Episode 45 - The USLHS

0:00 I'm Vince. Hey, you have to start. To greet everybody. What? You have to greet everyone. Hey everybody. I'm Vince. And I'm Emily. And you're listening to The Lighthouse Lowdown. We don't do it often enough so you get a free pass. Yeah, we're gonna have to cut that. What? Oh yeah, we don't want people to hear mistakes. That's- I always- Let them know that I'm on coffee. I leave them in there all the time. What- oh, Starbucks. I was gonna say, what am I sipping on? Yeah. No, you got hot coffee. It's- Starbucks has this thing every weekend in January where you get- buy one, get one free after noon on the weekends.

0:47 And so that's what I did. It should be a cool sponsor. So yours was free. Starbucks. Yes. I did have some Captain Cecil's coffee this week. He was a past sponsor of ours. He sent us a bag. Yeah. And a bag for a giveaway. It was- it's really good stuff. But okay, let's get started. I did not do a history buoy today. Oh. And- God. It's okay because- Oh, it is? It's okay because today is kind of a history buoy in total. Is this US LHS? It is. Woohoo! So- I'm excited. Let's get clicking. The United States Lighthouse Society. That's so cute. What is that? That's an old- so all the images that you see today are- I think all of them, nearly all of them I could say, are from USLHS.org.

1:34 Okay. And this is an old signage, like a flag banner that they had. We'll go through slides and I may have to go through them on my own pace because I have a lot to read. But I'm reading today and you're going to hear me reading and I want to get things right. So that's why I'm reading. Okay. But what is the US LHS? On screen you see the United States Lighthouse Society. Yes. That's not all it is. You're going to- we're going to find out. There's several things it is and could be and was and is today. So- The was is exciting for me because I know it used to be USLHE and then it was the Lighthouse Board and now it's the USLHS. It was ever actually the Lighthouse Board. We're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about it.

2:14 So the oversight- the official description- the oversight and administration of Lighthouses and other aids to navigation in the United States have fallen under several different government agencies and offices nearly three centuries since the first light tower was built in Boston Harbor in 1716. So a quick overview of the years and what it was called, the service, the society. Okay. 1716 to 1789, the United States Lighthouse Service, Lighthouse Establishment, USLHE, was in the Treasury Department. 1789 to 1903, it was under the Treasury Department, but not- didn't have an official title. It was just part of the Treasury Department was Lighthouses.

2:56 Oh. 1903 to 1913, the part of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Then the cabinet was split at the time in 1913. The Lighthouse System being assigned to the Department of Commerce alone, not Labor. 1939 was the US Coast Guard became involved. So the US Coast Guard, which was then in the Treasury Department, so strange, took control of Lighthouses, returning them once again, technically to the Treasury Department that they were in before. Yeah. So today the Coast Guard is still responsible for Lighthouses, most, almost all of them. Yes. And it's still in the agency. Excuse me. Today, the Coast Guard is in the agency of Department of Homeland Security.

3:37 So there's lots of cascades. That's not really the point, but you can see it's gone through the United States government has had different roles in different organization for there's not always been one US LHG. So whenever they refer to the Lighthouse Board, was that like a board of directors in the Commerce Department? Exactly. Oh, okay. Yeah, we're going to, I'm going to tell you about it. So I have today's a brief history, but the caption I came up with, what is the US LHS? Because there's a lot of history. There's a lot of really interesting documentation. There's a lot of stories. There's a lot of changes that have happened and we're not going to cover all that today. That's a really in-depth conversation. I have another question. Yeah, what's up? And you may answer this later, but I just don't want to forget.

4:20 Did whenever the US LHS, US LHG started, like, okay. They're not the same thing. We were the British. We were British. We were colonies of Great Britain. Yeah. So were we a part of, did they control our Lighthouses or were we like a separate, was it like a separate government thing? We controlled our own Lighthouses. Okay. But we were colonies. So we weren't part of the British Lighthouse. Yeah. Like 1776 was the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which was screw off Britain. We're going to be our own thing. It was shortly after that that the US LHG was no longer a thing.

5:03 Let me look at that. 1789, you said? 1789 through 1903, they were under the Treasury. So there's kind of, yeah, short answer is yes. They were traded around. I just don't know if maybe... We had some self-governance and I think we were already executing, we being people who lived in North America, were already executing the governance of Lighthouses, even if the body name did not change. Okay. So it wasn't managed from Great Britain. Great Britain. Great Britain. But it was owned, the colonies were owned by Great Britain. So we had to fight a war to get free of that.

