Category: Maine Lighthouses

Squirrel Point Lighthouse Is Located On Arrowsic Island Maine.

Find Yourself At The Maine Coast, Hiking To Lighthouses!

The quest to collect Maine lighthouses one by one. Your Me In Maine Blog author has the addiction.

Slowly tracking, hunting down sometimes in groups of three or four Maine lighthouses. For the low hanging fruit, easy ones to drive to and hop out of the Jeep.

Some Maine lighthouses a little more tedious. Parked far out to sea, in lonely solitude. Like some crossword puzzles, a tad more difficult. Challenging to tackle some from every direction. Like some people, to get to know up close and personal. Needle in the haystack difficult to locate with uppity weather. Limited mode of transportation options to and fro logistics. Causing extra helpings of patience development. But making the eye candy “fruit” sweeter when the elusive ones get caught. Shot, printed out in 8×10 for the wall series. Or optimized, an embed in the Maine blog post like above.

Take the lighthouse protecting Cutler Harbor Maine that on the map looks like an easy bag and tag for the collection.

Just when you get to Maine small town harbor boat launch, you realize the Little Island Southeast, seaward lighthouse location is just out of view from the village. And access from the side main land bird’s eye view approach is private landowners. Not accessible by roadway. My helicopter is in the shop, being serviced. So dig out the sea kayak. Or charter a Cutler Harbor lobster boat to hitch hike. Tag along on a hoist and pull in the lobster, denisen of the deep, wooden slat pot run. Saved for another day’s adventure due to a little more production lead in dog and pony requiring a bigger block of leisure time. Dusk comes too early on a day of four Maine lighthouse collecting which is a very good productive day.

So coming back from Ogunquit Beach this past weekend, on the roster to resume collecting, first up was Squirrel Point lighthouse. Located on Arrowsic Island on the coast of Maine.

You drive to Bath and east to Woolwich, Maine. Head due south on Rt 127. Turn right on the Bald Head Road. At the end turn around, hung the side of the cul de sac. Park. Go tramping.

Head south west on foot hiking thru rock walls on each side. Crossing a foot bridge as you begin to smell the Maine sea air. Hear the watercraft, a variety of birds. See large herons, other water foul. And know after a ten minute walk through a corduroy ribbed path of gnarly tree roots, a forest floor of pine, fir, oak tree leaves, here it comes. You arrive under your own power. As the vacant Squirrel Point Lighthouse complex of buildings comes into view.

No one’s home which is usually the case with the help yourself Maine lighthouse discovery visit. But stay on the trail. The tread lightly philosophy applies like most Maine habitats. It is a privilege, not a right. Nothing left behind, disturbed on your outing. As you see Maine wild blueberries. Sumac trees creating a sea of large, long raspberry red or chocolate covered banana looking detail to the hiking experience mental canvas. On the winding, sometimes with a wooded walk way in spots to this red lens Maine lighthouse. The same color as Bass Harbor Head lighthouse but not just the lens is red. The exterior glass is too.

After Squirrel Point, motored the twist and turns to Georgetown Island, Southport Island to capture shots of Hendrick’s Headlight, The Cuckolds, Burnt Island and Ram Island Light.

Five in one long weekend day was fun, great exercise. Plus you meet neat people at the Maine beaches. Paddling sea kayaks, enjoying the surf, sand, scenery and sunshine.

But in winter, the Maine lighthouse photos, capture is an entirely different experience. You get a sense of what the Maine lighthouse keeper, his family felt during long days of not the best weather on the oceanfront. Or realize some lighthouses in Maine are on rivers, not open sea island. Will share the other lighthouses in Maine photo collection in future blog posts.

Maine, unfiltered, it’s your turn. Make your move.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

July 22, 2013
Maine Lighthouses | Northern Most Is Whitlocks Mill In Calais,ME.

Whitlocks Mill Maine Lighthouse Is Northern Most Of The 68 In Vacationland.

With 68 Maine lighthouses, if you want to collect, capture, experience them all, some pretty easy to GPS.

