Owls Head Light

Owls Head Light
Owls Head Light
Location Owls Head, Maine
Coordinates 44°05′31″N 69°02′39″W / 44.09194°N 69.04417°W / 44.09194; -69.04417Coordinates: 44°05′31″N 69°02′39″W / 44.09194°N 69.04417°W / 44.09194; -69.04417[1]
Year first constructed 1825
Year first lit 1825
Automated 1989
Foundation Granite
Construction Brick
Tower shape Cylindrical
Markings / pattern White with black lantern
Focal height 100 feet (30 m)
Current lens 4th order Fresnel lens[2]
Range 16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi)
Characteristic Fixed white
Fog signal Horn: 2 every 20s
Admiralty number J0104
ARLHS number USA-574
USCG number

1-4105[3][4][5]

Owls Head Light Station
Nearest city Owls Head, Maine
Area 3 acres (1.2 ha)
Built by Jeremiah Berry; Green & Foster
NRHP Reference # 78000183[6]
Added to NRHP January 18, 1978
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Owl's Head Lighthouse.

The Owls Head Light is an active aid to navigation located at the entrance of Rockland Harbor on western Penobscot Bay in the town of Owls Head, Knox County, Maine. The lighthouse is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation.[7] It is the centerpiece of 13-acre (5.3 ha) Owls Head State Park[8] and was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Owls Head Light Station in 1978.[9]

History

The town of Owls Head is located south of Rockland, and includes an eponymous peninsula that projects northeast into Penobscot Bay, with its tip roughly east of downtown Rockland. The light station is located at the eastern tip of this peninsula. The light station was established in 1825 with the construction of a round, rubblestone tower by Jeremiah Berry and Green & Foster.[9] The tower was rebuilt in 1852.[10] It is a 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) cylindrical brick tower on a granite foundation standing on top a cliff. It has one of the last six Fresnel lenses in operation in Maine.[2] The light is located 100 feet (30 m) above mean sea level.[11]

In 1854, a keeper's house was built separate from the lighthouse. The cottage now serves as the headquarters of the American Lighthouse Foundation. A fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in 1856. A generator house and an oil storage building were added in 1895.

Renovations carried out in 2010 saw the tower restored to its 1852 appearance. In addition to repainting the tower, repairs were done to the bricks, the lantern’s ironwork and windowpanes, and the parapet’s floor.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Owls Head Light Station". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. 1 2 "Fresnel Lenses Still in Operation" (PDF). U.S. Coast Guard. December 2008. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 36.
  4. ↑ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maine". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. 2009-08-08.
  5. ↑ Rowlett, Russ (2009-10-09). "Lighthouses of the United States: Southern Maine". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  6. ↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  7. ↑ "Owls Head Lighthouse". American Lighthouse Foundation. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Owls Head State Park". Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  9. 1 2 "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form" (PDF). National Park Service. January 18, 1978. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Owls Head, ME". Lighthousefriends. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  11. ↑ "NRHP nomination for Owls Head Light" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-05-15.
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