Bear Island (Maine)

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / surface missing template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing

Bear Iceland is an island in the Cranberry Islands in the central coast of the U.S. state of Maine with an existing lighthouse since 1839.

Location

The lighthouse is located in the southeast of the island of the same name, just 300 meters off the coast of Mount Desert Iceland in the Eastern Way said passage to Northeast Harbor and Somes Sound. About 1 kilometer south is Sutton Iceland. The village of Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Iceland lies to the northwest.

Due to the location of the tower on a hill is the white flashing, solar-powered light at a height of 100 feet (30, 5 meters) above sea level.

History

The decision to build a lighthouse on the southwestern end of this small island was in 1838, the farmer William Moore sold this 2 acre ( approx 8,100 m) to the government. The first, 1839 put into operation lighthouse in the western part of Bear Iceland, was a 8 feet ( about 2.5 meters ) squared measured, made ​​of white painted pine wood construction, at the southern end of the pediment of the small, stone-built house the lighthouse keeper of this little taller. The cost of the acquisition of the land and the construction of the building amounted to approximately U.S. $ 3,000.

In 1852 a fire destroyed this idiosyncratic design, in the following year the replacement was carried out by a brick building in a cylindrical tower, which joined directly to the home of the lighthouse keeper. The installation of a fifth-order Fresnel lens was followed in 1856, 1888 saw the construction of a 1,000 -pound fog bell together with the associated mechanics. Since 1887 there was a depot for buoys, and other navaids on the island, this was later moved to Southwest Harbor, where there was also a coal bunker where the necessary ships could be loaded again.

The 1889 and 1890 brought a reconstruction of the entire system, a 31 feet (about 9.4 meters) tall, cylindrical tower was built using the existing foundations. The house of the lighthouse keeper was rebuilt on the basis of a wood - frame building, the same applies to the barn. The oil storage and the boat house are more recent.

In 1981, the lighthouse was decommissioned and replaced by a flashing buoy, 1987, the handover of the territory of the National Park Service, which manages it as part of Acadia National Park. The private organization Friends of Acadia resulted in the following years through extensive renovations, which led, among other things, that 1989 was a resumption of the use of the beacon as a private aid to navigation.

The site was the National Park Service, leased in a long-term lease to Martin Morad, a professor of medicine and pharmacology at Georgetown University, who is responsible for the maintenance of the building.

Tourism

The site is indeed in the public domain, however, is leased and therefore inaccessible. The best views of Bear Iceland offer the circulating daily mail boat or the ferry between Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Iceland and Spurling Point on Great Cranberry Iceland. During the summer season of Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor tour boats.

Also from the Maine State Highway 3 south of the lighthouse is visible.

Weblink

  • Virtual Guide
  • Island (Maine)
  • Island (North America)
  • Island (Atlantic Ocean )
  • Lighthouse in the United States
  • Lighthouse in North America
  • Hancock County ( Maine)
Cranberry Isles, Maine Mount Desert Island Dollar
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