Episode 84 - Little River Lighthouse

0:00 And we need your mic up a little bit. You're number two or one? I'm number one. I'm number one. Try it one more time. I was number one. There we go. Thanks. I love you, honey. I love you, too. Do you like your coffee? Yes, all right. This is half sweet. It's very white. Yeah, that's ridiculous. I was going to add extra shots and do all that, but it was already expensive. I totally understand. Thank you for the gift. Get ready for this gift. Hi everybody. I'm Emily. And I'm Vince. And this is the Lighthouse Lowdown.

0:41 Saw some of those dance moves last night. That's right. We were dancing. We were picking our first dance. No, our wedding playlist. We did some dancing. Some couch dancing. We had to play each song and feel it out. And I kind of judge what song would be good by seeing how Vince dances to it. Because really, I have the most fun. And we have a picture of this from one of our friends' wedding, the one in Spain, where you're dancing and I'm watching you laughing. And that's what I'm looking for whenever we are out dancing, is I just want to watch you and kind of move. Yeah, I'm trying to get you to dance by dancing. Yeah, but watching you dance is the best part.

1:22 Inspirational dancing. Yeah, I was kind of just... observing you last night to determine what were good dance songs. Nice. So we've got a pretty good list going. So. Speaking of lists. What episode? This is episode 84. 84. And I do have a history of Bowie. Let's go. Float it out there. And it's Maine Open Lighthouse Day. Maine is in the state. Open Lighthouse Day. Open Lighthouse Day. And this is an annual event that happens in Maine. It has something to do with our episode. What? Are you laughing? I just thought that was obvious. Actually, not that it's. Please continue.

2:02 Okay. Yeah. Annual event. None of that signifies an event happening or that it's in. This event is sponsored by the United States Coast Guard, the main office of tourism. Maine, the state, Office of Tourism, and the American Lighthouse Foundation. Three sponsors. Yeah, I know. It's kind of crazy. But it has up to 18 ,000 visitors each year, offering a chance to see, this year, 18 lighthouses that are not usually open to the public. That's crazy. Yeah. And there are ways to see the lighthouses, but they're very... unpredictable and usually you have to pay to stay there like kind of the access is reduced and so this is like a day of free access to all of the lighthouses that normally are difficult to experience how do they uh how do they staff them for such a surge like that i'm sure it's volunteers like all volunteer works it's incredible because each lighthouse is owned by somebody that have volunteers and normally it's accessible like under specific occasions so So this year, it's on September 13th, so we're coming up close on it. By the time this episode airs, we're going to be less than a month away. Oh, my gosh. I know. And it's from 9 a .m. to 3 p .m., although some lighthouses have different hours. You have to check the website that I have linked in my show notes to find out.

3:32 Absolutely. And the website also lists all of the lighthouses that are participating, plus what part of the station is open for you to see. The special hours, how to get there, and a short blip about if it's a current aid and who owns it right now. Really cool. And that list also includes some museums, such as the Maine Lighthouse Museum, which, by the way, has the largest collection of Fresnel lenses in the nation. Maine? So that's... Where is it at in Maine? I don't know. I mean, I'm going to pull up a map here in a second so you can see where they all are. We have a friend getting married before this episode even comes out. We're going to go to their wedding, and they are going to Maine for their honeymoon. Oh, that's right. Yeah, so I was asking them about where he's going to go, what they're going to do. Yeah, I want to know. I think Bar Harbor is the furthest north that they said they're going to, which I was surprised by. Yeah, then they won't get, I don't think they'll get close to the lighthouse we're covering today. It's like pretty far up there. Yeah, and we told them about another one, the one that was on the quarter.

4:31 Do you remember what that one was? Pemaquid? Pemaquid Point. Yeah, we told them about our episode on that. I think that's further north of Bar Harbor, if I remember right. Okay. We'll see what names we can see on the map because it's pretty zoomed out. Cool. But yeah, I'll pull it up. Boom. There's the map. And I have an example on here of one that's available for people to see that's not usually open. It's called Moose Peak Lighthouse. And the location, and this is all on the website, says Mistake Island Offshore. Mistake Island is awesome. The buildings that are open is the tower. How to get there, it says the private owners will be making two boat trips, seven passengers per trip, from Jonesport to Mistake Island. And then it says please contact the owners of Moose Peak Light at the following email address for more information, moosepeaklighthouse at gmail .com. And then it says for those visiting the island on their own, the tower will be open 9 a .m. to 3 p .m. So you can take your own boat, yeah, to get over there. And it says the lighthouse is an active Coast Guard aid to navigation. The light station structures are privately owned.