5:45 Do you think ours was based, our Lighthouse system was based off of Britain's Lighthouse system? Okay. I think so. I think historically Britain's been known for having like the world's, historically, the world's best Navy. And part of that probably includes Lighthouse management and that system. I didn't know that. I don't, I didn't do that research for today, but that's really interesting. That's a good future question. So the two sets of letters that are most common you'll see are USLHE and USLHS. And we've seen them on Bells and Clocks and Okra Coke, different things, different places. They're, everyone who's a historian of Lighthouses knows these terms, but they're not interchangeable.

6:29 They're not the same thing. Yeah. So USLHE is the United States Lighthouse establishment. So here's my, I just put a picture from the website to look at something, but USLH board, society, establishment and service are all different things. The USLHE was the first official name of the American Lighthouse Agency. It was in the Ninth Act of Congress in 1789, that year we talked about, that took the 12 existing Lighthouses in what would become the United States and various colonies, federal government was to control them, an act to establish in support of Lighthouses. So that's the Ninth Act of the new Congress.

7:10 Oh, cool. A letter from the Federal Commissioner of Revenue in 1795 uses the language. It appears that March 1790, the late Secretary of the Treasury, so on, so on, so on, Lighthouse establishment was received from Georgia. So he's saying, hey, something is going on and he called it the Lighthouse establishment. So that's one of our earliest records of USLHE. So I assume that that was carried over from prior Great Britain management. Okay. That was until 1910. We already talked about the change of, sorry, this is an article I'm citing here, but the board, United States Lighthouse board is for a long time, it was one guy, Stephen Pleasanton.

7:54 He was the singular head of the Lighthouse system. His title was the fifth auditor of the Treasury. So he was the care and superintendent of Lighthouse establishment under the Secretary of Treasury. General and superintendent of Lights was another one of the titles. Pretty cool thing to write down. But as things got more complex and the system got more challenging, and more Lighthouses, more ships, he was kind of called out. So he was replaced and retired from that position in 1852. That year, single administrator, him, was replaced by the board of eight military engineers, distinguished scientists of the day, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, who was the ninth member of the Lighthouse board.

8:37 So they had nine people. Secretary of the Treasury was one of them. Pleasanton, Mr. Pleasanton, was taken out of that position, which he was probably relieved to do, it sounds like. Yeah. And these were military-focused people, but who were a board now in charge of all the happenings. So the board that I know I discussed it in one of our previous episodes. My God. I showed an image of the early board was those nine gentlemen. So military and engineers. Cool. So they didn't replace the Lighthouse establishment, but they were the board of directors of the establishment. So that's why the Lighthouse board are the people who made the decisions.

9:21 Lighthouse establishment was a body that they were a part of. So this is not what the whole episode is about, but I wanted to do some of these. So the board is a part of it. The society is not the same thing as the service. U-H-L-H, U-S-L-H-S. Society is what we have today. And we're going to talk about how that came to be. And there are great resource for Lighthouses today. The establishment was the governing body. The service was the governing body after the military took over. Oh, after Coast Guard? Yeah. So the Lighthouse service came from 1939. U.S. Coast Guard took over. And I think that it's called the service. They used it interchangeably, though. Like I have a letter from before that time, 1902.

10:04 It says, quote, no person employed in or in any way connected with the Lighthouse service will be permitted to supply provisions or rations for officers or crews of Lighthouse vessels or any Lighthouse establishment vessel, or any vessel employed in the Lighthouse service charter or otherwise. That's one sentence. Oh, my gosh. It says both of them. So the point is it is a service. It was called the establishment. But I think it's like military service we think of. Well, and even like I know that the Lighthouse establishment vessels were still called establishment vessels because they were from that time period when it was under United States Lighthouse establishment.

10:45 So they were they still carried the name of the establishment even when they were being used in a different time period. Yeah. So the boil down at the end of the article, the summary, if one chooses to be officially correct, they should use the term establishment referring to the system from 1789 until the creation of the Bureau of Lighthouses, which is another thing, the Bureau in 1910. Is that a short period? Okay. I vaguely feel like I've read or, you know, read off something from a bureau and I didn't. Yeah, the Bureau and they call it quote the Bureau for a while in letters and documents from 1910 to 39 and 39 was US Coast Guard.

11:25 So it's establishment Bureau service. The US LHS that we so often talk about today with the passport program with all the information on Lighthouses with the great website uslhs.org is not the service. It is the society United States Lighthouse Society. It is different. It is a different body. Is it like I didn't know this for two years is it's informational and not it's not actually in charge governing body. The governing body actually charges the Coast Guard that makes sense. It's totally different. Well, and I didn't we've been doing this for two years. Yeah. Well, I never really considered it like because in my head the Coast Guard that yeah, they they own the light like the actual like beacons now.

