New York Times Article (and Gallery) On Lighthouses

"The Lighthouse Keepers."

It's not really about lighthouse keepers. It's about lighthouses that are no longer needed as aids to navigation, and what to do with the old buildings themselves. The writer doesn't offer much in the way of a definitive answer; seems to hate tourist-oriented lighthouses, yet doesn't want unneeded lighthouses to decay and fall into the ocean.

*Sigh* Another One Gets By Me

The Boon Island Lighthouse, on Boon Island in Maine, just sold for $78,000.

YORK, Maine New England's tallest lighthouse has been sold for $78,000.

A federal government spokeswoman says the General Services Administration has accepted a bid for the Boon Island Light Station off York, Maine. The winning bidder is Portland, Maine, resident Art Girard.

The Administration closed out an auction of the 133-foot-tall lighthouse tower on Aug. 17. More than a dozen bidders vied for it. The government had to approve Girard's bid, which was the highest of the bunch.

Pic:

Lighthouse Keeper was one of those careers designed specifically for introverts or even misanthropes. Sadly, lighthouses are all mostly automated now.

FOR SALE: LIGHTHOUSE, $1

The only catch is that you're required by federal law to refurbish and maintain it.

Here it is:



There's a bunch of other lighthouses and navigation-related buildings being sold, so if you have money and have always hankered for a lighthouse of your very own, now's your chance. Click the link for more pics.

Inspecting Your New Property...

...out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- To the government, it was a defunct offshore light tower that hadn't helped ships navigate the waters off North Carolina in more than a decade. To a Minnesota entrepreneur, the platform out in the Atlantic is a launching pad for research into wind power and other technologies.

First, some renovations will be needed at the Diamond Shoals Light Tower, which sits about 13 miles off Cape Hatteras. Its buyer hopes to get his first view of his new property next week - provided, of course, that the landing pad is sturdy enough for a helicopter.

"The pilot says he's confident it will be OK," said Dave Schneider of Richfield, Minn., who plans to chopper out Wednesday for his first look. "He says if we try to land and it looks shaky, we're not going to land."

Schneider, 56, paid $20,000 for the tower and platform in September after he was the only bidder for it in an auction by the General Services Administration, which sells real estate that the federal government no longer needs. In doing so, he brushed aside the GSA's 2-year-old inspection that concluded it would cost $2.3 million to renovate the structure that resembles an oil rig platform.

He pored over the 125-page engineering report before deciding it wasn't in as poor shape as it first appeared. It's sturdy, sitting in 50 feet of water and with pylons going 150 feet into the seabed. Of the renovation estimate, $1 million is for a boat-winching system and boat, neither of which he needs. Another $189,000 was earmarked for contingencies, and part of the renovation was for labor, some of which Schneider will do himself.

Pic:

That's not too different than one of my fantasy hermit dwellings, a screwpile lighthouse out in Chesapeake Bay. Wonder what it's like to be up in that tower during a big nor'easter?

$20,000

That was all it cost to purchase the Diamond Shoals Light Tower off the coast of North Carolina near Cape Hatteras.

A Minnesota man who has never seen the Diamond Shoals Light Tower – 13 miles off Cape Hatteras in the Atlantic Ocean – has bought the abandoned, rusting tower for $20,000 at federal auction.

Dave Schneider, 56, of Richfield, Minn., said he plans to restore the corroded, 46-year-old tower and turn it into a research, development and product-testing facility off the Outer Banks.

Supposedly it'll cost $2.3M to renovate the old tower.

Here's a pic:

Murph, you missed your chance. I think your plane cost more than that, didn't it?

Status Report: Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower

The transition from a deserted navigation aid to a tourist destination.

It even has a Facebook page.

Fixer-Upper Opportunity...

...out in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

The Diamond Shoals Light Tower, off of Cape Hatteras, NC, is being sold by the General Services Administration.

It's probably very similar to Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower, which I blogged about here.

You could call it a James Bond Villain starter kit.

Up In the Light At Night

The Cape Hatteras lighthouse, that is.

A new feature at the lighthouse is the nighttime visit to the top of the light. Since the interior of the light isn't lighted - - which sounds paradoxical, doesn't it? - - the visitors have to carry flashlights to illuminate their way up the metal staircase (personally I think a hat-mounted headlight would be a wiser choice, along with a backup hand-held).



