Driving rather than Walking along the Rockland Breakwater

Newspaper Article from the Past

A delivery of coal being made to the lighthouse by the Fred R. Spear Company.
(Photo courtesy of the Friends of Rockland Harbor Lights)

Countless thousands of people walk along the Rockland Breakwater each year, but over a century ago, a group of tourists decided to forgo using their feet and opted instead for an automobile ride to reach the lighthouse. Such a decision no doubt caused quite a stir at the time.

There is photographic documentation of a local supply company with an automobile parked in front of the lighthouse at the turn of the twentieth century, but the crew was on official business making a delivery to the site – not taking an adventurous joyride. Check out the account below!

Newspaper Article from: Le Mars Sentinel, Le Mars, Iowa, August 30, 1904

An Autoist’s Exploit…Boston Man Drove His Machine Over a Breakwater in Maine

A nearly mile-long breakwater leads from land to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.
(Maine Lighthouse Museum photo)

Leon Morrill of Boston rode to the end of a mile long breakwater in his automobile a few days ago and almost caused a panic among the members of the lightkeeper’s family at Rockland Breakwater, in Maine, says the New York Herald.

Mr. Morrill, with a party of three, ran his machine down to the fortifications at the head of the breakwater and carefully guided it on to the masonry. There are three rows of huge granite blocks, with inter-slices of two to ten inches, filled with smaller pieces of granite, thus making the upper surface very uneven.

Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse was built in 1902.
(National Archives photo)

Mr. Morrill started slowly and then went bounding off toward the lighthouse. The automobile swerved to the right and the left, bounded into the air and fell again to the granite, only to repeat the same movements.

The lighthouse was reached in less than five minutes. Mr. Morrill and his party saluted the dumb-stricken group, and with composure, Mr. Morrill turned his machine around and started on the return trip, which was made in four minutes.