12:10 And so I forget that that means the US LHS is more it's informational. It's not like it actually governing. So so the US LHS is really what I want to put the attention on today. The society what but the US LHS. Okay. Yeah, so they have all of the data from the establishment. They do. Okay. I'm going to tell you how that came to be. Excellent. So I have a history buoy coming up next episode that has to do with the US LHS and so I'm excited to see if you cover what I was going to cover. If you do I'm guilty. I'll do something. I'm quoting again.

12:50 The the saying is something like the US LHS the society didn't have a founder that founded it but rather the society found the founder. So it was a gentleman who wasn't looking to start something but instead found himself in the position. So his name is Wheeler Wayne your boy Wayne. So, okay. I'm sorry. So founded officially in 1984. So many years later. Yeah, it's a society. It's the nation's premier lighthouse organization found its president rather than the other way around. It started with some routine lighthouse experience of a young Coast Guard Lieutenant Wayne.

13:31 So he was on duty as a lieutenant. Cool. But it really blossomed when he instead became a civilian Coast Guard employee and later an assistant to the AIDS the chief assistant to the AIDS and Navigation Branch of Northern California. So I'm going to stop reading but my memory tells me from reading this article. It's more interesting to talk. Yeah, he was in this position working for the Coast Guard and then he was in another position this aid to navigation and they had all of the data all the books around him. On lighthouses on flash patterns on day marks on ship navigation on history on keepers logs.

14:12 He had all those physical copies in this for the West Coast in this office. He was working in and so that's where it starts quote the long time society present recalls. So he had a report 1910 on Bulletin's engineering books instruction manuals even medical practice for lighthouse service 1981. He got a call from the National Park Service seeking information about the monument related to lighthouse. Yeah, he contacted Wheeler and said quote. I understand. You're a lighthouse expert Wheeler took it home to his wife Sally and said this guy thinks I'm an expert isn't that funny. So it went on to be what it is. So today on the website if you open their website the mission statement.

14:53 So what what do they do preserve and share the history and legacy of America's lighthouses and their keepers and the vision statement. I think it's funny. They both is to be a beacon to the American lighthouse community providing steadfast guidance and resources on heritage education preservation all things lighthouses. So they're the modern day textbook the modern tour the modern website. Defined information on lighthouses in the United States collection of all lighthouse knowledge. I thought this image was super cool. It's from Paris exposition 1900. So they're talking about Fresnel lenses the different types and sizes and this was still relevant like it was like a sales pitch like here's all of your uses.

15:38 You should get a Fresnel lens like a World's Fair. I want to go to this. Look at that. Can there be something like this now? Can I wear that hat? You could have mercury in it. But is it a bowler hat? I think so. Wayne Wheeler said that he put together a slideshow presentation for a middle school and then he was asked to present at a yacht club someone who saw that some parent. Then after that the phone just rang off the hook. Lots more talks followed for Wheeler about 1982. He came early. He came home and said boy there's a lot of lighthouse enthusiasts out there. They ought to get organized bingo sort of it was going to be supposed to be called the California lighthouse Society.

16:23 And he had a talk with a friend who said stop thinking so small thinking less. So he retired from his position to become the guy. He was the guy. He had the books and back in the 80s when books were all we had. He was answering the phone calls and giving the presentations. He was he was the guy. So cool. Really cool. So he gave us what we have today and what we have today with the society is so closely tied in culture. And they give so much in the shed so much credit to the service the establishment that us included mix them up. So talked about the strategy but they have two things they're going after expand and enhance our services and value to the entire American Lighthouse Society community and help the community to grow by bold sharing our knowledge resources and passions which is what they do perfectly.

17:20 And then to talks about them operating excellently which I think makes sense for an ex retired Coast Guard guy was talking about to do a really good job. If you don't do a really good job with your information with your presentation with everything that has your stamp on it then saying that they're not going to retain that loyalty and what they value will go away. So I respect that a lot. I think they're living up to it today and we're going to show slides on all these but if you go to their website and that's what I'm going to surf around there published in magazines they have over the history of the society.

18:03 There's several volunteers that have been really key to what they're doing early on. They had a photography competition so you could submit like a picture of a lighthouse. Yeah, and it became what I would say now is like really common lighthouse photography and art in the United States, but it helped to promote like people usually know about a lighthouse at least locally. But then you see a different one and a different style and a short one and a tall one a different day marked. So it kind of spread the interest in what was going on. It's a nonprofit organization since the founding in 1984. They do lighthouse tours. They organize and execute them.