For those of you who live here in NC, it's a fine opportunity to experience something few people have (you people in other states are welcome, too, it's just a longer drive).

Would You Really Like To Get Away From It All?

How about a stay at the Frying Pan Shoals Light Bed & Breakfast?

Purchased from the Coast Guard a year or so ago for $85,000, it's currently being repaired/renovated/prepared for its new role as a place to relax and enjoy the Atlantic Ocean near Wilmington, North Carolina. It's getting national attention, with Time magazine doing a feature story, and CBS interested in filming it in the near future.

Pic of the facility, along with its new owner, Richard Neal:



This is the sort of fantasy getaway I'd purchase with lottery winnings.

Gallery: Cape Romain Lighthouses

Over at the Charleston Post & Courier.

Sample:



update: Accompanying story can be found here.

TANSTAAFL!*

Want a free lighthouse?

Fowey Rocks Lighthouse.




*There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lighthouse.

Charleston, SC Vacation Pics

Here with some photos from our vacation to Charleston, South Carolina. I just got back a few hours ago and have been tweaking the pics.

Firefly Distillery, Home of Sweet Tea Vodka.

Tea At Charleston Tea Plantation.

Tea Harvester, Charleston Tea Plantation.

Melvin's BBQ. Great BBQ, Great Burgers.

At Melvin's BBQ, the Banana Pudding Is Nearly A Sexual Experience.

Replica of Confederate States of America Submarine H.L. Hunley.

Statue of Cacique (Native American Chieftain), Charles Towne Landing Historic Site.

Replica Gun Powder Magazine, Fort Moultrie.

Casemates With Cannon, Fort Sumter National Monument.

Charleston's Iconic Arthur Ravenel Jr., Suspension Bridge, Photographed From Fort Sumter Ferry.

Morris Island Lighthouse (Inactive), Seen From Folly Beach, SC.

Plantation House, Boone Hall Plantation.

"Avenue of the Oaks," Boone Hall Plantation.

Slave Cabins, Boone Hall Plantation.

Cooper River, Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC.

Luce Family Graves, Mepkin Abbey Botanical Gardens.

Mepkin Abbey Entrance Sign, Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC.

Brief Vacation Update

Today we went out to Folly Beach so I could photograph the Morris Island Lighthouse. The weather was beautiful: clear and sunny, but hot. Humidity wasn't too bad, so the heat was at least bearable. I took lots of photos of the lighthouse, not too sure how they'll look until I get them home and load them into the desktop computer there. In my netbook here the lighthouse looks out of focus in some of the shots.

The beach from which you photograph the lighthouse is easy to reach, but requires a few hundred yards of walking. You park at the last public beach access, then take the paved road (gated off from vehicle traffic, pedestrians ok) to the beach, walking the last fifty yards through a path in the dunes. There were several people out there fishing when I got out there, but no houses or other developement there. Some old house foundations can be seen in the area; I'd guess that they mark sites that were wiped out by Hurricane Hugo back in 1989.

After photographing the lighthouse I walked back down the beach itself to the area where we had parked the car, beachcombing along the way. Folly Beach is one of the better shelling beaches I've seen in the last couple of years; Sara actually found a complete sand dollar.

After leaving the beach we did some antique shopping in the area, then had lunch at a Greek pizzeria; I had a pizza, Sara had lasagne. Both delicious.

After lunch we drove back to Mt. Pleasant and visited Boone Hall Plantation, the most famous of the Charleston-area plantations. We toured the house and the grounds, took some photographs, and overall had a nice time; Sara had especially wanted to see a plantation while we were in the Charleston area, so this satisfied her desire.

After leaving Boone Hall, we visited a Barnes & Noble, then had dinner at Melvin's BBQ for the third time in four days. Melvin's has a great menu, folks, and you're missing out on something special if you don't eat here during a trip to Charleston. Today I had the hamburger that Emeril Lagasse has praised, along with great onion rings (they make them with a sweet fritter batter, so they are fat, chewy and delicious); Sara had the smoked turkey, and some more of the banana pudding that Melvin's does so well. Melvin's vegetable side dishes are also wonderful, Sara reports, although I was less than happy with the result of her eating the collard greens: chemical warfare would not be describing it inaccurately.

