End of Summer

Late summer on Bakers Island is still hot and sunny.   Abundant goldenrod everywhere means there's no denying summer is on the wane.

When the Coast Guard automated Bakers Light in 1972, they stopped the clear cutting of the 10 acre light station.  In the subsequent 43 years many invasive weeds have grown up, however birds and wind brought many surprises.

We recently discovered an apple and a pear tree growing near the new Lighthouse Trail.  A blue spruce and a mountain ash are among the other surprises.  A visit by a horticulturalist last month identified a beautiful and rare Rose mallow plant, similar to a hibiscus, on the shore of our pond.

 

The Naumkeag tour boat stopped bringing regular customers after Labor Day.  We really miss the visitors, almost all of whom expressed surprise and delight at the newly refurbished Bakers Island Light Station.  A few  more overnight guests from Maine are expected before we close down the facilities for winter.

Our Maine-Seguin ties are very strong.  First of all, that is how Greg and Mary, former 2013 Keepers at Seguin, became in touch with Bakers, sharing protocols and experiences on with Essex Heritage.  Seguin Island Light Station was turned over from the Coast Guard to Friends of Seguin Island Light Station (FOSILS)  25 years ago.  The government transfer of Bakers ownership to Essex Heritage was only one year ago.  Everyone involved in maintaining lighthouse properties for the public to enjoy are close colleagues.

Flag half-mast 9/11

As the summer evolved, we realized that our Seguin experience helped us a great deal in planning our days, setting priorities, and managing limited resources.  Then one day Greg thought of asking Seguin alums Bill and Brenda if they would consider applying as Bakers Keepers next year.  They have already been up to Massachusetts, interviewed at EH, and have been chosen as 2016 Keepers.

Two weeks ago, two Seguin alums who are also Bakers alums visited us for an overnight.  Tim and Lynne led the work on the derelict Assistant Keepers house in 2010 and 2011.   Greg and Mary had the much more rewarding role of painting and restoring the 140 year old Assistant Keepers house this year.  Tim and Lynne were amazed to sleep in an upstairs bedroom of the recent rehabilitation.

Among all the things we will miss as we prepare to leave Bakers will be the sea gulls who do not eat human food, the thousands of migrating swallows who ate all the biting flies, the summer weekend fireworks on surrounding beaches, our trips to the mainland in the EH Boston Whaler.  And the #9 bell buoy outside our bedroom window, lulling us to sleep every night, except when the blinking green light kept Greg awake.

Close up from Whaler

However, we shall return...as Essex Heritage Bakers Island volunteers next summer.   Thank you EH for inviting us to share this unique and extraordinary island experience for 20 weeks of summer.

Greg and Mary

Sunset now 6:51 pm

The last day of August already!  Is it the "dog days of summer" when the days are very hot and dry and the flag is limp?  We did have 72 hours of on-and-off foghorn last week, every 30 seconds, however the days returned to hot, sunny and dry.

Fifteen weeks so far as Bakers Island Light Station Keepers.  We have welcomed almost 1000 visitors this summer, on the one-year anniversary of Essex National Heritage Commission owning this property.

Niece Elizabeth and Mary's brother Frank Hillery

Everyone seems to love the 1960's helicopter pad we uncovered on the upper lawn, however, when the Coast Guard came out last week to check their equipment, they came by boat.  

One of our early summer visitors sent out the book, Ten Hours Until Dawn by Michael Tougias, about the February 1978  blizzard in Salem Harbor and the sad loss of life during heroic sea rescue efforts.  This is a must-read book for students of Salem history and will remain in the Bakers Island Keepers House Library.  We will leave behind a few historical sea faring books and bring the rest of our summer novels to the Salem Library Book Sale when we leave.

Recently we were visited by Coast Guard Vets who used to be stationed on Bakers.  Randall "Andy" Anderson and his wife Lorraine, who came out to Bakers on Friday, lived in both houses between 1967 and 1969.  Paul Baptist (stationed 1946-51) was here with his daughters on Sunday.   Both Vets had fond recollections of work and family life with their very young children when on Bakers.  The pleasure of meeting these people seemed mutual.  The honor was all ours.

