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participants to visit and view the areas five lighthouses some that are very
difficult to get to, and receive a certificate of completion at the end of
the event. Throughout the day, at the various locations, the groups were
selling lighthouse memorabilia to raise money for their respective
lighthouses and food vendors reported brisk sales.
The event was also a boost to the area’s tourism economy as local motels and
B & B’s were filled to capacity. West Quoddy Gifts in Lubec reported it was
the best single day of sales that they have had since they opened for
business 18 years ago. At one point, during the Sunday morning breakfast
crowd at the Bluebird Restaurant in Machias, all you could hear was the talk
of lighthouses. In Cutler, 90-year local resident Josephine Corbett said,
“This is just like the old days, when Cutler was alive and the town was
filled with people for events. It is so exciting and nice to see this
happening again.”
In Cutler, various vendors were set up in tents selling lighthouse related
items and nearly 500 people were ferried out to the island home of the now
restored Little River Lighthouse. Most of the attendees had never visited
the island before. It was a grand day for people like 81-year old Hal
Biering, who spent the past five years working on the restoration of the
lighthouse. As he piloted one of the five boats that made trips back and
forth to the island, he talked to everyone about the long and grueling
restoration project that had taken place on the island. Although he didn’t
mention it to anyone, the brand new boat he was piloting had been launched
just one day before the event and been donated by Biering to the Friends of
Little River Lighthouse. Another boat captain was Mac McCullough of Hampden,
Maine who was piloting a large boat that he had donated to the Friends group
earlier this year. Cutler volunteers Stephen Cates helped with his lobster
boat and local tour boat operator Andy Patterson of Bold Coast Charters also
ferried people.
Helping people get off the boats on the island at Little River Lighthouse
was former lighthouse keeper Terry Rowden who recounted many stories of life
on the island from when he was stationed there in 1966. Also on hand was
former lighthouse keeper John Arrington who was Officer in Charge in 1972.
However, it was the descendants of Willie W. Corbett, the last keeper of the
United States Lighthouse Service to be stationed at Little River Lighthouse
when the Coast Guard took over in 1939, that made up the largest contingent
with well over a dozen of the Corbett family volunteering in various
locations throughout the town, including being in the top and bottom of the
tower to greet people.
At Head Harbour Lighthouse on Campobello Island it was the first time that
most people had ever climbed the tower or toured the keeper’s house of the
picturesque Canadian Light Station. Although, Mulholland Lighthouse, also on
Campobello Island, was not available for climbing, the tower was open,
giving people the opportunity to peer inside. The Lubec Channel Lighthouse,
which rests in the channel between the two nations was not open for tours
but counted in the Challenge as one of the lighthouses that could be viewed.
Tim Harrison, of the Friends of Little River Lighthouse, who came up with
the idea of the event, said he and others felt it was success, although he
said, “Now that we’ve completed one event, we now know of ways we can
improve on it, should we decide to do it again.”
In attendance was Stan Farham, president of the Florida Lighthouse
Association, who rated it as a great event saying he hopes to pattern one
like it for Florida. “As well as a number of Mainers who attended,
participants came from Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, Virginia, Maryland,
New York and as far away as California,” said Finnegan. In fact she said
that she fielded nearly 600 inquiries leading up to the Challenge. Many
attendees stated they had been to ‘Lighthouse Challenges’ in Maryland, New
Jersey and Long Island, but this was the best one they had ever attended.
The Machias Savings Bank, The University of Maine at Machias and Lighthouse
Digest Magazine of Whiting cosponsored the first International “Lights
Across the Border,” Lighthouse Challenge.
Posted: 8/18/08 |
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