5:35 So that's like all the kind of information that you can see on the website if you look at each lighthouse. And I pulled a picture of what Moose Peak looks like. And then the map shows all the participating lighthouses that you can go see on Main Open Lighthouse Day, plus two purple M's. Those are the museums that you can see. That's awesome. So you can see Owl's Head Lighthouse is on there. That's a popular one. Haunted. I don't remember that story. Did we cover Owl's Head? No, we haven't yet. I've heard of it though. I keep getting intimidated by the amount of information to cover by the popular lighthouses. Sometimes I put those off in favor of the smaller ones.

6:20 Save them for the future somehow when we're going to have more time. Yeah, for some reason. I think later that'll be a good one. It's like, no, we're going to be busy forever. You know, for those who don't know, we're planning our wedding right now. We're getting married here in Kansas City. December 20th. And anyways, we're figuring it out. I was thinking about something. And so we're. Busy right now, but everyone I talk to is busy. It's crazy. Yeah. I gave my dad a call on the way home from the gym. He asked what we're up to. Anyways, he ended up asking, so what's getting covered today in the episode? I was like, I have no idea. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, well, Emily's presenting the information, which is every three out of four times. And I was like, so. I don't know. I learn along with the audience.

7:13 And he was blown away. Really? Really, yeah. Has he never listened to our podcast? I don't think he's listened to any podcast ever. No, I understand. He's a heart surgeon. I don't think he's a podcast guy. No. But anyway, so there's a glimpse into the ongoings. The daily life. Vincent Bailey. But yes, so I have the map pulled up here. So everyone, if you have the ability to do and participate in Maine Open Lighthouse Day, it's free. But they take donations, obviously, to help support our lighthouses. It was National Lighthouse Day just a couple days ago. August 7th is National Lighthouse Day. And I put some on my private account, just like. Some Instagram posts. Yeah, some cool pictures we've taken of lighthouses on our last trip. So 18 lighthouses this year. Right now, I think. That are not typically open? Yeah, or difficult to get your hands on.

8:08 That's cool. What a nice idea. Yes, and the lighthouse we're covering today is pictured on this map because... Ow! Okay. What's going on? It's my elbow. The hazards of recording a podcast. Yeah. unfamiliar setting. On this map, I did a little blip, zoomed in. We're going to Little River Lighthouse, which is very far north in Maine on the coastline. You can see the edge of Canada. Can you point at where it's at for me? I see that it's Canada, but Little Bear, or Little River. I can't see it. I can't see the script.

8:51 I don't have my glasses on. Can you tell me where this is at on the map? What? Where is the lighthouse? The tiny dot. I see the zoomed in. Where is that zoomed in to? The red line. Oh, okay. I thought that was the border to Canada. It is not. I'm not understanding what part you can't see. She pointed at this line that goes across the screen. The screen's like. Three feet from me, four feet. Yeah, I was like, yeah, that's the border. You said Canada. It's close. This black line is Canada. Oh, yeah. Goes off screen. I was like, things are much worse than I anticipated. So Little River Lighthouse, which I'm pretty sure now that I'm saying it out loud for the first time, I have a feeling I'm going to get tongue tied at some point. Little River. Little River. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's coming. Little River.

9:56 Little River Lighthouse. Lil Wayne. So you can see it on the map. It's outside Cutler, Maine. And in 1842, IWP Lewis did his report that we've mentioned, that we've referred to several times, which really should be a history buoy. I put it on my list. And in his report, he said, quote, there is no place on the coast of Maine where a light would be so truly serviceable as upon the island at the entrance of this harbor, a small beacon light being alone required. Which is so funny that how speaking used to be so different. I was going to say, okay, all right. All these letters that we've read, they're all recorded history. Yeah. And they all had a lighthouse built. That's the sample bias. Yes. to the Congress or whoever the audience was, was so dramatic.

10:49 It was. Never in the world has there been a greater need for a lighthouse. The suffering of this coastline and the constitutional infractions on the people are outrageous. And that you would write a letter, and this is not typing, that you would go to such lengths to make a sentence so long. Nowadays, it would just be like, we really need a lighthouse on this harbor. And that would be it. Like this whole sentence. This is before people had cell phones. They just sit with a parchment and stare at it with their quill in hand. It's like they would write a couple words and then walk away and then come back and then write another. Also, education was so much more varied at the time that this was like a flux. Like, look, I can spell kind of. A small beacon light being alone required. You're saying one small beacon light. And sometimes they would write this every year. They'd write these letters for years and years before one of them would be like, fine, this one's better than the other ones this year. Your voice coming through when you do that sounds exactly like, oh, what am I thinking? Oh, The Incredibles. Whenever they're at the very beginning, there's like some voiceover about. how superheroes were ostracized from society because of these events that happened. Where are they today? Oh, it's like an old newsreel.

12:14 Here you see. You see. You would have a great voice for that. For the 1920s radio station. It's really good. I kind of like it. Thank you. No. Oh, sorry. Thank you. You're very trigger happy today with this. Caffeine. Really? Well, no. But yes. But, okay. Okay, back on track. So we have Lewis pining for a lighthouse at this harbor. Yes. The problem was that there was no usable harbors for ships to dock between Little River and West Quaddy. And we've covered West Quaddy. We know Quaddy. It's the furthest north.

12:57 Where's Waldo? Lighthouse, yes. A little Where's Waldo stripe. They probably hate that. Sorry, guys. No. They're probably like, no, not, it's just red and white. It's just stripes, okay? It's not Waldo. Shit. But between these two lighthouses, there's two false harbors called Moose Cove and Bailey's Mistake. Hold on. Lots of mistake stuff going on. My last name is Bailey. I know, but it's spelled B -A -Y -L -I -E, like a bay and then Lee. Interesting. Yeah. So kind of cute. We wanted to name our first child Bailey. It's spelled like that. Bailey. No. Bailey Bailey is not welcome. I would never do that. I just wanted to see your face. I think our name was B -A -I -L -E -E when we came to the U .S. But they wrote it down the way it's familiar. I think from Scotland. I think that's where the name comes from. Cool. I'm not sure. Actually, they moved to Canada. They were Canadians who immigrated, immigrated, immigrated across into the state of Washington. And my family had the first turnstile dairy farm. What are you talking about? In the entire state of Washington. How can I not, how have I not heard this? I'm about to be part of your family. We need to talk to my dad. He loves these stories. Okay, yeah. I'd like to hear.

14:20 Yeah. He knows them much better than I do. Yeah. All right. I like that. He should put that in our Bailey Bulletin for July. Anyway, no usable harbors, but there are two false harbors and these are just indents that are lined with reefs. And so if you entered it, your ship, you would crash. Gigs up. Yeah, like if you think it's a different harbor and you're like, oh good, and you pull in, then you're... It's doomsday. Can't back out. Yeah. Lewis believed a light at Little River would prevent any additional fatal disasters caused by mariners mistaking these false harbors for Little River, which is where you wanted people to show up. And so. So what's that town? I can't see. Cutler. Cutler.

15:05 So the Little River is on a small island accessing a bay, a harbor for Cutler. It's yeah. It's not the false one. Yeah. It's the one. That is accessible. Yeah. But that's what they're saying between Little River where you would want to harbor and West Quaddy where you'd want to harbor. There's nothing in between. So they would mistake it. Like Little River wasn't marked. So they're like, it's one of these. Yeah. Yeah. So I drive home every day. And he described it as, quote, easy of access, sufficiently. Capacious. Yeah. For a large fleet. It has capacity, yeah. And secured from all winds. So a nice little harbor. I don't believe that. I'm from Kansas. Are you kidding?

15:48 Everywhere's windy. That's not true. There's lots of places that are harbored from winds. I haven't seen them. And it's always still and like humid and sticky. And you're like, where's the breeze? You know. If you agree with me, like this podcast. And what about me? Love this podcast. We don't have social media. Try it. Okay. Congress appropriated $5 ,000 for a lighthouse per Lewis's request in 1847. And this was for our Little River Lighthouse, which is what we're covering. Let's go. So it is a conical 23 and a half foot stone tower with an attached keeper's house at the entrance to the harbor on a little island.

16:33 Is it technically... Whoa. I was going to say, is it technically an integral lighthouse? Because you said they're attached. Yes. I would say by my observation in this photo, absolutely. Yeah, I would say so. It's the definition of integral. It is integral, but the tower is so different from the actual house. Like normally they look kind of similar. It looks like they're attached. But this is like the used. The construction is different for sure. Yeah. Like our white tower. Is it like a limestone building? I didn't know. It just says stone. I bet you. Both are stone. So it's pretty cute. I don't know what's going on all in the background. Like are these rocks?