Lots are low hanging fruit simple, others require a boat ride quite a ways out into the Atlantic Ocean to get up close and personal. After showing the house dubbed “The Castle”, a Brookton Maine home last Saturday, I was already in Washington County so why not go a little deeper. The quest to explore for more lighthouses in Maine resumes.

Many Maine lighthouses have paved parking lots, are part of state parks with facilities. Sometimes part of a fort. Not just a light to warn of rocks for sea going ships to protect from wrecks or sinkings. Some with fortifications nearby for defense during time of war. Which our history shows we have been in and out of a quite a few skirmishes.

Some Maine lighthouses are little guys, spark plug variety I call them. Lacking the fort, the state park with bathrooms, picnic areas. Missing the walking tours with lots of signage showing the images, historic information at various stations along the path ways around them fanfare. Maine’s Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse is another spark plug, pint size, junior model, runt of the litter example. The light is all there is, without the other fan fare. So is Lubec Channel lighthouse in Maine.

So back to Whitlocks Mill Lighthouse, it is an easier one to catch on digital because she’s right off US Rt 1.

Parked on the river bank of the St Croix 3 miles east of Calais. Not jutted out on a point surrounded by water and rocks like some Maine lighthouses.

Whitlocks Mill lighthouse in Maine is near the St Croix River View Rest Area. Established in 1892, built in 1910, automated in 1969, with a tower that’s 25 feet high. The inside lined in ceramic tile. Three seconds of green alternating light with three more of darkness is the heart beat rhythm, the pulse of this Maine lighthouse. Maine lighthouse preservation is popular and done by some pretty dedicated people. After snapping some images of Whitlocks Mill lighthouse I thought maybe I had enough daylight to get a glimpse of the St Croix River lighthouse.

Found the island the St Croix River Lighthouse was parked on, before destroyed by fire in 1976. Bummer.

And there is nothing like a three for three Maine lighthouse collecting day so next on the list was a trip to Cutler Harbor Maine. One day I was lucky enough to bag four but those are the easier, low hanging fruit drive a little, walk a little Maine lighthouses.

So rolled into Cutler Maine, saw the communication towers, but dusk was approaching. Which can be a magic time on a sunny day to add sparkle, back lighting drama to a shot. But it was foggy, the day before a Maine snow storm and that’s okay too.

Because lighthouse in Maine life was not all sunshine, rosy easy warm weather.

It was sometimes bleak, cold gusty winds, salt air sea damp, a tad dreary. And that comes across with the right weather conditions, season, time of day in a shot. Which is a true reflection of what it was like to actually live at one. Before they one by one became automated. To work, live at a Maine lighthouse year round. Pretty solitary, lonely life but some had farms associated with them. So lots of gardening, stable chores for the critters kept a mind occupied. Plus lamp maintenance, storm repairs were on the job jar to do list as well.

The target, mission for the tail end of the day was to try to capture a glimpse, see if I could get close enough to Little River Lighthouse in Cutler Maine. Remember I said some Maine lighthouses are easy pickings for sightings, image collecting? Struck out on Little River lighthouse. Need to charter a boat ride, or paddle a sea kayak out to accomplish this mission as she is on the seaward side of the island at the mouth of Cutler Harbor. A jogger provided me with the boat charter skipper I can call too. All in all not a bad day of collecting images on my Washington County day visit to Cutler Maine, other places along the way.

Went on down US Rt 1 for some fresh Maine seafood.

Being this close to Machias, Washington County’s seat or Shiretown to sample a platter of Maine clams at Helen’s Restaurant. Saving room for a slab of juicy, warmed up local blueberry pie with some ice cold vanilla ice cream drizzling down over the top. That hit the spot for the ride to get ahead of the snowstorm that was just starting. That made the drive north up US Rt 1 a little more interesting listening to Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion on the way back to Houlton Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

February 21, 2013
Good Day In Maine, Caught Four Lighthouses.

Lighthouses In Maine, You Have Many Waiting For You.

When your kids grow up and flutter out of the nest, more time to fit in other neat stuff in Maine happens.