It's our last night, tomorrow we depart for home. We'll be stopping for a visit at Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery, on the way home tomorrow morning.

One Very Remote Bed & Breakfast Place

The Frying Pan Shoals light tower, off the coast of Southport, North Carolina.

It was just purchased from the Coast Guard for $85,000, and will require much more than that in repair work to bring it up to current safety specifications. It's 25 miles out to sea, so it's a long boat ride or a shorter helicopter ride (the roof doubles as a helo pad). I myself wonder how they're going to power it - - solar and wind power only go so far. Still, it would be a marvelous place in the winter for stargazing, and sitting there on a clear night with the sea all around would be awesome and spooky at the same time.

Here's a pic of what the tower looked like a few years ago:

When Lighthouses Retire

A fine New York Times article on what happens when the US Coast Guard retires a lighthouse. Hint: If you have enough money, you can have one of your own.

A slide show also available at the link.

Living the Dream

When I wrote this post talking about the Coast Guard selling surplus lighthouses to the public, little did I know that there was one for sale right off the North Carolina coast, just south of my favorite NC beach town, Southport:

Richard Neal speaks with unbridled enthusiasm when he talks about restoring the Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower.

The Charlotte man was the successful bidder in a sealed bid sale May 13 for the well-known nautical landmark about 25 miles southeast of Southport.

In fact, a federal General Services Administration spokesman said Neal was the only bidder for the modified 80-foot steel oil drilling platform, which was used by the Coast Guard as an aid to navigation from 1966 until about eight years ago. GPS and buoys rendered the tower obsolete, and the Coast Guard turned the nautical landmark over to the GSA to be sold.

Neal bought the tower for $85,000, which is a bargain, in my opinion. He'll have to spend up to $1.3 million for repairs before it is ready for regular human use. He envisions it as a high-end base for fishermen or divers, or maybe a bed-and-breakfast.

Here's a pic:



He had a dream, and now it might become reality. Good for him.

Lighthouses For Sale!

The Coast Guard doesn't need them anymore, so here's your chance.

One of my daydreams/hermit fantasies is to live in one of the Chesapeake Bay screwpile lighthouses like this one:



I'd have a nice rifle and some handguns along with me, and I'd shoot at plastic bottles floating by. I'd sit on the outer deck in a rocking chair with the rifle across my knees: creeeak...creeeak...creeeeak...creeeak...BANG! I'd fish, and crab, and holler at trespassers...

Want A Lighthouse?

The US Coast Guard is giving one away.

Only stipulation is that you must maintain it, which isn't a job for a poor person.

Here's a pic; looks like a lot of money would be required to maintain it:

Two Hurricanes 100 Years Apart, Different Results

Pictured above is the Point Bolivar Lighthouse, built in 1852 of iron. Back in 1900 came the worst natural disaster to ever befall the US: the nameless hurricane that hit Galveston. Over 8000 people lost their lives in that hurricane. At Point Bolivar, frightened residents of the Port Bolivar area took refuge in the lighthouse with the keeper, over 150 of them, terrified, huddled together in the raging darkness as the storm surge began flooding the lower steps of the tower. They climbed higher until the water stopped rising, and stayed there until it receded. When it did, they were horrified to find the bodies of those who weren't able to get inside the tower before the surge came.

The Point Bolivar Lighthouse again provided a refuge from a smaller hurricane in 1915.

The lighthouse was closed in 1933, its lamp extinguished.

108 years later and Hurricane Ike is here, ravaging the Bolivar peninsula even as the 1900 hurricane did, destroying all in its path. The Point Bolivar Lighthouse, empty, stood strong and steady once again as outside people huddled in fear and died, denied the shelter the lighthouse once provided, since it was private property, locked against trespassers.

Which is just another tragedy in this whole sad situation.

Personal: I lived in Galveston briefly in the late 1980's, and often visited Port Bolivar to sit on the beach, look at the old coast artillery batteries, and view the lighthouse. My heart goes out to all the residents of Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula.

Ever Heard Of Pharology?

It's the study of and interest in lighthouses, and one of UK's royal family has an interest in it.

I like to look at them myself, and have several of Bruce Roberts' wonderful books on the subject. The hermit in me would like to live alone on one of the old screwpile lighthouses in Chesapeake Bay, with a supply of guns, fishing gear, and books; something rather like this: