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In 1961 when the Coast Guard installed a fog horn at Maine’s Cape Neddick Light Station, more commonly known as Nubble Light, they demolished the fog bell tower and planned to dispose of the fog bell. However, York Beach Maine businessman Edward Ellis rescued the 1,200 pound fog bell from the lighthouse and, because Sohier Park did not exist at the time by the lighthouse, the bell was installed at Ellis Park near Short Sands Beach in York, Maine.
Later, in May of 1989 after Sohier Park was established across the channel from the lighthouse, a substitute Lighthouse Service bell from the Portsmouth New Hampshire Naval Shipyard was loaned to the town of York to be mounted for permanent display at Sohier Park. Exactly why the shipyard had a lighthouse fog bell or where they got it from is unknown. And, for the most part, the tens of thousands of tourists who have visited Nubble Light for the past 29 years have assumed that the fog bell on display at Sohier Park was from Nubble Light, which it was not.
Now the original fog bell from Nubble Lighthouse, which has been on display at Ellis Park for the past 58 years, is being returned to be displayed close to its original home at Sohier Park by Nubble Lighthouse. Where the other bell that has been on display at Sohier Park will go is unclear, but most likely it will be returned to the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard.
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2020 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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