Episode 47 - Edgartown Harbor Lighthouse

0:00 Hello everyone, I'm Emily and I'm Vince and this is the lighthouse lowdown So it's testing you there the rumor has it there's no history boots. Oh my gosh Just before we started I realized I had a space for the history buoy and didn't complete it so you actually on record saying that we're already three minutes in and what And that's the second time this year and it's halfway through February as we record this so Pretty bad. It's a shame. I maybe once know I was gonna say maybe once per month I'm allowed but that's far too much for how often we record so That's the only time you've ever let that sound go to completion But I have a cold so Blame it on that got some brain fog going on. Oh Oh couldn't possibly remember the history buoy So we'll just jump straight into our lighthouse today and that's because I Did not do my due diligence apologies to everyone out there. I know how much everyone counts on me But I also said last I was going to cover the membership levels for the US le just and I am Going to do that. It's just seems to be getting further and further away from this moment It'll happen. Yeah, so our lighthouse today

1:30 We talked about a little bit of this a couple times and in our very last episode We talked about Bartholomew Gus knows the guy who Bart Bart Bart for short Bad Bart, right? Yeah. Yeah Unfortunate part. He I don't think he knew the repercussions of his actions and he's Reprocussions of his actions and I looked it up a little bit more. He wasn't the only one It was also like all the people is everybody everyone part took then. What are we picking on Bart for Bart? You mean from the last episode or right now, right? Well last episode well because he soured Native American That's right ruined it sold it but we're not looking at all that We're looking at just Cape Cod today and Martha's Vineyard in particular. Oh cool. It's and I once again I've decided we're going to Cape Cod and we're gonna spend a day in Martha's Vineyard. And so I'm gonna do a little spotlight on a couple of those lighthouses coming up and one of them is today for those who don't know would you tell me or You already told me but tell them why is it named Martha's Vineyard? I thought that was cool Bartholomew Sailed by he never he didn't stop there, but he assumed that it was uninhabited It's a lots of wild grapes and on top of that his deceased daughter's name was Martha named after his wife's mom And so he named the place Martha's Vineyard very sweet There's that I'm gonna pull up a map because I'm gonna talk about it's a map Edgar town

3:01 Hopefully that's how you pronounce it. I assumed Eggerton that's how no Gosh, I'm gonna be just shocked with myself in particular if it actually ends up being something other than Edgar town Gosh now you have me wondering we discovered it's Chatham and Eastham Chatham and East oh Chatham and Eastham see I've ruined it. I've ruined it. I'm sorry. It's okay. So Martha's Vineyard, Edgar town Yes, so we're gonna be focusing in on there I just decided to pull up a map because last time you asked me for a map and I didn't pull one up Mappy maps? So Martha's Vineyard is a island off the Southern part of Cape Cod It's just under 87 and a half square miles with a population of 20,000 and that swells to over 200,000 in the summer so permanent residents or like and tourists but Martha's Vineyard is really It's a summer. It's a summer. It's an affluent summer live-in island So Martha's Vineyard also includes the adjacent Chapa Chapa Chapaquidic Island so that that's I felt something coming that I hadn't checked the pronunciation of but It's pretty big chunk over here Chapaquidic How you get to huh? Yeah, I agree. Okay Chapaquidic You get there through Edgar town, but you still have to take a ferry It just runs constantly 24 7 so nice maybe not 24 7 at least all day It runs. Yep, can't swim it. So technically they're separated islands, but it's in when people talk about Martha's Vineyard

4:35 It's included. It's so close. The first settlement on this island was Edgar town Which is why we're talking about it first called Great Harbor in 1642 when the settlement was founded by Thomas Mayhew who was the son of Thomas Mayhew who had a son named Thomas Mayhew Oh Gosh But Thomas Mayhew the first had excellent relations with the existing Native Americans on this island And I think he went back and forth and kind of had built up trust in a relationship with them So his son Thomas Mayhew the second was the one who started the settlement and continued these this excellent relationship with the Native Americans there and They were so friendly in fact that when their people Started the King Phillips war later on in the century They decided not to partake with their people on the mainland in this war against the English colonies The King Phillips award King Phillips King Phillips war. Okay, was that the Declaration of Independence? I Don't know history I didn't know it either actually King Phillips is referring to a Native American chief who took the name Philip. So I'm pretty sure King Philippe King Phillips. Yes, I don't know what I don't know history Sometimes called first Indian War Peta McCombs rebellion

6:06 I feel like that was how they referred to it in my history class when I was a child. Okay armed conflict in 1975 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and the English New England colonies War is named for Metacomet It's a hundred adopted the English name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father and the Plymouth colony Okay, so hundred years before the Declaration of Independence Okay, kind of interesting not a hundred years. He said 1670s, right? Yeah Yeah, 1776. Oh, you Know why I got you know, I got thrown off. I was thinking 1716, which is when the Boston light went into service That's what really matters to me so War King Philip King Phillips war. Yeah, so that was started by this Tribe of Native Americans. I don't know what it's called when it's like the certain like Cherokee But there were separate groups of Cherokee people. Yeah, so I don't know what you call it the umbrella Someone would know but I don't anyway just all of that is to say that English and Native American on Martha's Vineyard were very kumbaya and We're not each other's throats. Nice. Yeah, that's nice. I don't know when that ended Maybe it never did I don't have to go that far. I don't know I wonder if there's still a native presence or if that's so there is yeah, they actually this

7:41 Gosh, what is it? Like what do I refer? I that's why I like Section of native like there's a name for it Anyway, these Native Americans still are recognized on in this area of America. Okay still being I said didn't rename the island from Chepa Chepa aquatic. Yeah, I'm sorry everyone It's part of who we are not being able to pronounce anything and winging it last second Anyway, so the island today has five lighthouses and the first was actually not in Edgar town Which I think is interesting since it was the first settlement But that's not the one I'm covering today. I'm covering the one in Edgar town. Okay. Okay I'll cover the other one later the the other ones gay head lighthouse it was the first one and they named it that because the clay cliff that they saw was colorful and So the cheerful so they named it gay headlight in the head because lots of places are the head of land mass I'm holding up my arms and pointing different directions as if these are peninsulas I'm looking at the peninsula But they're the first order lens for that lighthouse is in the Martha's Vineyard Museum that we're gonna go to so we get to see a first order lens. Nice and that's the og is gay head. Yes So and and there's a stamp for the lens itself. Oh cool No, did we see a picture of this and we're doing our research? I think so

9:12 I bet yeah, so we've done some you guys may or may not have heard at this point We're doing some research on traveling to Cape God We are going to go this summer. It's gonna be a great time. We're gonna see lighthouses We're gonna have the food that the locals tell us are good. At least that the internet tells us is good Yeah, you guys tell us what's good. Let me know if there's a golf course that can hit up as well Oh, no, there's so many it needs to be public. He needs to be able to rent clubs and It's any anywhere in Cape Cod, I looked at Martha's Vineyard, I don't think that's the one there's only one for On Martha's Vineyard, oh one's public. Okay, but either way I would like to hear that at the lighthouse lowdown at gmail.com Yes, please send us recommendations actually send us recommendations for literally anything because we are pretty busy Like we're packing this trip full of stuff to do but we can make like everything's flexible On a trip so yeah, just red ball it out No, I can't I can't rally I had your town tell us about it. Okay So Edgar Towne Harbor was a hub of whaling Oh, hence the need for a lighthouse and also kind of why Like kind of points to where the the affluent part of this island came from is that like some of the money for a while?

10:31 Yeah, that's right. Like a solid. What was it? I think a solid quarter of all whaling ships left this harbor Wow It was a it was a hub up. So in 1828 Congress approved $5,500 for a lighthouse at the end of a pier in the harbor. Oh the quality of this photo is not very good Look at this photo Well our 65 inch screen it's a little blurred out. Yeah, that's that was a failure on my part. But anyway, this is a picture of Moby Dick Moby Dick the whaling yes story. Oh, yeah was based out of Nantucket. Oh, no way Okay, so that's the island that's next. I was wondering if twenty five percent of whaling ships left from yeah, Edgar Towne Wow, that's interesting and tuck it is the I'd have to read more. This is a super super quick Google Yeah, maybe they lived in Nantucket and the harbor was actually familiar to you. Is that why you decided to look that up?

