Bear Island Light

Year Built

1839

Cost

$3,000

Type

Cylindrical attached to Work Room and Dwelling

Height

31 feet

Location

Bear Island

Automated Year

1989

First Lit

1889 (current structure)

Lens Type

Original: 5th order Fresnel - Current: Plastic

Fog Signal

Original: Bell - Current: None

Year Deactivated

1981-1989

Color

White

Last Keeper - Date

Guy Veillette (1980 – 1981)

Description

The original lighthouse consisted of a wooden tower set atop the southern gable of a granite rubblestone keeper’s house. The dwelling had three rooms on the first floor, two chambers in an attic, and a cellar beneath it that held two wooden rainwater cisterns. The tower’s octagonal lantern room housed seven lamps and thirteen-inch reflectors, which produced a fixed white light at a focal plane of ninety-eight feet above the surrounding water.

Brief History

•  1837, Captain Joseph Smith of the U.S. Navy sailed along the coast of Maine examining sites for proposed lighthouses.
•  The owner of the island, William Moore, demanded $500 for the eleven-acre island or $50 for two acres on its western side, even though he had purchased the island for $101.17 just a few months earlier.
•  Following President Martin Van Buren’s approval, the light was built in 1839, using a $3,000 appropriation granted on July 7, 1838.
•  Bear Island was from the beginning a family station with a single keeper.
•  Bear Island Lighthouse is not open to the public.