17:16 Are these sticks? It looks like a timber yard. Yeah, it looks like a mess. They cut down all those trees to build stuff. Oh, you're right. Some stumps over there. Like a mill area. Maybe to furnish the inside to do the framing and the wood floors and walls and all that. I don't know. Very pretty keeper's house though. Really nice. It's really appealing. Great photo. Only two years after it was lit and inspection revealed the dwelling was in terrible shape. Leaking, cracked, flooded when it rained the whole shebang. Two years? After two years. Jeez. They talked about how when it rained the keeper's floor would literally be covered with water. The house would flood from rain. That's not good. Yeah, it's dumb. But they didn't do anything about that.

18:00 It definitely had mold. Ew. So maybe they didn't have much wood. Maybe it was like mostly stone. Because it survived for a long time regardless of that fact. And they didn't do anything. You can replace the wood. I don't know. Oh, really? Yeah. Like framework and stuff? Yeah, it's just labor intensive and expensive. However, a fifth order revolving lens was added in 1855. Before this, they just had like five reflector lens with lamps. And this changed the characteristic to have a fixed white light with a bright flash every 90 seconds. So this is the second lighthouse we've covered. I'm pretty sure in a row where they have a fixed white light that adds a flash. To be honest, that's the most practical. It does at any time you can see it. You want to. Yeah.

18:42 And then it's still relaying. a pattern in which you're like oh yeah that's that that's that lighthouse yeah i agree with that so i pulled up a photo of the fifth order lens nowadays it's um it's whereabouts are unknown someone's somebody's living room basement but can you imagine walking down into a basement bar pool table dartboard like give me that bourbon collection and then a fresnel lens I'd be so excited. Well, I'd be excited, and then I would take it from them. I'd be like, return this. Wherever it goes, we're going to find out. Give this to the public. We've learned in the past how to tell, if you're lucky, how to tell which lens goes where because of the placement of the screws. Yeah, that was a photo. Someone saw a photo of a lantern, right?

19:31 Saw it in a shop, I think. Oh, and they identified it to an old photo. Yeah, compared the two photos. Based on the brass placement of screws in the brackets, which is incredible. That is quite crazy. So fifth order. Yeah, so this is fifth order. It was added and changed the light characteristic. And it wasn't until 1876 that they started laying a new foundation for a brand new tower, as the old one was, quote, unworthy of repairs. That's an okay life, 70 years. It's not bad. Is it 70? Well, it was 1805, I thought. 1847. Oh, excuse me. Never mind. So 30 years. Still solid for one that two years after they were like, this is terrible. So that was a long, that's kind of a long story. So the new tower was 41 feet tall, lined with brick and encased in cast iron.

20:18 Cool. It started out white, but was painted red with a black lantern room in 1878. Sounds cool. Red with a black lantern room. Yeah. And we don't have a picture of the two set, like. The two paint marks? Because for a few years, the old tower and the new tower were both there. And then they finally, a year after that, so 1879, the old tower was half demolished and then roofed over to like meld into the old keeper's house. So you can see over here. Yeah, they just like cut the tower off. We'll just turn this into the library. Extended the roof. Oh my gosh, that would be so cool. But you can see the lighthouse that they have here looks a lot like Nauset light.

21:02 So like, yeah. Well, and that was part of the, part of the design. We see that recurring a lot was stone or brick towers with this encasing of cast iron, which they do in these, you know, here it looks like rings, but sometimes they're just sections. They're welded together, bolted together. And in the U S those have had pretty good longevity. A lot of them are still around to work really well. Uh, there's been a lot of cases of them taking the cast iron casing and putting it elsewhere. So it, I think it made it more, uh, flexible. Yeah. And they're really nice too. It's not like it was some replacement that wasn't exciting. Yeah. Like we lost that light was gorgeous. And we love skeletal towers, but those are like easier. I think these were a little more artistic touch. Yes, exactly. A little more old fashioned. Stout. Yeah. So we get a new tower and the old tower is melded in to the old keeper's tower. And very, it's like.