18:45 They have a lot of lighthouse. What's called? Oh, no, I had it and then it went away. Trips, I don't know. Yeah, I mean tours like what vacations. Yeah, they organize cruises and yeah, they have one for Alaska coming up. I saw that catch a can one in Germany. I can't remember. There's one international one that's going on. Really have some and they did some in like Iceland and stuff. So it's not just the US they do some some out of out of US. Yes, they have good relationships. They have a lighthouse digest. Yeah, so this is their the keepers lighthouse digest.

19:27 It comes with one of the memberships. No, that's the keepers log. The keepers log is a separate thing. I didn't know there was another magazine and as of yesterday, I am now a member of the US LHS well joined the club. I see I thought it was about time. Can I have your patches? No, can't have my patches, but the lighthouse digest shows some of their artwork and some of their articles that are organized. Did you get did you become a part of this magazine club? So I'm going to look at membership on the website. Join or renew.

20:08 I am a keeper membership, which is we're going to I can I can show my screen, but I'm going to finish the presentation first. Okay, so don't go to the membership levels. Yes, okay. We don't have to I mean I am going to go to the passport. Is that okay? Yes, that's good. That was another one I was going to do, but it's not the next one. So the passport system. It's genius is a genius idea because people like me who I think I said this before but like if I play a video game, I'm one of those people that just wants to collect everything there is to collect in the game go everywhere. There is to go. Yes, it's made for people like me who just like a lot like from now on for of all time our lighthouse related trips will be based on which lighthouses have stamps.

20:56 I still have zero stamp. I can't believe you have zero. I haven't climbed the lighthouse and I have zero stamps. So lame lame is lame. So the the passport program was started in 1994, which is crazy to me 84 94. Okay, so one year short of 95, which is a great year. When I was born me Patrick my homes and post Malone. So and many other wonderful people United States lighthouse program. So you track your visits for those who don't know so you get this passport that looks like a US official passport. Yeah, and it has pages that have really cool artwork, but you stamp you collect stamps by going to lighthouses or proving you're at the lighthouse with a photo and then the the lighthouse keepers is a lack of words.

21:52 The people who manage that lighthouse like Alcatraz Island is the national park service. They will have applied paid for and then gotten the stamp that's custom designed by the US LHS. They say they pay the fee. So the hope is that you as a visitor go and you donate at least a dollar you give them something to promote their lighthouse. Thank you so much. They in turn give you a stamp in your passport. You collect stamps you fill the passport. Is it 60 that's right? 60 stamps fill a password or about to find out another thing is. Every year that they do sorry if I'm stepping on your every year that they do this password.

22:33 There are new stamps that get added sometimes like a lot of lighthouses in New York have several different stamps you can get depending on where you go to get the stamp or some places will have to stamp so you can ask for both. And they also lose a lot of stamps every year like this is no longer participating. This has changed designs like stuff like that and they send a notice every year about new stamps that are being added. And they also said this year that a lot of people like volunteers or employees at lighthouses and also the places like the museums where because like a lot of lighthouses you go to you can't get the stamp at the lighthouse.

23:14 You have to go somewhere else to get the stamp and people won't know about the stamp program because it's kind of obscure like it's not people that go there aren't the subculture. Yeah, it's like it's a deeper thing that a lot of people aren't a part of. So then some people would message to the US LHS and be like, hey, I showed up and you said there was going to be a stamp here and they had no idea what I was talking about. And in those cases you have to do it by mail because it's just that this person that you talked to didn't know that there was a stamp program. So you kind of have to ask around just like, oh, it made me realize like I may have to. Yeah, it's not super well known. Yeah, it's not. I mean, it is super well known in the right community and the folks who are listening probably know.

23:58 But yeah, if you go to I think one of the examples is like Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, there's no facility there for visitors. There is a Cape Disappointment State Park, which is just across the bay, which is where North Head Lighthouse is at. And that is where you would go and like get stamps for probably both. Right. But yeah, it's funny. It's not actually at the lighthouse. So that's true for a lot of lighthouses. What was our first one? It wasn't Okra Coke. Bodie. Yeah, Bodie Island. So they had in Outer Banks, they had a building which was a store slash history museum.

