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Who doesn’t like a good story? Especially when they speak about both past and place, plus perhaps a few myths, legends and ghosts thrown in for good measure. And when they traverse a landscape of granite and water, within a lighthouse structure over-looking vast oceans — then there are two essential books to consider.
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Wood Island Lighthouse is the fifth-oldest lighthouse in the state of Maine. It has cast its historic light into the Gulf of Maine for over two hundred years. In his research of the light’s keepers and their families, author Richard Parsons has written a generous book that allows the reader to touch the past while learning the many chapters in this historic light’s service on the coast of Maine.
Parsons taught history and English for thirty years in public schools before joining the staff of the Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University. Today, he resides in Saco with his wife, Shari Robinson, and his dog, Donner and has a clear view across Saco Bay to the lighthouse. He has joined others who have devoted their energies to the restoration of America’s historic treasures and serves as historian and member of the executive board of the Friends of the Wood Island Lighthouse.
Wood Island Lighthouse: Stories from the Edge of the World is an homage to many “yesterdays” experienced at that lighthouse. Built in 1807, the 45-foot tower and keeper’s house built of wood, eventually became one of granite in 1838. And as time moved forward so did the stories: “its myths and legends have passed through generations as it set the scene for murders, suicides, shipwrecks, ghosts, heroism, and even humorous events. The lighthouse keepers, their families and even their pets have helped shape a unique patchwork of history at the lonely outpost.”
As for myths and ghosts, Parson’s offers plenty. From the wanderings of spirits on the spiral stairway leading to the light; to disappearing grease pencils used for note taking reappearing in another part of the lighthouse and the arrival of a mysterious presence with the name Peter after a Ouija board is used to pass the time, is proof that things really can go “bump in the night” within a lighthouse.
But as Parsons shows, there are also plenty of happenings during daylight hours, too, especially sightings of monsters and serpents from the perch atop Wood Island. Such as the ‘monster serpent’ swimming circles around a boat in 1905. It received national attention shortly after skeletal remains washed up on Old Orchard Beach. With its nine-foot-long skull and most of its tail missing “speculation based on the skeleton maintained that the creature must have been serpentine in shape and seventy to eighty feet long.” This “Great Sea Serpent of Casco Bay,” over time eventually became affectionately known as “Cassie.”
And there were pets on the island. Some even depended upon for both their loyalty and essential service. In 1886 Thomas Orcutt became the thirteenth keeper of the Wood Island Lighthouse. With him were his wife and three of their five children. In 1890, barely two months old, a farm-raised puppy arrived on the island as a playmate for the young children. Instead, Sailor quickly became a lighthouse dog whose “reputation reached far beyond the limits of the thirty-five acres that made up his “canine estate” on Wood Island.” His uncanny ability to sense the approach of ships and fog, and signaling with a pull of the rope to ring the fog bell is now legendary.
Filled with an abundance of stories, facts and history accompanied with numerous archival photographs and log entries, the book is a substantial source of information for anyone interested in learning more about the Wood Island Lighthouse.
Wood Island Lighthouse: Stories
from the Edge of the Sea is
available through the Friends
of Wood Island Light at
www.woodislandlighthouse.org
These two books tell stories that need to be told. Lighthouses and those that “keep the light,” their lives, their families, their steps and mis-steps, their work, struggle and the rescues they made are all here and are necessary for us to consider. The nuances of island life, the ghosts of the past that hover like halos anoint just like the beggar fog that roams the sea and touches all is part of our past. And if there are books upon your shelf having to do with lighthouses and the sea, then these two books should indeed be their bookends.
Editor’s note: RJ Heller is a journalist, essayist, photographer and author. He is an avid reader and an award-winning book critic, who enjoys sailing, hiking and many other outdoor pursuits. RJ Heller is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle. www.rjheller.com email: rj@rjheller.com
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2024 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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