Dice Head Light

Year Built

1829

Cost

$5,000

Type

Conical

Height

42 feet

Location

Castine

Automated Year

1937

First Lit

1829

Lens Type

Lewis Patent Apparatus 1828

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

1937-2008

Color

White/Black Lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Vurney L. King (1930 – 1937)

Description

A tower, was topped by an octagonal wrought iron lantern and stood next to a one-and-a-half-story rubblestone house.

Brief History

•  In 1835, Captain Henry D. Hunter of the US revenue cutter Jackson inspected Dice Head Lighthouse and recommended that the light be moved.
•  When Benjamin Harriman started as keeper in July 1841, his annual salary was $350.
•  On July 23, 1931, Vurney L. King, the last keeper of Dice Head Lighthouse, rescued a woman who was marooned on a rock after the tide came up.
•  After Dice Head Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1937, the light was moved to a nearby skeletal tower, and the keeper’s dwelling and surrounding land was transferred to the town of Castine. The tower was turned over to the town in 1956.
•  In 2007, after a microburst knocked over the skeleton tower on Dice Head, Castine residents suggested that the Coast Guard install a light in Dice Head Lighthouse, rather than install another modern tower. The Coast Guard took them up on the idea, and now Dice Head Lighthouse shines again after seventy-two years of darkness.