LIBBY ISLAND LIGHT
MACHIAS BAY ENTRANCE
Station Established: 1822
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1848
Operational? YES
Automated? YES 1974
Deactivated: n/a
Foundation Materials: NATURAL/EMPLACED
Construction Materials: GRANITE BLOCKS
Tower Shape: CONICAL
Markings/Pattern: WHITE W/BLACK LANTERN
Relationship to Other Structure: SEPARATE
Original Lens: FOURTH ORDER, FRESNEL 1855
Historical Information:
- 1817 – Wooden tower built.
- 1821/22 – Wooden tower blown down in storm.
- 1823 – New granite tower built.
- 1855 – Fourth order Fresnel lens installed.
- 1856 – Rain shed and boathouse built.
- 1874 – Fog bell installed.
- 1878 – Schooner Caledonia ran into the ledge near Libby Island.
- 1884 – Fog bell replaced by steam trumpet, and masonry fog signal house built.
- 1892 – Steam trumpet replaced by steam whistle. The Princeport, a ship from Nova Scotia, ran aground on the sandbar that connects the two Libby Islands.
- 1894 – Brick oil house built.
- 1906 – Three-masted schooner Ella G. Ells, wrecked near the island.
- 1949 – Improvements made to keeper’s dwelling.
- 1974 – Fresnel lens replaced by modern optic and the lighthouse automated.
- 1998 – Lighthouse turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- 2000 – Coast Guard overhauled the station and converted the light to solar power.
Keepers:
- John McKellar (c. 1830s)
- Isaac Sterns (1842-1846)
- Matthew Kellar (1846-1850 and 1853-1860)
- John Grant (1850-1853)
- James W. Foster (1860-1871)
- John C. Ames (1871-1877)
- Charles A. Drisko (1877-1883)
- William H. Drisko (1883-1885)
- A. M. Drisko (1885-1891)
- Danford O. French (1891-1895)
- Fred W.Morong (1895-1898, also 1910)
- Bela W. Proctor (first assistant, 1894-?)
- Roscoe G. Johnson (second assistant 1894-?, head keeper 1898-1901)
- Henry M. Cuskley (1903-?)
- Charles A. Kenney (1905-1912)
- Hervey H. Wass (1919-1940)
- George Woodward (assistant?, ?-c.1924)
- Gleason W. Colbeth (assistant, 1930s)
- Jasper L. Cheney (assistant 1933-1940, head keeper 1940-1949)
Researched and written by Marie Vincent, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.