24:39 The old Kupers Cottage. And yes, which is often what's done with the Kupers Cottage is, which is great. And also they have someone there, I'm sure with a stamp that knows people are going to come and ask me for a stamp, especially on the Outer Banks, which are covered in lighthouses. When you fill your stamp, when you fill your passport, you get a patch. So these are some of the patches. So I personally think the first one you get is the coolest one. And then the prestige that comes with more obviously is really neat. But I just like the design so much of the first one, which makes me happy. But you fill it out, your entire book, and you can have stamps from lighthouses that are not official.

25:23 You can have stickers or other things. I would encourage you to go read on the website. Right. But, excuse me. But once you prove to the US LHS that you've got your first passport filled out, they'll send you this stamp in this patch in the mail. I have seen the light and it's the all white one. And then 60. So 60 is a complete passport book. And if you go further and you continue and apparently people are doing this, the website has their list, their names listed. Yes. Who's in what club? Yeah. And if you someone just hit the 300 Lighthouses Club and they shouted them out in the email that they updated stuff.

26:03 So, I mean, 300. 300. So now a lot of people are getting these, you know, if you go down the Outer Banks, you're going to see what five or six. And then if you want to cruise, especially one organized by the US LHS, they will have like potentially 12, you know, that boom, you get them. So I think that's how people, these retirees, man, they have a life. Yes. Seeing so many lighthouses. I'm so jealous. So you can see the light. Then if you turn in to you get the Silver Star level, 120 lighthouses. So it's a new patch and so on. Three, four. And then once you get to 300, which is five books, they get you this little wing is what they call it.

26:43 And then six books, a second wing, seven books, a third wing. So it looks like is like when you're platinum 240 lighthouses, they're all circular patches. And then when you hit 300, it becomes like a strip each another 60 lighthouses after 300. Then you get a cup to complete a circle around your existing platinum circle. And then there's another. There's more. Oh my gosh. There's the diamond circle, which is a whole new patch orange border, which really stands out from the other ones. And it was a diamond color scheme. Four hundred and eight lighthouses kind of gaudy. I'm into it. And then you get three more wings as you go on.

27:23 So the top of the line is 660 lighthouses. And I think I should know this and I we can read it in a second. I think. There's one more. Oh, it's a flag. The Pharaoh. Isn't it a flag? I'll tell you about the flag in a second. Oh, OK. It's here. Let's check the next slide. No, we'll talk about the flag. But it's like what's the original first lighthouse ever made? The Pharaoh. Oh, Alexandria. Yeah. So we'll look while I look at the website. Well, I'll bring it on screen. We'll surf. But the flag comes from filling out a passport book with 100 percent stamps.

28:07 So no stickers, no images that proved you were somewhere, but the actual stamps themselves. You get a fully stamp only award, which is that flag. I thought it was oh. I didn't know that was a thing. For some reason, I thought the flag was for if it was only lighthouses because there's a lot of stamps you can get that aren't lighthouses. They're like Coast Guard Museum or a light ship or something. We'll review. OK, because you might be right. You. Yeah, I just I haven't looked at it. So I wanted to show this again. We've already covered it, but sharing their knowledge, resources and passions. So I'm going to go surf the website with on screen. We're going to talk about it because I couldn't fit it all on slides.

28:47 Right. But something else they've got. They've got their own podcast, which is Jeremy De Ettermo is the host. And it's a really good podcast. If you're looking for another one. Yeah, it's it's the official podcast of the US LHS light hearted is the name. So there's images on screen, but it's also found on the website. And it's it's a lot more in depth than ours because ours are like theirs is really nice because they always have a special guest. And so it'll be someone who works with a specific lighthouse or someone who's an expert in like something specific. And they also do current events like anytime something new happens in the lighthouse world, they'll cover it.

29:29 And so it's like deeper than ours where we just talk about like history of certain lighthouses, which I really I think I'm glad that ours is like different in some way. Yes, you can listen to both and have very different. Yeah, when I read different information, when I tell people that I meet about our podcast, I have to mention light hearted. And it's it's because that's the it's the news of light lighthouses. It's the like you said, current ongoing deep conversations. Ours, we have a lot of fun and we try to be a little lighter than light hearted, but we're appealing to a different crowd. I think it's good. I think there's room for both.

30:09 And I think there's special things that only Jeremy can cover with his extensive work. Jeremy, this is the website and there's like go to the main main one, but I wanted to show you that's all I'm going to say about it. I am the keeper level. So I will get this patch in the mail and I'm beacon. Oh, you're really investing. I use their website so much that maybe I should help them out. Yeah, but I'll let you cover more details in a future episode on the membership. I love that patch. So you can also gift memberships if you're so inclined, but let's just kind of surf for a minute, kind of talk about some of the things we've already seen. Yeah. And like I mentioned in a like I mentioned in a past episode, they recently redid their website and it's really a big improvement.