After dropping youngest off at the Portland Jetport yesterday, the ride back to Aroostook County meant a diversion. Dial in the GPS for some Maine lighthouses. Have a quest to collect photos, experience settings of the over sixty Maine lighthouses.

Some are small, pint size Maine lighthouses. Others are pretty colorful, painted ladies lighthouses. A few Maine lighthouses more photogenic or better known and circulated around the photo circles. Others a close second in wolf whistle generating or recognizable like Nubble Lighthouse in York Maine.

Bass Harbor Maine’s lighthouse features, boasts a red lens. But yesterday’s four additions to my collection covered finding, shooting images of Pemaquid and Marshall Point, Owlshead and Rockland Breakwater Maine Lighthouses. Pictured above, these are relatively easy ones to access quickly.

But Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse is missing the lawn, the space of an island around it.

With the granite walkway winter ice covered and requiring care in where you step. Coupled with Maine sea breezes whipping, pushing you along. Picking up intensity getting closer and closer to the end of the rocky pier. Hoping you don’t slide into the churning, ice ice baby cold sea water. You don’t see as many tourists in the winter visits. But the ones you do bump into are friendly.

On the way back from the Rockland Breakwater Maine Lighthouse a hand holding older couple approach me. On their way out to the lighthouse. While I was traveling back to the mainland near the Samoset Resort where the jeep was parked, waiting. The lady asked with a smile if they were serving hot chocolate. Although unmanned, I joked the canteen was indeed open. The Jamaican band playing hot hot hot. And the gift shop peddling a huge jewelry selection of Maine tourmaline gemstones at two hundred percent off. She knew the difference and I sensed the couple lived local. Did this visit often year round. Black flies not a concern on today’s habitual visit to the place they enjoyed, shared together because of the take away.

Hitting deeply, the Maine lighthouse experience is unique, unforgettable.

Becomes a healthy addiction. No matter what season you need a healthy fix. To make the time to explore. Find the one that is your favorite. That you revisit, reconnect with any of the four seasons. Maine lighthouses are all different styles, rugged period construction with varied histories. Communications inside a person amplify near the towering lights, walkways, dwellings that are heritage rich, loaded. What’s real, important, special in life gets prioritized. Becomes crystal, illuminated. In winter especially because it is just you and the Maine lighthouse, it’s setting, grounds. No tourists to interfere with your visit. The only chit chat is inside your head, heard in your heart.

You study her from all angles.

Consider what life as the Maine lighthouse keeper must of been like. On sunny summer blistering days, blustery winter snow blizzards. You throw out, cast seaward long thought provoking panoramic gazes. Out over the rock bound, uneven, craggy Maine coastline to the sea lanes she serves. Protects with a powerful light system and a very verbal nautical sea horn.

The mainland models are not as hard to access and collect. The Maine island lighthouses that require a boat ride to get up close and personal more of a challenge. I am determined to seek out, collect all the Maine lighthouses for the personal experience, the take away. For a snap shot to keep inside, to create an 8×10 for the wall to enjoy year round. Here is a map of Maine lighthouses locations, if you have the bug to collect them on vacations too! Maine, her memories never fade. Collect yours, don’t stay away so long.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME REALTOR
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

January 4, 2013
Maine Lighthouses | 68 Of Them To Explore, Discover, Collect.

Lighthouses in Maine are one of many attractions Vacationland offers. The fascination with Maine light houses stems from several personal reasons.

Follow The Light, Visit A Maine Lighthouse.

The craggy Maine rock bound coastline surrounding them with the sound of the surf, smell of seaweed and fresh salt air renews and inspires a person. The lapping or pounding effect of incoming or receding tide creates a rhythm. Reminds us we all have internal metronomes that are set at the right speed. Or need the counter weight adjusted with a just a tad slide up or down to moderate the tempo.

The weather and time of year affects, shapes, colors your experience too in what you take away from a Maine lighthouse visit.

So does the condition of your head, heart and spirit as you walk along the rocks. Opening your eyes and ears to receive answers, instruction, or just a sense of peace. Happy or sad, enthused or desperate, the revolving light is perpetual to all. A constant to believe, trust, have faith in to draw from it’s strength. No matter how dark your day, the light beam it broadcasts will always be there. Some days you need the lighthouse more than others for direction.