Lorraine and Andy Anderson with Mary & Greg

Paul Baptiste and Mary

The new Lighthouse Trail is complete, with the help of ten National Park Service teens from Salem.  The trail is a restoration of an old trail that shows up on early 20th century maps, but which had been greatly overgrown.   Visitors are delighted to end their visit with a walk from the Lighthouse down to the beach.  Another "Field Trail" is being restored for next year's guests.

Both houses now have hot water, however on these warm end-of-summer days, we still take outdoor sun showers.  The inside of the Assistant Keepers House is completely repainted; a few tile floors are yet to be replaced.

This past weekend our family from Martha's Vineyard left their beautiful island to fall under the spell of our beautiful island.  Three teens hiked, swam and explored in the daytime, and fell asleep playing cards with us on our front porch in the evening.  We all watched spectacular Salem Willows fireworks from our lawn on Saturday night.

Aurora, Eddie and Christopher and Sophie from Vineyard

Labor Day being late this year, our grandchildren are back in school.  We hope for another visit from all of them before our expected departure Oct 1.  Until then, we are loving the "dog days of summer" on Bakers Island.

August Events on Bakers Island

We so enjoy when visitors come to the Bakers Island Light Station.  Whether family or friends, they often turn into Bakers volunteers too, even grandchildren taking a break and niece Elizabeth and friend Annie, who painted four closets in Assistant Keepers house.

 

Distinguished visitors included a lovely woman named Kim whose father,  Richard LaLonde, had the last Coast Guard family posting on Bakers in 1959.  Kim brought old family photos which she had also donated to Lighthouse Digest for an April 2005 article.

Essex Heritage hosted area teachers who participate in the Parks for Every Classroom program.  This program promotes the linking of volunteer work with the cultural heritage of the community.

Another large group, with members coming from as far as California, represented the General Services Administration  National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Program.  These are the government people who facilitate transfer of lighthouse properties to worthy public groups which fit the federal statuary requirements of  preservation and public education.  On the one year anniversary of giving the Light Station property to Essex Heritage, we got the sense that the inspection of the property greatly satisfied all concerned.

We had a chance to see the automation of the lighthouse to its full effect when lightning struck the tower about a week ago.   Feeling very safe in a 150 year old house, we climbed the stairs to go to bed and looked out the 150 year old skylight, as did Keepers of old.   The lantern was out but the back-up outside light was blinking, just as it should.  Next morning a flick of a re-start switch and all was back in perfect order.

Other strange or wondrous events included an advertising blimp which circled Bakers Island over and over again to get us to go to a Peanuts movie or buy life insurance, Beverly Homecoming Fireworks, and the magnificent Manchester classic sailboat regatta.  Every evening,  Bakers Island quiets down and darkens when the sun sets, and that is earlier and earlier as summer wanes...

Bakers Island 12th week

August 2015 is the one year anniversary of Essex Heritage ownership of Bakers Island Light Station, after more than 200 years of ownership by US Government.   It is also the 12th week of Mary and Greg being volunteer Keepers of Bakers Island Light Station.   Time flies!

The several hundred guests, since the July 1 start of the  Essex Heritage tour boat, have been amazed at the brightness of the new white surfaces of the Lighthouse and Lantern House.  Amazed at the grooming of the grounds, the "staging" of the Assistant Keepers House with newly refinished floors and walls, retaining evidence of the three eras of living, US Lighthouse Service, US Coast Guard and now 21st century ownership by Essex Heritage.   Tour guides tell guests that lighthouses can be thought of as "America's Castles," some of the oldest structures on our soil.

Bakers Island Light Station became famous in the print and televised media end of July.  On the morning of July 23 a big black helicopter circled the island several times. We thought it was the police, that something terrible had occurred.  Then we found out it was WBZ- TV and our lighthouse dog, Mitchie, made his TV debut on the 6 o'clock news.  Since then, many guests have told us they heard about the boat tours from TV or the Boston Globe.