22:00 It's part of the house. It's unique. You can't really, let's knock this wall down for no reason. Yeah. You know, so. And when I saw this picture, I was like, oh, weird. The lighthouse tower is gone. And then I looked at it a little longer because it looks like it could just be like the flat end of the light of the keeper's house. But. They actually built a roof line over it too. I know. It's pretty cute. Cool. I'd be so curious to see what that's like on the inside. I know it's gone now. Dang. Also, how much would that cost for us to build? An exact replica of the old Little River Keeper's house. What's the, I'm getting off track, I'm sorry, but the bar in Homer on the spit. Yeah. The Salty Dog Saloon. Salty Dog. So that, I think, has an integral lighthouse. I think it's part of that building.

22:44 And I think if we go look at pictures, maybe if we get bored at the end, we'll look. Otherwise, search on your own. Salty Dog Saloon. I think I looked on like Google images. There's a pool table. And I think the part of the integral lighthouse is like in that billiards area. Oh, I think you're right. That the pool room is on the base level of the lighthouse. And then going up is kind of, I thought it was blocked off. I think it's probably not accessible. Yeah, it is integral. That was one of my favorite episodes. Salty Dog Saloon. Yeah. Well, and you were also going to be, like, had a chance of going there, so. Someday. One of these days. Anyway, yes, it is kind of Salty Dog. The original is kind of Salty Dog -esque. Not a true lighthouse, but. Sidetracked.

23:34 It was on the list. Yeah. So by 1881, the tower was white again. So this picture was likely after that time period. And in 1888, the stone dwelling was demolished, replaced with today's wooden Victorian dwelling. So the one that we have today is still really old. It's just not the original. I have a picture of when they were working on that. We got an oxen in there. Cool. But yeah, it's small, cute, and nice. It's very Victorian. Yeah. It's nice. Looks like we're looking at... I want to say the left side or the side, like plan facing plan West. So as we were seeing it before, cause the tower was on the left. Now the tower is on the left again, but I think we are off towards the right standing facing left.

24:26 Oh, like cause that the reference to the window and stuff, who cares? Like it's the side of the house. I think this is the side, not the front. I bet so. And then that's like a back door. Back door porch type of thing. But in this picture, you can tell the lighthouse is not white. They painted it brown. It's an interesting choice. Aggressive. I know. And on May 1900, the tower was changed back to white and remains white today. So they did like this random. I don't understand. Every lighthouse we talk about, we talk about how the day mark has changed. And sometimes it's like, well, it was orange with a black stripe. And then it was red and white. And then they noticed that against the trees or against the sky. What is the reason to go brown? Brown is very interesting. And then someone, enough time goes, and they're like, we should really make it white. We should make it white. Well, let's go back. Totally different than we have. I have no idea what would make them want to change it to brown. But white kept coming back, so just keep white. It's okay if they're all the same color. Yeah. I mean, ideally, you want them to be a little different. Imagine if Ocracoke was not white. It would be so strange. It would be strange. You know, like some lighthouses are supposed to not set red. Yeah. Red? White. Red accent. Half red, yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Sorry.

25:43 That's a big block by that oxen. Big stone. He's hauling some stuff. Poor guy. All kinds of construction. Debris. Things going on in this picture. But yeah. One of the keeper's sons mentioned how they got coal to the lighthouse in the 30s. I thought this was interesting because we haven't talked about that much. For the stove? Coal access, yeah. For the keeper's living, not so much for the use of the lighthouse. The coal was delivered by boat in 200 -pound bags. And then they would take the bags and drop them onto someone's shoulders standing next to the boat. And they had to walk that bag. over the beach to the lighthouse. Oh my gosh. And it was just the keeper and his family.

26:26 Nobody else lives on this island, so they just had to do this hard manual labor. They're like deadlifting every day to train for this. And they would do it over and over until eight to nine tons of coal was dropped off by the coal house. 200 pounds. 200 pounds each, back and forth. And he was saying the island is shaped like a hill, so you had to go uphill and downhill just to get it. On sand. Just to get it over there. That would be an incredible workout. I know. Yeah, they would have had to have been. He said, quote, every bone -wearing step of the way across this humpbacked bit of detached terra firma found one's mind filled with the desire for an easier way out. Like, drama. It's so funny.

27:06 There's jobs that require manual labor, like in the United States. We have... I think it's labor laws. I don't actually know. But there's some jobs where I've had to do a test to prove I can move the reasonable amount of weight. But it's usually like capped at 50 pounds. It's 50 pounds. Okay. Or maybe 60. Yeah. So that's the standard expectation is a healthy, uninjured person can manage 50, maybe 60 pounds. Yeah. Especially like package delivery. I think they always have to do that too. This guy, 200 pounds. 200 pounds. Lowered onto your shoulders. And you're going to carry it across sand, uphill, who knows how many times. My ankle would go out. Yeah. I could just see myself twisting my ankle.

