Portland’s Six Lighthouses : A Gallery

Portland Head Light

Portland Maine has six Lighthouses protecting its rocky coast.  This week, in a blog article for the New England Photography Guild, I highlighted each of these beacons.  Radar and GPS have revolutionized the process of coastal navigation, but, especially for smaller craft, they have not replaced the importance of Lighthouses in lighting the way to safe harbors.  Photographically, New England’s lights are one of my favorite subjects whenever I get back to the coast.

Check out my Guild article for details about each of Portland’s six Lighthouses.  They range from the isolated and abandoned Rear Range Tower of the Twin Lights, to the majestic Portland Head light, arguably the most impressive example of New England’s coastal beacons.  Here, To supplement my article, I have collected a few more of the many images of these lighthouses that I have captured over the years.

You can check out the locations on my map and follow the GPS locations.  I decided to tour the lighthouses from south to north starting with the most challenging ones to approach, the Twin Lights.

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1-2)  Twin Lights, Cape Elizabeth

43.5643N, 70.1989

Only one of the two Twin Lights is still functioning and both are on private property.  Both were built around 1828.  In 1924, the government dismantled the West (Rear Range) Tower.  It is closed off and now is a private residence.  The other light is closer to the shore and, although it is still operating, it can’t be closely approached.  

Rear Range Tower - Inactive

East Tower - Active

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3) Portland Head Lighthouse, Cape Elizabeth

43.6232N, 70.2079W

The Portland Head Lighthouse was commissioned by President George Washington and completed in 1791. It is the oldest lighthouse in Maine.  Sitting heroically on a rocky point extending toward Portland’s main shipping channel, it is easy to see why it is the most photographed lighthouse in New England.

Obviously, it is one of my most photographed Lighthouses.

 

 

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4) Ram Island Light

43.6314N, 70.1876W

Across the entrance to Portland Harbor from Cape Elizabeth and Portland Head Light, is Ram Island Lighthouse.  Built in 1905, It sits precariously on a ledge that threatens the northern side of the harbor channel.  The lighthouse can be photographed from Fort Williams Park with dramatic images often including Portland Head Light in the frame.

Distant Ram Island Light

 

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 5) Spring Point Ledge Light

43.6499N, 70.2255W

Located next to the Campus of Southern Maine Community College, Spring Point Ledge Light was built in 1897 to mark a dangerous Ledge which lies to the west of Portland’s main shipping channel.  Originally built on a caisson in open water, in 1951, the lighthouse was attached to the mainland with a 600 foot granite breakwater and can be viewed from the beach or breakwater.  

 

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6) Bug Light

43.6556N, 70.2349W

Little Portland Breakwater Light, which is also called “Bug Light”, was built in 1875 to mark the entrance to Portland Harbor. Bug Light Park includes a memorial to the New England Shipbuilding Corp shipyard.  During WW II, the massive yard constructed over 200 of the Liberty Ships that were so crucial in transporting American industrial output across the Atlantic.  Now, all that is left is a skeletonized bow,  representing one of the ships.

 

 

 

Liberty Ship Memorial

• Portland's Six Lighthouses
  (New England Photography Guild Article)

Jeffrey Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.com

603-363-8338

Photography on the Oregon Coast



Yaquina Head Light, The Eddington Moment
 

"Getting My "Eddington Moment"

It is great to be home after an exciting trip out west.

Nellie, the Look

We managed to pack a lot into about 3 weeks of travel through Yellowstone, the Tetons, the Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon coast, but it is nice to be sleeping in my own bed, eating home cooking and apologizing to our dog Nellie. I have about 2500 photographs that I have barely reviewed and if history holds, I will have to come back to the archive in brief visits over the the next months as other more immediate demands press for my limited time. I am still returning to my pictures from previous travels of years past and I am sure I will be mining these treasures for years to come. Wadding through unexplored photographs is a great way to relive previous adventures.

Toe in the Pacific, Newport, Oregon

Before I veer away to Autumn responsibilities, I want to close my travelogue with some images from our brief glimpse of the Oregon coast. I never feel a trip out west is complete without an opportunity to dip my toe in the Pacific and for two days before our flight home Susan and I ran along the coastal highway from Tillamook Bay to Newport. This portion of the coast is not as ruggedly dramatic as other areas, such as the Big Sur, and it is sadly overdeveloped, but we enjoyed some lovely beaches and interesting lighthouses.

Cape Kiwanda Beach

On the first day, our drive to Newport was plagued with cloudy weather, but I had only one sunset opportunity on the coast and I was committed to looking for something interesting. During an early dinner in Newport I noted that the clouds seemed to be thinning just above the ocean horizon. Nearby Yaquina Cape Lighthouse provided a great subject and I determined that the sun would dip into the Pacific right behind the lighthouse. With my hopes, once again, on an "Eddington Moment" we went to the Cape and I set up on a low hill to await the miracle. As usual the lighthouse was crawling with people, contaminating my clean view, but then the first miracle occurred. As the sun approached the horizon many of the gawkers decided that the old guy with the tripod must know what he is doing and they joined me on the hill. The second miracle was that the sun did peak below the clouds, just before being extinguished by the sea, and by that time I had attracted most of the viewers to me and away from the lighthouse. Ah the power of a tripod! Next time I will set up an ice cream stand and will have no cloning to do whatsoever. 

Yaquina Head Light

 

As the sky remained a dull pinkish gray.  My fellow hill dweller seemed to be developing a growing skepticism about my photographic expertise, but when the sun began dipping below the overhanging clouds, my credibility was restored.. For a precious few seconds the golden light skipped across the overcast creating a ceiling of brilliant color. Pocket camera fired all around me., almost always with flash to help illuminate the sun! It was a brief moment of glory, but well worth the wait. I bracketed the exposure, but found later that only two images were needed to capture a nice dynamic range. I hope that people living on the Pacific coast fully appreciate the fact that they don't have to get up at 5 in the morning to see the sun floating on the ocean.

 

Three Arch Rocks, Oceanside Oregon

Cape Lookout Beach

The next day we worked our way up the coast in much brighter weather. We explored a number of spectacular ocean promontories and visited the diminutive Cape Meares Lighthouse. Now retired, this historic light is the shortest along the Oregon coast. It is an interesting experience to approach a lighthouse with the trail at lens level

Cape Meare Light

Cape Meare Trail

US Bancorp Tower, Portland

The Top of Portland
Back in Portland we treated ourselves to dinner at the Portland City Grill, thirty stories up in the US Bancorp Tower, overlooking the city and Mount Hood, brilliant in the sunset afterglow. It was the perfect, relaxed ending to a hectic, but remarkable trip. Now we need for someone to get married in Yosemite next summer .

 

Mount Hood, From the Grill

Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com