A solitary Maine lighthouse can be right along side, partnering with us to navigate through a sea of change. Vigilante, constant, never leaving us in the journey of our life’s uncertain ebb and flow. Or just serving as a spot that is quiet, calming, refreshing to relax. Allowing you time for repose, to think, sort things out. Then to looking back at your life’s path to see what was left in the wake. Considering too what is good going on it your life to strive to maintain. That there is joy, contentment and pleasure on sunny days we have been lucky to enjoy and the need to take it all in stride. Overall, you and I have been pretty lucky, have much to be grateful for in our life right?

Turning your gaze to the future, looking out to sea and praying about where you would like to be.

But also realizing that Maine lighthouses can create, shine a brilliant powerful beam to help us find the path. The one we all need to take around obstacles. Some made by others, many fixed, given hazards to accept. Several others that we create out of fear, shame, regret or guilt that we are forced to carry within us. Pinning us down, holding us back. Then ending our Maine lighthouse visit with a recant of all that is good in us, others. Counting our blessings for all that has gone right in our life. Remembering there is much time ahead of us to use wisely, to enjoy and make the most of and enjoy.

Many churches use the lighthouse as their cornerstone. As a foundation to lash yourself to in times when you feel scared, full of fear and maybe lost at sea in life. Lighthouses in Maine can be reduced to one word definitions. Communications…the simplest kind with a revolving many candle power powerful fog cutting light beam. More basic than the dit dit dot of Morse code that carries more instructional detailed information.

Our society tends to overbook. We all have the capacity, many are proned to cluttering our lives with just too much busyness. The brutal scheduling makes us to the bone weary. To ignore or table what needs attention that comes up short. We become exhausted, overwhelmed and finally to the point of whoa. Stop. Or you get knocked down with a control, alternate, delete measure needed to restore, move forward. Confusion of what to do, how to handle difficult situations means mistakes get made. Lots of them. Well intentioned reactions as a spiral out of control takes on a life of its own.

Erasing the messy life chalk board to begin a new simpler existence outline primer.

One by one defining what is needed in your life at this stage you find yourself in. What is the purpose of your life, what needs to stay in that junk drawer or be removed to make room for a healthier life style? How to fill your days with the free time beyond obligations that are givens like making enough money to food, cloth, provide shelter for your family. Work, work, then nursing home means you missed out on the wonders, joys of the life that is yours, no one else’s to script.

What are your priorities? The source of your joys, pleasure, fulfillment needs a seat in the mini van. And maybe something removed, pruned that is dead weight. Resentment, bitterness, apathy have no place in the limited seating vehicle you pilot. The lighthouse that helps you charter the life course is God. He has the answers to your problems. He is there to share in your instruction along the way. If you make time to listen, apply slowly what needs correction in your thinking, reaction to situations and people in your life you try to build a better realtionship with.

I have two Maine lighthouses under my belt out of Vacationland’s 68 to sample, collect.

The Lubec West Quoddy Head Maine lighthouse is the one closest to me. I took a diversion from delivering youngest son Elliot to Boston’s Logan Airport recently and sat, watched, absorb another in Cape Elizabeth. The Portland Head Light is by far Maine’s most notable, photographed and visited.

The map location of Maine’s lighthouse is mental spread before me to chart a course to one my one visit. No hurry, no exasperation or need to cram them all to one summer spent searching them out. But if I can do two a year, I think sitting on a rock and just listening to the surf, my inner most thoughts is healing. That those locations like being high on a Maine hiking or ski mountain are pauses along the trail of life. For answers to mysteries, and a place to praise God for all that is right, good in your life.

Consider adding more Maine lighthouses to your busy schedule. Take the time to seek them out. Learn about their rich, individual maritime history and importance. Create a thought provoking experience you won’t forget. That you will trek back to to learn more. Understanding, developing you own personal outline for changes, corrections you may slowly need to be making in your life. To live it fuller and with more satisfaction, reward.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

March 11, 2012
Cape Elizabeth Maine, Home Of The Portland Head Lighthouse

Watch The Video of Portland Head Lighthouse

Maine, the word means a lot of things because it’s not one of the smaller states.

