The Light on the Hudson

by Dana Ferry

published by Ithaca Press

Dyce Head Lighthouse

John Quincy Adams secured an area in Maine at the mouth of the Penobscot River for the location of a new lighthouse in 1829. Sea captain, Jacob Shelburne, its first keeper, illuminated the tower that same year. Anchored snugly on a one-hundred foot crag in the southwest corner of the town of Castine is the Dyce Head Light. The Dyce Head Light no longer guides vessels into the Penobscot River, however its rich history remains.

A foot path crawls across the wind-swept lighthouse property leading to a twenty-five-foot tall, conical, white tower capped by a dusky black lantern. The tower is accompanied by a keepers' residence; a one-and-a-half story Colonial-cape constructed of wood. This cozy dwelling blended with a sublime view of a sweep of Penobscot Bay was home to keepers and their families for eighty years. The tower is a composite of rubblestone and granite whose inner surface is paved with brick. It rests on the edge of a peninsula between the Fort Point and Pumpkin Island Lighthouses among the many on Maine's coasts.

The town of Castine was settled with a French trading post in 1613. During the Revolutionary War, Paul Revere came to Castine as a Colonel and ordinance officer participating in one of the most unfavorable naval debacles in United States history. As the Americans tried to reach Fort George, the distinguished British Fleet, outmaneuvered them and the conflict was lost, as American ships retreated up the Penobscot River. The Dyce Head Lighthouse was fundamental to the clipper ships traveling by way of the Penobscot River to Bangor, a prominent logging port. In 1858 Winslow Lewis' parabolic reflectors were replaced with a fourth order Fresnel Lens and the tower was covered with a six-sided wooden frame. But by the late 1800s, the hexagonal cover had been shed and a brick oil house was a new addition to the property.

In 1935, the timber industry had declined, lacking a need for a lighthouse and keepers at Dyce Head. In its place, a white skeleton tower was constructed on the north side of the entrance to the harbor. The light became idle in 1937 at a time when many lights were being quenched, as is described in Dana Ferry's book The Light on the Hudson. Twenty-one years later the Dyce Head Lighthouse came into possession of the town of Castine. A tenant rented the keeper's house with the town of Castine being the landlords, and the money was used for the maintenance of the lighthouse and its dwellings. In 1997, $123,000 was acquired for restoration of the Dyce Head Lighthouse.

Among the restoration projects were the repair to the loss, over the years, of large pieces of mortar in the lighthouse tower. A unique method was used to fill in those areas by injecting a mixture of clay and liquid into the holes. The keeper's house was returned to its original state in 1999, while in that same year a fire in the chimney of the house nearly ruined the work of many dedicated people. To survey the Dyce Head Lighthouse today is to behold a safe shelter sitting beside a tower that performed its duties for many years. Thankfully someone conceived a future for the lighthouse to protect its attractiveness and esteem its contribution to the Penobscot mariners.

For more information about Dyce Head Lighthouse, visit www.DanaFerry.com. www.DanaFerry.com.