27:48 Like pitted sand. Yeah, yeah. It'd be really challenging. That's crazy. At least the keeper had some sons to assist him with this task. But I think either way, collecting nine tons of coal is wild. Didn't drag it. Probably couldn't. Probably would tear open or something. So did they talk about the use of the coal? No, not much. I think it was just for their stoves and stuff. So you said nine. They had a coal house. Nine tons. Yeah. So 18 ,000 pounds, roughly. 200 goes into 1 ,000 five times. So five trips gets you 1 ,000 pounds. And they're going to do 18 ,000 pounds of coal? So what's 18 times five? 90, 90 trips.

28:40 That's crazy. It'd be an all day endeavor. And that's assuming. Well, and that's like, there's several people. Yeah, true. There's several people involved. So maybe a little quicker, but still that's like a whole, and they only do that once a year. So I think it was just like this dreaded day of torture. Dang. I'd be like, is there really no other way to make this easier on me? I'm just a guy with family, you know? That's awful. Yeah. I've never heard anything about that. So it was very interesting. But he also talked about getting to school, another thing that isn't thought about much. As the keeper and the family were the only ones on the island. So he said, quote, Going to school meant a boat ride every morning and afternoon when Papa would ferry them over to the mainland and back. A lunch would be packed for each child consisting of a piece of fish, a cold potato, and maybe a molasses cookie or Johnny Brand. I don't know what Johnny Brand is. I don't either. Water was dipped out of the well bucket to wash it all down. Weather, of course, was a factor. And there were days when it was too rough to row the children to school or days when it was too rough to pick them up.

29:42 Arrangements for the latter situation were already taken care of when the children would stay with assigned families on shore. That's so crazy. What a life. I never considered not being able to get them back. I'm like, oh, they just miss a day of school. And you have a good excuse because it's like I live on an island. Yeah. My dad has to row me over in a boat. Yeah. But getting on the way home, you're just like, oh, I'm just going to stay with this family. That's crazy. Really crazy times. Crazy different times from what we're living in today. Yes. Quite a few things have changed. And I think he had a bunch. I think he wrote a book or something because there was a bunch of different stories about living at the lighthouse, which a lot of keepers' kids do write about what it was like because it's so novel. Well, and you have time. Yeah.

30:27 Honestly. Back then, especially. So the Coast Guard took over 1939, and they continued to have Coast Guard men stationed there. And this is from Lighthouse Friends. I just took a whole quote from here because sometimes I don't need to reword it. Yeah, they're a great source. Yeah. Quote, Upon being brought to the island by Bob Marston, Coast Guard Keeper Albert was greeted on the station's boardwalk by Bob's Beagle. And he said, after I was shown my room, there was a scratching at the door. Bob opened the door and in walked a raccoon that started playing with the beagle and eventually went to the kitchen to eat some of the dog food. He said, I knew then that I was in a pretty special place. He said the raccoon's name was Rocky and a couple gifted the animal to a member of the station in 1971. And that Christmas, Gary Sill noted that the fact the station's dog, Skippy, played with Rocky a lot of the time demonstrated the ability of people to live and work together under close living conditions. And the station was also home to three cats that Christmas, Junior, Stubb, and Black Cat. I was like, I've got to put that last sentence in there. Those are good pet names. Cats, raccoons. Skippy and Rocky, the dog and raccoon. Yeah. Rocky the raccoon, which is a... Oh, my gosh. It was a magazine I used to get. Rocky the Raccoon? Wait, let me double check. Maybe it was made by this person.

31:56 Oh, no, excuse me. It was Ranger Rick. What was I thinking? That's not close. It's not even close. Thanks. I agree, but also, thank you. And you had Black Cat Stub, who probably had a cut -off tail. Black Cat Stub, yeah, or one leg or something, and Junior. Junior. Probably a kitten that showed up. That's awesome. I know. The station was automated in 1975 and the Fresnelans was removed. And this is when we lost track of the Fresnelans. Shoot. We have no idea where it is today. A light was erected on a skeletal tower nearby. Not like a lighthouse, but just like. Yeah, signal light. And Little River Lighthouse was left alone to deteriorate. And in 1993, the government offered the lighthouse to the town of Cutler, who didn't want it. And the lighthouse and the island were also offered to the state of Maine. The National Park Service and U .S. Fish and Wildlife and all declined, saying that the lighthouse would cost way too much money to restore and maintain.