11:31 No, just the only whaling book story. I know is Moby Dick. Wow, what a coincidence Anyways, I'm sorry to interrupt you you're good in this picture. It's hard to tell but this is the I got a shirt This is the first light it's super different from what we see today And I'll get into the whole story of that but this the original one was a two-story dwelling with a lighthouse tower coming from the center So it's integral the pier wasn't built for another year and a half after the light was lit at the end of 1828 and so for a while the keepers had to row back and forth from the beach to Light so and it was on wooden piles or like wooden ears. Yeah So so it's pretty shallow where it's at then. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not very deep. I guess that makes sense for a lighthouse. Yeah Oh That's not true Give one example, okay I don't have an example I was thinking I thought of standard rock where it's like in the middle of a lake and so i'm like it wasn't shallow But it was on a reef that was like dangerously shallow. Yeah, so I just I thought of that one as well So the pier was 1500 feet long Wow costs $2,500 to build which is crazy because that's like half the cost of the lighthouse a great deal you think I don't know less expensive than that. It's just a wood like a wooden

13:03 Walkway. Yeah But an integral lighthouse is a house With a light lantern room. Yeah, you know, so I guess I don't know They're pretty good at building houses. The walkway was called the bridge of size, which I looked up because People would go to this bridge to watch their family or husbands or whoever leave on their whaling ships And sometimes the expeditions were like five years long. So it's called the bridge of size. It's very sad. Si ghs Yeah, first keeper at edgertown harbor lighthouse was jeremiah. Damn it I didn't look at my damn it. I didn't look up how to pronounce his last name. I think it was a bullfrog um Okay, I typed it in it says to pronounce it as peas. So i'm just gonna pronounce it as peas p a s e Jeremiah served at edgertown for 13 years as the first keeper and then two years later He served for another six years. So he took a little gap and apparently political party before The lighthouse board was created was very important to lighthouse keeper placements. So if there was a change in power then the lighthouse keeper would change Interesting. I don't know if that was true for everywhere, but at least like maybe in these early lighthouses Yeah, so when the wig party was in power peas was replaced with sylvanus crocker both times crocker the big wig

14:33 peas was a democrat and wig was like a more conservative party that died out but Every time so he served 13 years got kicked out for two by crocker and then He served another six years wig party went back into power and crocker came back in he was just waiting Yeah, he's just like come on. Come on. I don't have to do with my time Yeah, and actually another I read another instance. It's not exactly like this, but I read another instance at pimaquid point I didn't really mention it Another political party thing that marcus h hanna who I've heard of before and has his own section in that main lighthouse book that I showed you last time in the last episode He was really well known for being super brave and courageous like he got like awards He was in the civil war and he was like known for really putting his life in danger to save other people So he was awesome, but he was allegedly a stanker to work with he was like grumpy like he was He like he he when when you needed him he would save your life But any other time people are just like oh this guy. Yeah, so anyway, um, he wanted to be placed at a better light station Than pimaquid point so he allegedly used his status as a republican with president grant to move him to two lights Which is cape elizabeth. I feel like i've heard of two lights to be covered No, we haven't yet. Okay But i've heard of it. Yeah, which effectively boots out the current head keeper who wrote in the log book quote

16:06 Mr. Hanna from pimaquid light station will take my place but not with my consent. I am no longer a republican Oh my gosh I'm like, oh shit So anyway political stuff came up often in keepers positions. Yeah, I did not know that I'm sure there's a lot of other instances but instances you're doing great. Take a sip of coffee Coffee today was provided by emily. Yeah, it's fantastic and uh captain cecil's atlantic Really? Wow run through the espresso machine. I did it was maybe not the smartest thing to do but I don't know. I really enjoy it. Yeah, I know it's a It's not pure coffee at this point, but it's good. What do you mean? Oh, well, it's got honey I'm a child. So I like that stuff. I went a little heavy on the sugar, but I think it's still A plus. Honey is basically liquid sugar as well. I know Anyway, that was just something i'd mentioned 1840 The wooden beams holding up the lighthouse were really starting to rot away And I mean that's over a decade So that's pretty good for just wooden beams just sitting in the water. Yeah, they were replaced with a stone pier Let me pull a picture. You can see it at the bottom here. Pretty nice Pretty nice Why is there a crack in the house where in the middle right there under the window Oh this yeah Um, probably some damage. There was lots of complaints