Lighthouses and sea coastal living, lobsters are a few of the images most think of when the word Maine comes up in conversation.

In 1787, the Massachusetts legislature allocated $750 to begin construction of a The Portland Head lighthouse. In 1790, the United States Government took over control of all lighthouses. Congress allocated $1,500 for its completion.

The original Portland Head lighthouse tower measured 72′ from base to lantern deck. Light provideded by 16 whale oil lamps. It was first lit on January 10, 1791.

In 1790, the Portland Head Light construction of the first Keeper’s Quarters began in 1790. Massachusetts Governor John Hancock signed the contract to begin the work.

Maine became a state in 1820.

A single story residence built to replace the first keeper’s house in 1816. The size was 34′ x 20′ with two rooms, a cellar and a porch in the rear.

Visit the 90 acres around Fort William Park, see Portland’s Head Light and enjoy a minute on the Maine coast. Watch the Maine lighthouse Cape Elizabeth video.

Maine Lighthouse Video, Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth ME

The location of the Portland Head Lighthouse is 1000 Shore Road
Cape Elizabeth, Maine. For more information call (207) 799-2661.

Maine has over 60 coastal lighthouses. Another pretty special pretty lady that caught MeInMaine author Andrew Mooers’ eye is the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec ME in Washington County. Come see what you are missing whenever you are not in Maine. Wake up, start dreaming in blue and green in Maine.

Explore, Discover Maine and all that it offers any age traveller, vacationer for outdoor recreational fun. Pack a picnic lunch. Bring your imagination and plan to do some hiking, to get some exercise.

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I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com</a >

January 5, 2012
Maine Lighthouses, Lobsters, Lake Loons.

The best things about Maine would be an awful long, varied list if

Maine Is More Than Lighthouses, Lobsters, Lake Loons.

you polled many people.

The first images of Maine when the word is mentioned are what?

Or when you tell someone you are from this big state with lower population in the right hand corner of the nation?

Often the list starts with Maine lighthouses, lobsters, loons. It can progress to snow skiing, kayaking lakes, hiking Maine state parks.

Or maybe other Maine food like our famous wild blueberries, potatoes get added to the poll results.

But lighthouses in Maine are in the top three when a survey is whipped out. Maine lobsters come up high and maybe because of all those vacations to Bar Harbor, Kennebunk or Ogunquit.

York Beach Lighthouse. Collect All 60+ Of Them On Your Vacation Trips To Maine!

But Maine loons, the sound of their cry or laughter depending on your reaction, mood at the time are sacred. The Maine Audobon had a loon photo contest and offers other worthwhile information on the bird.

On Drews Lake, last summer there was a young loon lake island chick that was being abused by his Maine parents.

Other chicks had been eaten. So intervention to rescue the Maine loon chick by concerned local lake campers got him to a vet. And each took turns hand feeding him back to health, in a safe setting.

Maine Loons, Hanging Out And Fishing Together On A Local Lake.

Eventually a down country mother loon that had lost her baby was located to “adopt” the Drews Lake loon. And to provide a happy ending to the story. Evidently domestic abuse is not limited to just humans. Mainers living in the small town rural setting care more for each other, for the wildlife and the four seasons surroundings.

Special thanks to the Arthur Howell Game Shelter, Preserve that takes in “disabled” or abandoned Maine wildlife. The shelter is a neat place for school field trips and is located on the Lycette Road in Amity. Respect for the creatures in the woods, roaming the farms, out in, on and below the surface of the local waterways. Art is all over that.

I have known Arthur for many years and enjoy his visits with owls, hawks and other birds to the local Houlton Rotary meetings. He is definitely a friend to the wildlife of Maine. The place that Bambi goes when mom or dad are killed. Or for hurt animals to rehabilitate in Northern Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, Broker
207.532.6573
info@mooersrealty.com

March 22, 2011