30:57 Yeah. So something else I'm jumping on my own notes here, but they really did a good job with social media in the Internet. I think they said it was like early 2000s like 03 is when they were on online and updating the website, which I mean what YouTube came out in 2005. I think it was launched. Oh, wow. Facebook was around what oh seven. I don't know. But the point is they were breaking bleeding edge and they've worked several times and recently to update both their Internet presence as well as social media. So they're putting in a lot of work here. We see the Keepers log. So that's included.

31:38 That's what I got keeper level. So the Keepers log is different from the magazines that I showed. Okay. Magazines are a separate thing that we can I did see us a sign on here. Lighthearted podcast. It's new. Yeah, I'm going to talk about their accommodations and their tours. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. I you said tours and for some reason I thought it was a different word. But yeah, this one's full 2024 Caribbean cruise 15 Lighthouse is nine days solar. That's a pretty lighthouse solar eclipse Lake Erie Denmark in Germany, Germany. Yeah, so cool. Well, I kind of get Northern California. You know that mean lots of cool things. These groups look like fun.

32:20 We'll meet people and have a good time. Yeah, so they do several things. First off. I'm going to mention at the end again. You can donate on the website or via mail if you so choose. And that's how the best way to support them is probably membership and then donations, but they do endowments. So they have like scholarship type programs and they also have grant programs. So if you have a lighthouse project, you want to work on there's a you should read the website. There's a submission process to say here's what I want to do. Here's images and background and here's what we plan to do. Yeah, they do that every year. They try to give out two to three projects that they help fund. Yeah, that's really cool. They listed that in that email I was talking about as well.

33:00 I think it's just like at the beginning of the year. They say what their plans are and like like the people who got 300 lighthouses like they so they say all the changes and then at the bottom they said which projects they were funding for which lighthouses. So that's all on there too. Should have said should afforded you the email if I had known it. Yeah, it's cool. They do a lot of cool stuff. I'm really blown away by what they do. I know it's so much the passport is I don't know. I just I love the passport. The passport so cool. So we're on the passport page now and we I just scrolled past all the levels that we talked about 11 passports 660 lighthouses 11 passports. Yep, that's the Pharaohs of Alexandria. So I was kind of close to Pharaohs the Hall of Fame pieces.

33:43 They have a web page that shows who's made that accomplishment. There's 900 locations with at least one stamp you weaklings with zero stamps. In addition, many stamps have been redesigned. The tours provide hundreds of more stamps and lots of locations have multiple stamps. Okay, and you're right. You're right. It says if a passport can paint contains only stamps collector receives a stamp only flag for each one in excess of 11. Yeah, what does that mean? I don't know stamps only official stamps when this type of passport is verified. The program member will not only receive the badge but also commemorative custom patch.

34:23 Oh, okay. So even if I were to turn in the first like with only 60 light only 60 lighthouses if there were only official stamps, then it would be a stamp only award. Does that does that mean you can't you probably want on this but if there's some other ways to park your way if you mail in stamps, it won't count. Do not mail them in. They've asked specific on here. Do no, no, no, no, if you get stamps in the mail that won't count as stamp only or do you think it will? I don't I don't know how you get stamps in the mail. I know what you're saying. Yeah, I think it's a sticker maybe and maybe it's an official. So because they send you a rubber thing to stamp your own passport.

35:06 They stamp it on a piece of paper. You cut it out. Oh, I don't count. Okay, I would count. Yeah, because it's like I was there. Yeah, yeah, because when we went to the Outer Banks, I found out about the passport thing afterwards devastating. It was right afterwards. So I figured out where to get the stamps from but you have to mail in a what is it called the picture? Yeah, mail in proof that you were there two dollars and a envelope that's already stamped. What is it called self-addressed return to send something envelope? Yeah, you have to send that. We pay. I haven't gotten gotten around to doing that. But so yeah, and if you want to you don't have to join as a member and well, you can talk about the memberships in the future, but you can just get a passport if you want.

35:56 You don't have to be a member of the US LHS and then there's also a passport level, which I think is the entry level. Yeah, so you get some other perks if you sign up and any any membership you do sign up for you also get the passport membership. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. It's all-encompassing but you have to buy the passport book separately. Yep. So here's the the Keepers log. If you get the keeper level, it kind of keeps you up. It's modern news and articles. Then I have on my notes resources because there's so many I know there's so many and they're so good and you know this because you're looking at them. But lighthouse technology is going to be its own like history boogie collection.