17:39 That the room the house was leaking stuff because looking at it. You can actually tell it's not weatherproof Like this is not this is aggressive. Yeah, this is just a house on salt water Just a house with no buffers or anything just on the water recently. What was the storm? Earth january we talked about the storm that affected. Oh, yeah east coast 10th and 13th. Yeah, but uh In some of those photos we talked about like sea walls that were built. Yes and Foundations like tall foundations. This house doesn't have this house would have been Decimated by a storm like that. Is that a poop pipe you think right there? I think so I think this might just be straight up open to the oh Let's go. I mean it's away from the town. You can see the town over there. Yeah, so there's some distance It would be broken up if you're dropping donations Keeping the fish happy Gross, I know i'm the worst the fog bell is also on that side of the house. That's kind of neat. Yeah. Yeah I was gonna I see a picture and I point it's a good eye because I I didn't really have anything to say about that in particular um But I thought it was cool that it was just on the side of the house like that I wonder how they actuated it. I don't know. I'm sure it was Through the top or maybe there's a hole in the side. I don't know. This actually is an add-on to the house So it's not like see a nice lightning rod running down water is a conductor So does the lightning rod run down into the water? You might as well

19:09 Right, is that stupid? I don't know water is also Uh salt water particularly highly corrosive, which is why those Probably why those wood piers did not last very long so your Metal wire i'm just interested. I like to look it up Anyway, because I covered lightning rods previously but not on water. Yeah. Oh true Makes a big difference. Sorry caffeine got me. You're good um My next point was that the official keeper's dwelling was not well suited for being on the water, which is what I see here So there was a quick turn over on keeper's and most preferred to stay somewhere on the shore rather than the light itself And I don't know if that had to come out of their own pocket or if that was I doubt that was supplied By the lighthouse board. Yeah Additionally the wooden pier did nothing to protect the harbor from shifting sands And that's something i'll mention later like a sand movement is like a big deal on this area so The keeper sylvanus argued to build a breakwater instead of just having this walkway So in 1847 for four thousand seven hundred dollars a stone breakwater topped with a wooden walkway was built to help preserve the harbor And eventually they made like other improvements to the keeper's cottage including adding a fourth order for now lens So that's nice. And then they added an oil house this fog bell Area that you pointed out. Yeah storage shed, etc Nice some riprap making it up. Yeah, they added some they oomphed it. What was that called again? Nathan told us? Oh, um

20:44 revetment Yeah revetment revetment stone Cool after that there wasn't a lot of notes about it except for that. It was a quote-unquote tolerable place to live nice that is until it took significant damage from Um a hurricane in 1938 which was just referred to as the great hurricane. It was category five 306 million dollars in damage, which is six point five billion dollars today And uh killed 800 people injured like 1700 people. So It was a big one dang it was a bad one, so The year after that the coast guard took over all the lighthouses And immediately destroyed this one because it would have been so costly to upkeep And they weren't going to have keepers there anymore or anything. So they were planning on building a skeleton tower Instead like in its place in the 30s. Oh 40s. It took over. Yeah so they were going to build a skeleton tower with a the beacon on top but The town hated that idea and so instead they took the 1881 rear range light from cranes beach, massachusetts Uh dismantled it and brought it over instead which is the tower that we have today and it looks like it's just every other Cape cod lighthouse out there. Yep. It looks nice. I like this photo. Yeah, this is where it was located originally So this is a picture of it when it was still a background picture. Yeah

22:16 It is really nice very sharp Old photo. I don't know what that's called. What's the railing style? Is that gothic? I don't know Old english the way that it's like slopes and then points down again is very gothic So I don't know the architecture words, but that's cool. We should look at the little portal windows. Yeah, big fan of those pretty cute So anyway, that was moved over to the end of the breakwater it's 45 feet cast iron all white except for a black lantern room and And has a fixed red light. Nice. We like that Well had a fixed red light when I was first moved over to Martha's Vineyard So it was originally at the end of the breakwater Which it doesn't look that way today And so I was like what happened that they put it at the end of the breakwater and then move it back in but What happened was?