32:58 Yeah. So, like, our lighthouse was in trouble. It was offered up for adoption under the Maine Lights Program, 1998, we've talked about, but no one stepped forward to take ownership. And in the fall, the Maine Historic Preservation declared that the Little River Light Station was one of the 10 most endangered historic properties in the state. So it was like going down. Yeah, on record. Yeah, 1975, it was turned off and then left. So that's decades of just sitting there with nothing. But in 2001, the American Lighthouse Foundation stepped up and got a historic preservation license from the Coast Guard. And they restored the tower, a wooden walkway that went across the island, and the boat ramp, which then made the station meet the criteria for getting a new light from the Coast Guard in the lantern.

33:50 Oh, yeah. So apparently they have some criteria that have to be met in order for them to sustain a light in the tower. Cool photo. The walkway that goes through the island, which is pretty neat. It's really nice. Made of wood. At first I thought it was like a train track, but yeah, it's a walkway. And then I have another picture of their, there's a Coast Guard helicopter. And this picture is when they did the relighting ceremony. So they made it this big thing because the lighthouse was really just weeks after the 9 -11 attacks. And so they draped it with a 25 -foot American flag and called it a beacon of freedom to the world to be relit. And it was filmed as a documentary for the History Channel, which I couldn't find. Oh. I couldn't find it.

34:39 I want to see that. I do too. I know I was like, oh, it'll pop up, but I just couldn't track it down. And apparently it was the largest gathering in the town's history for this relighting ceremony on the island. which is fun. Everybody had their little boats going over. When, what was the date? Do you know? Post 9 -11. It was in October. I can't remember exactly the date. So those were, I mean, most people listening know this because they're older than us or our age. But, you know, post 9 -11, I didn't really pay attention because I was too young, but I've seen footage of like the first NFL game, the first MLB game. The after 9 -11. Yeah. When things were trying to resume because everything stopped. And I think it was a Monday if I remember right. I think so too.

35:31 But I was five or six. So I don't remember everything. But there was a lot of, it was almost you had to, you know, pay tribute to what was going on in the United States and the deeply hurt. Emotion that everybody had. Who had survived the several attacks. Right. Yeah. Almost everyone. But almost everyone was feeling that. And it was like. Just overwhelming. There's no other news. You know. Yeah. And so. If this lighting was going on. It's really interesting. Yeah. Post 9 -11. That's a big flag. I know. It's huge. But. 25 feet is crazy. Yeah. People needed. They needed something like this to go out to. People needed community.

36:17 They needed to like lean on each other. So I think the, everyone keeping it in the forefront was important. Not just being like, okay, let's just continue. Like nothing happened. Yeah. Nope. Or just cancel everything. Yeah. Like, oh, we can't have the relighting ceremony. Scared and sad. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. I'm lucky enough not to remember anything from that, but I do try to learn about it every year because it's important. I've gone back and watched collected footage, not for horror, just to understand what it was like because my whole family is older and they all had a different impact than I did. But it's very sad. One of the best documented terrible events. There's awful things that have happened all through history, but to have such a good record of it is really interesting. Yeah, I know.

37:15 Just whenever like film was very, a lot more commonplace, like getting really easy to have your hands on, like everyone's filming everywhere. It's not like not even close to today, but you know, that's. Yeah, you're right though. Mobile cameras. Camcorders and things. Anyway. Anyway. A year later, 2002, the lighthouse became the first New England light and third in the nation to be transferred to a nonprofit under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Third in the US? Wow. Cool. So it didn't catch on super quick. They're ready to go. The paperwork made it lengthy. But yeah, they were definitely ready. I mean, the American Lighthouse Foundation already had a license to like. restore it so i'm sure the coast guard was like here please take it and the friends of little river lighthouse was formed as a chapter of the american lighthouse foundation in 2007 to like take control of maintenance and stuff on this lighthouse in 2014 the lighthouse underwent a repainting project restoring its glowing white paint and a forest green lantern room And I could never find when they started painting this lantern room green because it's not like aged copper. If you look at it today, it's mint green. It looks like the Statue of Liberty aged copper, but it's not. It's painted that way. So they painted it this dark, like