36:40 Yeah, light lists is really interesting. Obviously, you know what and day marks are on here foghorns are on here and their audio recordings single listen to a foghorn from cool 1930 something. Oh, there's so many. Okay, I exaggerated 1970 is oldest that's listed here, but I've listened to some of these and something when I listen to these I won't play them now. We can play them off off air, but they play and then they run out of air and it's like whoa, like it jumps an octave like I used to play trumpet. Yeah, if you you know, you you can play multiple octaves of the same note based on airflow and pressure.

37:23 So I was like, of course, a foghorn would work that way too, but it's not a sound that I had heard before. It's not the me and it's all yeah, it was kind of a flutter at the end. I thought it was cool. So the bellows or the compressor or whatever runs out of capacity until it has to recharge thought that was cool. But that's on here. You can I mean, there's information there's children stuff in memoriam is insane. Have you seen this page? No, so this shows all the lighthouse personnel that have died. Oh, this would actually be really helpful drowned electric shock. Oh, I fell off cliff died from coal stove fumes killed in hurricane killed in tsunami.

38:05 Drowned drowned drowned. There's so many drowned black keeper killed an Indian attack. 1836 I assume they noted that because he was black, he was killed. I don't know. Like drowned boat in tsunami. Booy gas explosion. Now I am not using these people's dead in head by Derek. Hear me out. I am not using these people's deaths as entertainment. I'm sorry, but there is a lot this I mean, this is history. These are real people. Yes, there's a lot of really interesting. Demises in this goes including murder. Yeah, and this goes along with what I was saying. I don't know if it was the last episode with split rock, but a lot.

38:48 There's a lot of deaths and you can see him here, especially by drowning drowning. Fell it's especially assistant keepers as well. They are always the ones that are in the boats going somewhere for supplies or something and then have it capsized. There's one so murdered is on here. There's several actually shot. Accidentally shot accidentally shot suicide said they're all sad. Then there's a shot and killed by assistant keeper painting tower. Then there's one I won't waste all day on this, but there's one good. There's one where it's like five people in a row and it's like lightships sank and it's all the same date.

39:28 Oh, awful. Damn it. Like so this is not it's not enough fucking fun at these people who passed away, but it's really interesting and it's they update this anytime it's submitted. So this doesn't include natural by natural causes. These are like all like accident stuff. So shoot there. The resources is probably the highlight of the website and it's really so in depth. Lots so much information and that's kind of their whole purpose is right. Spreading the information the travel page we already clicked on. But there's something else I want to show you accommodations. Oh, yeah. Stay at the lighthouse. You sure can. There's two of them that the US LHS has done restorations on.

40:11 They're both near Seattle, Seattle on our Pacific Northern Loop. Look at the images. Point no point and point Wilson. So there's their torch Dungeon S. Remember that there. So they're different places. But Mount Rainier, I think is what's shown in the background here. They're just so beautiful. This one I think is 250 a night minimum two nights. 350 a night minimum two nights. Not nearly as bad as the ones I was looking at Cape Cod. And they're cool. My gosh. So these are actually US LHS and point no point is actually where the headquarters is at now for the US LHS. Can you go? Yeah. But half of the Keepers house is the headquarters. The other half is the end that you stay in.

40:52 There's a divided duplex. Yeah. I didn't know headquarters. Wow. I'll click on it. So you see it's a duplex. There's actually images. There's a walkthrough video on here. What it looks like. Really cool. They did a good job. And as our listeners know, there's several places you can stay in lighthouses. But it's cool that these are US LHS. Yeah. Official. You can shop. You can buy things and stuff. I thought we should do maybe a giveaway in the early future. Maybe a hat from them or a shirt or maybe a membership. On my Christmas list last year was a US LHS hat and it's discontinued.

41:33 Oh, no. I didn't get it for Christmas. It was actually crippling. Oh, no. It was called it was the putty color is what it was. And it was like a soft hat instead of like a firm. Damn. I think they have a soft. I thought they had a soft hat. Yeah, it was kind of like that. The ball cap. But it was something else. Or wait, feminine style. Wait, click on it. Oh, they still have it. OK, when I went on here, it was not there. I might as well just buy it. If I'm going to be so devastated by it. It's 25 bucks. It includes shipping and handling. Can you add to cart? Added to cart. So we may we may do a giveaway in the in the future with some of their swag because we really appreciate what they do.