23:06 It said to sand eventually over time filled in the space Around the lighthouse and now it's like has it its own beach its own beach. That's cool But what actually happened was there was a series of hurricanes. I can't remember What year but a series of hurricanes destroyed sand from the eel pond barrier beach, which was northwest of edgertown Have a picture So on the left side, there's a picture of where edward Oh my gosh edgertown light used to be at the end of the breakwater and up here is this eel pond barrier like Which is now called lighthouse beach. There's a bunch of hurricanes which broke up that area and all the sand was like suspended in the water for a long time And then if you look on the right, there's a map of what it looks like today. So that is epic Isn't that awesome? So all the sand moved down over to edgertown harbor light and surrounded it and now edgertown harbor Called lighthouse beach is its own barrier beach for this little son of a steve. So that's yeah, that's awesome That's why there's no like streets probably on that mass is it's probably not it's probably sand. Yeah unstable So you're telling me that the lighthouse didn't move Yeah, but the sand moved I was joking around the breakwater earth You know, he was uh, he had some quote like what would it cost to buy the whole earth?

24:29 I just thought it was funny. Sorry. I remind me. So there's a riprap pier. No breakwater breakwater Yeah, I mean it's kind of a uh appear right, yeah, but do you think that Accumulated the sand and then built up to what we have now this landmass Well, yeah, it's like the waves so the waves become saturated with sand as the waves Are hitting something then they release the sand and so that just piles up and piles up wherever the water is breaking on it So that's really interesting and you can see the breakwater from underneath the sand if you go see the lighthouse Wow Like it's it's just rock. So it's underneath All the all the beach. That's cool. Yeah, i'm really excited to see it I can't wait so you can you can physically walk to it now not walking on the breakwater Mm-hmm. It's all sand. That's really neat. Yeah, the lighthouse was refurbished by the coast guard in 1985 And I think they repainted it. It was looking a little rough So they gave it a new white coat of paint and did some other stuff to it And shortly after that, they changed it to a flashing red light every six seconds, which is what we have today. Still dope Yeah, almost a decade later The light was leased to Martha's Vineyard Historical Society for 30 years in 2007 They received two hundred fifty thousand dollars from the community preservation act for a restoration. So they fixed fixed her right up what year?

25:56 2007 nice. I know the economy crashed in oh eight like hardcore, but we've heard a lot of these restorations Have happened. I would say like 90 through 2010 Which is I wonder where that came from a lot of the preservation Yeah, there was a lot of stuff happening In like the early 2000s, I'm thinking of Florida, California even um northwest ones Talked about they're all just like a lot of lighthouses were just neglected Yeah, and maybe people started to notice those things. Yeah And start fixing them up. Yeah. Well good quarter million. It's not a Not nothing. Yeah, nothing to sniff at especially on a shorter lighthouse tower. Yeah, what is this one 40 feet?

26:40 45 thanks, but the light was transferred to the town of Edgar town in 2014. So now the town owns it That's upkeep on okay. Yeah, so five dollars to tour so you can go and check it out I'm pretty sure they said the door is just open all the time and you can Climb it drop a five in and there's a keeper there that will tell you the history and oh, that's cool So it's a probably a city It's city volunteer or city employee probably I was gonna say national parks But that's not that was true in the outer banks where we went to ochre cove Because that was a national park and cape cod is a national park I think martha's vineyard might be private. I think so. Yeah, that's probably right that might explain some of the wealth accumulation. Yeah Because cape cod has national park service like shops where you can get patches and stuff just like we did for cape cod or um Um cape hatteras and stuff. That is pretty I was waiting for you to make a comment on it really great photo. Um Looks a little bit of an orange light So it's just a glare. It's a long exposure photo Which is helps them capture the stars Um, but they also capture a lot of the light traffic of the city and the harbor right there. It looks like a boat and then uh They might have edited somehow to make that light tower orange-ish really pretty though, how you doing Good it's good. Sorry you got this drink you made me is uh

