Ocean Properties Samoset Resort of Rockland, Maine has donated $25,000 to the Maine Lighthouse Museum to help assure that the museum's first phase will be open for the 2005 tourists season.

The museum, formerly called the Shore Village Museum, which was founded by former Coast Guardsman Ken Black, has the largest collection of lighthouse lenses and lighthouse apparatus in the United States.

The museum is in the process of moving from its old location in Rockland to the new Gateway Center on the City of Rockland's waterfront.

It was many years ago that Ken Black began the process of saving the lighthouse artifacts, long before anyone else realized they were about to become historical artifacts. In fact, some of the items that Black saved were in the process of being thrown out and destroyed. They are now among the most valuable and priceless lighthouse artifacts in existence.

The mission of the Maine Lighthouse Museum is to

preserve, display and enhance the nation's most significant collection of lighthouse artifacts and lenses.

The Samoset Resort is not a stranger to lighthouse preservation having contributed in the past to the Maine Lights Program and the restoration of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.

This story appeared in the Jan/Feb 2005 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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