Bass Harbor Head Light

Year Built

1821

Cost

$10,500

Type

Conical

Height

30 feet

Location

Burnt Island SSW of Boothbay Harbor

Automated Year

1989

First Lit

1821

Lens Type

Fourth order Fresnel lens

Fog Signal

Horn: 1 every 10s

Year Deactivated

Avtive

Color

White w/black lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Henry Sieg (1983 – 1988)

Description

The conical tower on Burnt Island, built of granite likely quarried on the island, stands thirty feet tall and is lined with brick. The four-foot thick walls at the tower’s base have given it such stability that it has never been rebuilt, and today it is the second-oldest original lighthouse structure in Maine, behind Portland Head Lighthouse, built in 1791 when Maine was still part of Massachusetts.

Brief History

•  1821, The U.S. government purchased the five-acre island for $150 from businessmen Jacob Auld and Joseph McCobb, using funds from a $10,500 Congressional appropriation.
•   In 1857, a new lantern room was installed atop the tower to house a fourth-order Fresnel lens, which shone a fixed, white light from a focal point of sixty-one feet above sea level.
•  1857, a wood-framed house, connected to the tower by a covered wooden walkway, replaced the original stone keeper’s cottage.
•  In 1895, a pyramidal bell tower was constructed on the island. A 1,000-pound bell was hung from a beam protruding from the seaward face of the tower, which housed a Gamewell machine for striking the bell.
•  In 1998, as part of Maine Lights Program, ownership of Burnt Island Lighthouse was transferred from the Coast Guard to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.