28:12 Making me talk a lot nice. That's what we like I want to talk to myself the whole time. Everyone's like, uh No, the co-host is on The co-host is feeling chatty I am excited to go on this trip. Oh, I have so much fun. I've totally forgotten. Are we gonna see edgertown? Yes Okay, definitely see edgertown from there is where we'd go to cape podge, which is the one that i'm on the edge about because we'd have to Put in some effort do that's right. Do a lot of the fairies come in To edgertown. It's the kind of the main you said it's the main no It's they come north to most fairies there are some that come in here, but most of the fairies come into oak bluffs or there's like those two humps of land one is oak bluffs and one is vineyard haven or Yeah, I think that's what if it has to do with the depth of the water or political reasons at this point you know different towns are Trying to get the the port traffic. Yeah, I don't know and if they're worried about getting back and forth across between chapiquitic chapiquitic Other one and martha's vineyards the mainland I wonder if they try and reduce how much traffic is coming in so that it doesn't impede that. Yeah I do think they have a big bridge over there. I don't know I wonder what the ferry is like Um that really short one to chapiquitic island. I think it just goes all day long Yeah, and you can take your car over it too. So we had uh, it was fantastic

29:46 Opportunity I was very fortunate to be able to do got to go to dawson city in the uconn in canada And so we rode our motorcycles On this highway the alcan alaska canada highway And then we got down to the water and I was the one in in front and my phone was navigating You know strapped to my handlebars and I've got this radio in my helmet. I'm talking to my dad my brother And I was like, well, how do we where's the bridge? Is the bridge gone? Is the where how do we get to this town? We're exhausted. It's the end of our day dusty inside of everything I can taste dust, but I see I'm an idiot. We're supposed to cross on a ferry To get into dawson city. Yeah, and the ferry is coming across the water and it's like glacial wash So it's like this this gray Water and it's rushing and so the ferry is aimed upstream And it's coming straight across and it took like three or four minutes for it to get across and then Unloaded and then we loaded which is his own story and then we got across and it's to go back the other way It's also facing upstream just to fight the current But this guy just does it all day long the guy's steering the boat. Yeah or lady I don't know, but the pilot was just totally accustomed to that current I wonder I was gonna say this job is probably really cool too. This ferry. It's not a river But it's funny how that's like a story everywhere. I wonder how the waters are here I would presume they're pretty calm if they built a lighthouse. That was just a house on the edge

31:18 Well edgertown. I was looking at the map is the biggest land cove overall as the most protection from oh I'm looking at i'm just guessing. Yeah, but it's the largest like inlet of land There's the the other town that's up north. It's Another another ferry town. It's in another cove, but it's much more narrow province town province town It looks to be much more narrow. So it is very small. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yepers cool Very pretty very cool That's it edgertown harbor a classic story of replacing the original lighthouse with some other light It's like NASA light and they're so similar looking all the lighthouses on cape cod look very similar So it'll be fun to take pictures of them all a lot of them are this like steel banded tower. Yeah, I wonder if that's Practicality or I think it's just looks yeah. I mean the outer banks was like all brick Everything was brick. Yeah. Yeah, and they said something about um, when they moved this one They didn't include a brick lining that it had originally and maybe was outside of the steel. Yeah Outside of the steel. Yeah, so anyway, that's all Well, thank you should have had a history buoy. I think this would have been a perfect length, but It's a good length Rest assured And i'm saying it now Next episode i'm gonna have a history buoy

32:48 No more disappointment for me Very good. You can send us an email at the lighthouse lowdown at gmail.com check out our instagram our linkedin our youtube and We have a lot of other I think that's it. Wait instagram LinkedIn twitter youtube no, i mean twitter's dead x now. No, we're not on x. We don't have facebook either linkedin youtube All the places you can listen to podcasts Yeah, that's it. We hope you enjoyed listening and we'll catch you next time on the lighthouse below