42:14 Yeah, they're simple and it's nice because you're supporting. Supporting the society. So I'm going to minimize and go back to my slides. And I just bought a book from them about Maine Lighthouses. And it's really nice because if you buy it off Amazon, it's a lot more expensive than it is on this website, which is normally not how it goes. Yep. Amazon, mark it up. Those turds. Bezos, you listener. Wouldn't that be so fun? He's like, how about a sponsorship? All right. We'd be living the dream. So they preserve the history of lighthouses in the United States better, more effectively, more intensely, more widespread than anyone else, any other body that I'm aware of.

43:00 So this is some of their their current need. There's three hundred thirty four submissions they received recently on lighthouses that need funding. Five hundred plus log books to be digitized, which is, you know, ours. Yes, and ours. Eight hundred thousand lighthouse related images to be scanned. Think of all the cool pictures out there. And when you do send in your lighthouse related, especially like if you have pictures of like if your great grandpa was a lighthouse keeper and you have pictures of him, they they put underneath the photo who sent it in, like who who provided the photo to the Lighthouse Society.

43:41 And then they also put who of the employees scanned it into the database. It's like a whole they have interns who do that, I believe. Yeah. So they still have volunteers. Yeah. Yeah. So they started out with Wayne, I think his wife helped a little bit. And then they had one full time employee after like there's three or four volunteers, including Wayne. Yeah. And I think it was the secretary. And it's like, we have an employee. Oh, then they moved. So it was from his house. They moved to an office space at that time and then office space. I want to say they moved again. And then now point out point is their official place. Pretty sure Wayne's retired. There's a board. It shows the board on the website.

44:21 I didn't check it out. I probably should have. But that's right. So the point is that there's a need. And even if it's only a couple of dollars or if it's a passport book or something, check the website out. I really do think this is the best place to go, probably in the world for Lighthouse information. Yeah. At least from our perspective, anytime we do for in Lighthouses, it's so much harder to find the information because the US LHS is so good. The website is so good. And and my friends, which I'm sure uses the same basis of information. They do a great job. And Lighthearted podcast, the whole community is really great. And I think I read that the people who did Lighthouse Friends, I looked into it one time and they went to the Lighthouses and then wrote.

45:07 So like it wasn't all based on Internet research. It was like they did in depth hard work. I'll have to look at that again. But it's funny. I've seen some because I usually cite multiple sources just to make sure. And sometimes there's no Lighthouse Friends article. And so sometimes there's contradictions. And it's like, what it is. What happened? What was the story or how was it interpreted when someone read the logbook? So it's really interesting. This is the donation page on their site. Ten dollars is what they automatically ask for. And then if you want to, you can put it. I like that you can earmark it. Point Wilson Lighthouse. That was that beautiful image we saw. You can specify where you want your money to go.

45:47 Is that what you can? Yep. Unrestricted or you can specify if you want to make your donation with a check. Some people like to do that. U.S. Lighthouse Society 9005 Point No Point Road, Northeast Hansville, Hansville, Washington, 98340. They have questions. They have a phone call. You can or phone number you can call. They've got an email. So they do a great job. This is Point No Point. So that's the lighthouse that's next to the headquarters. It's a really pretty area. There is one step back. You can see the Keepers Quarters, which is looks in great shape. Yeah, it's a duplex.

46:28 And then that one, I just forgot the name. Wilson. Point Wilson, I believe. It's this one. And it's, you know, it's covered in birds, pink sky. But it is so pretty. Yeah, birds are hanging out. It's right on the water as well. As per usual. As per usual. USLHS, the USLHE, the establishment, the service, the whole thing tied up. I wanted to kind of clarify today and then talk about the society. So USLHE has its own long history. And even from 1934 and on is the military, the Coast Guard, I should say history would be really interesting to dive into. So we might do that in the future.

47:08 But for now, thank you to the society and a quick coverage. Yes, thank you. So much fun. Do you have any other questions or things you wanted to point out? That's it. I kind of just put it in every time I had something. That's what we do here. I'm usually not that way, but I will be for Lighthouses. Well, yeah, check us out on YouTube. Check us out on LinkedIn. We're very near 300 followers. You could be the 300th. Yeah, we're close on Instagram as well. So how's Instagram doing? I haven't been on there. It's pretty good. We're actually having some good growth. And there's been lots of people leaving reviews on our on Apple and on our website.

47:49 And we've been getting voice mails and emails from people. Oh my gosh, we've got to catch up. It's so much fun. Well, if you've listened this far, you're one of the MVP's and we thank you very much. We love you guys. So we'll see you next time on the Lighthouse Lowdown.