, the keepers and their families had to travel to Lubec, two miles away, for all their supplies. Their children walked to school in Lubec, In all kinds of weather. Since 1808 there have been sixty-one keepers at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. Why did they do it? What would drive someone to work so hard for such little recompense? The answers might lie in their love of the sea. For some, it was the only way of life they knew; many keepers’ fathers had been lighthouse keepers. And for many of the men Maine was home; they were Down East people with a strong work ethic. That way of life is now a thing of the past. Keepers no longer live at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse; it was automated in 1988 and today comes under the auspices of the Coast Guard and Homeland Security. The Birthday Bash - West Quoddy Head Lighthouse’s
200th Birthday Celebrations The week of July 19th – 26th 2008, the lighthouse and the surrounding West Quoddy State Park will be the settings for celebrations heralding West Quoddy Head Lighthouse’s 200th birthday. A proclamation will be read by Governor John Baldacci, former keepers will tell tales of lighthouse history, also offered will be dances, concerts by SummerKeys music students www.summerkeys.com, art auctions, a Coast Guard Cutter Sail By, tributes paid to West Quoddy’s keepers and their families, chicken barbeques, nature and beach walks and lighthouse tours. www.westquoddy.com IF YOU GO Nearest airport – Portland Maine, 4 hour drive to Lubec West Quoddy Head Lighthouse’s visitor center is open daily 10:00am – 4:00pm from Memorial Day to mid-October. www.westquoddy.com Maine Office of Tourism – 1-888-624-6345 www.visitmaine.com Photos courtesy of Maine Office of Tourism | 