38:48 rich green. But as it ages, it turns mint green. So today it takes away. Also, what? What? There's literally forest behind the lighthouse. There are evergreen trees. And we just talked about day marks. They're like, well, you can see the tower. You don't need to see the lantern room. You don't need to see the top of this thing. It's going to have a light. I don't understand. I mean, stylistically, very cool. Beautiful. And there's some green over on the house. It looks like green trim. I think that's black. I can't tell. Maybe my screen is turned all the way up. Three feet is too far for you to see. We've established. But I don't know that I know of another Green Lantern room. I have not heard of it. No. That's why I selected this one. Because I was like, it's green. Hip hip. Nowadays, you can pay to stay at the lighthouse. So this is one of those that's like on main open lighthouse day, you can come and see it for free. But normally.

39:49 You can only come see it if you're paying to stay in the lighthouse. Or they have an open house day, which are just like sporadically placed throughout the year. Keeper's House is fully restored with three rooms and one bath for up to six visitors. So you rent by the room, or you can rent the entire thing. Each room is $400 per room, unless you get more than one room, and then there's $350 a piece, or $1 ,100 for the whole place. And you can stay between June 1st and September 30th. That's awesome. That'd be super fun. So like I said, they're participating in Open Lighthouse Day. And I pulled up a couple pictures. You can see how it's mint green now, the Lantern Room. Just naturally, the sun just wears it out. And inside the Lantern Room, you can also see, which is the only way to get up there is through their open events. They have transportation available from Cutlerstown Landing, which is a 12 -minute boat ride. So they'll come pick you up on open lighthouse day to take you to the island and come back. And you can use the walkway to get there. And they also have open house days throughout the year for the same opportunity, but the lighthouse is not usually open to visitors otherwise. And I read that you can't see the lighthouse from the mainland, which seems unlikely, at least in the town. So like the only way. It's on the other side. Or like it's difficult to get there. Maybe it's private property all the way around. I don't know. Sure.

41:18 They're saying like the only way to get there is to take a boat out or to specifically visit the lighthouse. So if you were to rent it, is there boat transportation? Yes. They pick you up from Cutler's. That's the same. Cool. Yeah. Really cool. It's very beautiful little island. Yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty small, but it's. Rocky and lots of trees, lots of evergreen. The images are really great today. Usually that's more of my focus. Emily doesn't focus as much on that. Excuse me? Because of YouTube. Who are you talking to? So if you want to see the images from today, even if you don't want to listen to the whole thing over again, go to our YouTube.

41:59 You can click through and you should be able to all have each of the images up for the time that we're talking about it, which is standard. Nice. But are they going to be on Instagram by chance? No, I've completely dropped Instagram. So don't look on Instagram. I totally abandoned it. Yeah. All good. Apparently that was the stone. We are podcast firsts. Yeah, that's true. Whatever. Podcast first. He's going down. Both need a nap. But that's all I got. Little River Lighthouse. Never messed up the name. Didn't mess up the name once. Little River Lighthouse. Give me some credit for that. I thought for sure that I was going to butcher it at some point. Little Liver.

42:45 Liver never came out. Yeah, Liver. Right House never came out. Yeah, we powered through. Really good. That is a cute little lighthouse. Very, it looks just like Nauset Light and has a minty lantern room. Don't know when that happened, but. Originally, I think it was white and black and red and black and all that. They're like, we could use green. Might as well. Sold. If you want to be the only one, you should. Can you go up there if you stay the night to the lantern room? Yes, the lantern room, yeah. That's cool. I know. Now I want to go. Well, it's a constant bucket list items. Yeah, $400 is not that crazy for a room. Yeah. There's a lot of lighthouses we've seen that it's pretty steep. It sounds like you can only, if you rent one room, there may be other guests. Yes. So you'd share that one bathroom. Yeah, that's true. Which is very practical for a lighthouse on an island. It does make sense. You're not staying there for a long time. We just have to buy the whole thing out.

43:45 Yeah, that's it. Really cool. Thank you for sharing. You're welcome. And thanks everybody for listening. Check out our website, thelighthouselowdown .com. You can leave us a review or send us an email, thelighthouselowdown at gmail .com with lighthouses you want us to cover because we're running low of listener lighthouse options. So go ahead and send those in anywhere you like and we'll cover them. So hopefully we'll catch you next time on The Lighthouse Lowdown.