Family and friends have been out to visit.  Our dear friend Jay picked up gloves and loppers and helped Greg clear an old path from the Lighthouse down to the ocean.  Grandchildren inspired Mary to go swimming off our rocky beach, and to discover the water is much warmer than in Maine!

 Apple tree discovered on new trail

Dramatic summer storms have let us hunker down in our 150 year old Keepers House, feeling safe and sound.  Thunder and lightning right overhead left us a dramatic sunset on July 24, after the storm passed by.  A Blue Moon on July 31 was much more dramatic in the sky than this picture shows.

Blue Moon rising

Every day brings new surprises in weather, in chores to be done, and in guests and friends who arrive spellbound by the natural beauty and historical significance of Bakers Island Light Station.  Even today, the sun rose in the East, then fog horn on for a short time, fog lifted and sun returns.  That's the island life we love.

Caribbean Connection kids from Salem

Flotsam and jetsam on Coast Guard Beach

Bakers Island 7/23/2015

It's very summertime hot, even on Bakers Island.  We love it, spending more and more time on the ocean in our Boston Whaler, though not swimming from our rocky shores.

We learn something new every day.  Did you know that the precursor to the US Coast Guard was the Massachusetts Humane Society, founded in 1786 to rescue mariners?  The first rescue surfboat station was built in Cohasset, Massachusetts.

An exciting discovery for Greg was when he first found internet reference to a fog bell at Bakers Island Light Station.  Then he found the location of the former bell tower on the rocks below the presently automated fog horn.  Now we have to find out what happened to Bakers' bell.

Another interesting clarification about that white tower standing at the head of Manchester harbor.  We were correct in telling visitors that the structure is not a lighthouse, but little did we know that it is not a modern addition to the architecture of the shore.  It used to be grey and stood as a submarine lookout tower in WWII.

The same visitor who told us about the sub lookout tower in Manchester also told us that the now dismantled tower at the end of Navy Road in Small Point, Maine was not just a triangulation point for planes to practice bombing.  It too was a submarine lookout tower in WWII. 

Last Friday we had the pleasure of meeting two people whose father was a Coast Guard Keeper on Bakers in 1950.  She had a few pictures of her parents,  one, of her parents standing at a certain angle next to the Assistant Keepers house.  We repeated the 1950 photograph with the brother and sister standing in the same spot in 2015.

Joy came for us when two of our grandchildren arrived for last weekend to stay at the light station with us.  Our four-year old granddaughter was heard to say, "This is the best house ever."  She has visited us in six houses in her brief life.  Then, our seven-year-old grandson woke up Sunday morning and said, "I love my room!  I see the lighthouse, the heli pad and the ocean."

We are looking forward to our niece coming out as she did at Seguin, to help out and to enjoy.  Also looking toward National Park service teenage volunteers to help us clear brush.  It is hoped that goats will clear some of the poison ivy for us next year if we clear an area for them.  Greg and I just finished repainting the lantern house so it will match in brightness to our newly refinished light tower.

We tell our visitors what a quiet island this is with the limited elecetric power everyone has, solar and propane only.  Then I hear a loud argument of old men right outside my window.  But it's only 6 am.  It's just old seagulls who sound just like angry old men when there are no other sounds except the wind.

We can see the Boston skyline from our yard, so close yet so far.  A big Coast Guard boat is going by as we get ready to meet visitors from the Essex heritage tour boat.  The busy harbor is a constant source of interest and our guests are a constant source of fun.

Bakers Island, Salem Harbor, July 15,2015

We have been on Bakers Island for two months now.  Bright sun this morning when Greg raised the lighthouse flag.  Then a bank of fog so thick, we couldn't even see the shore.  The warning fog horn sounded every 30 seconds.  Of course many people weren't even out of bed yet.  By 9am bright sun shone on Bakers again.  Tour boats and fishing boats poured through the channel, formerly called the Misery Shoals by merchants and mariners during the Golden Age of Sail in Salem, 

1790's-early 1800's.

Norseman's Head of Bakers Island

We have hosted several hundred visitors since the Essex Heritage tour boat, Naumkeag,  meaning  "the fishing place," started 5-day a week service.  I think I can speak for the EH tour guides who accompany each boat trip, that we learn something new every trip, either from a visitor who is a sailor, fisherman or woman, retired Coast Guard, or a well-read historian.  And from well-read kids.  We have great fun when kids get off the boat thrilled, amazed when they see the light tower and then tell us everything they know about the sea.  We even met two boys whose grandparents live in Five Islands, Georgetown, Maine, our old stomping grounds.

Sea Gulls still protecting their fledglings.

The restoration of the Lighthouse is complete.  Everyone, either from the boat or our Bakers neighbors, says it looks magnificent.  Three weeks of work and the yellow lichen is transformed to a glowing white.  The lantern house is shiny black from catwalk to dome.  New windows.  And an exciting find, the old iron railing up the inside stairs used to be on the right side, not the wall side where the Coast Guard cable is.  Why do the stairs go clockwise up and counter clock-wise down?  May have to do with sword fight defenses of the middle-ages, according to a visiting historian.  Our lighthouse is only 200 years old.

Finished Tower

View from Keeper's House skylight

Trails are being reopened from height-of-land to the beach.  Poison ivy and sumac stand in the way, but our Seguin Island experiences and Maine Agricultural Extension recommendations make a good starting place for this project.  We anticipate teen age volunteers from the local area to be part of the team.  Greg has already uncovered an old Coast Guard stone wall on the beach which used to lead to their, now defunct, boat house.

View from our front door

We love this place, day and night, sun or fog or rain.  Looking forward to three more grandchildren visiting us this weekend.  I will read them, "My Dad Fixed the Lighthouse" by Marty Nally, our mason.  Hopefully those little tykes will want to swim in this cold, cold ocean...

We are now one week into the Essex Heritage boat trips to Bakers Island Light Station.  After seventy years without public access, Essex Heritage tour guides welcome visitors to Bakers Island who come from Salem on the 18-passenger Naumkeag.

Every day we are learning how important Salem Harbor was to American merchants after the lifting of the British-imposed Navigation Acts.  After 1776, Salem merchants could trade all over the world.  Did you know that Salem was named after Jerusalem, "City of Peace?" 

Independence Day was gala out here on Bakers.  Our daughter and two granddaughters spent the weekend with us in the Keepers House.  Marty Nally, the mason restoring the outside of the lighthouse, and his family, stayed in the Assistant Keepers house.

At least 50-60 guests came over on the three-times-a-day Naumkeag.  Everyone either heard our granddaughter sing "It's a Grand Old Flag" or see that she was the only brave one to wear a bathing suit into the cold, cold North Shore waters that surround us.  Hard shell lobsters eaten in the evening, al fresco, had to be opened with tools out of the workshop:  hammer, pliers and wrench.  And then the fireworks!  Up and down the whole North Shore, seen from our lawn.


Another July 4th accomplishment was to have the flag once again flying from the lighthouse and to uncover the Coast Guard helicopter pad.  With the help of the masons, the 10 foot long lanyard, 50 feet high, was restrung and the 8X10 flag was unfurled for all to see on July 4th.  We uncovered the bricks of the heli pad, buried under 4-6 inches of sod, and repainted "striping safety yellow" to restore a piece of 1960's Coast Guard history.

The restoration of the outside of the lighthouse is in the final phase of three coats of special paint.  It has been an amazing process, removing yellow lichen and revealing a white tower.  When visitors look inside at the 48 narrow stairs leading to the lantern room, most everyone remarks about how hard life must have been for light keepers of old, carrying whale "lard" or kerosene up, maintaining the light every night, cleaning up after burning dirty fuels, and making do with whatever could be raised or grown for food.  How different it is for us.  

With a beautiful Fourth of July just past, we are ready to greet many happy visitors on the Essex Heritage Naumkeag and for the rest of our six grandchildren to experience Bakers Island Light Station.  In the meantime, picture Greg and Mary tooling around Salem Harbor in our Boston Whaler.