For 136 years, the Point lookout Lighthousehelped generations of Chesapeake Baymariners avoid shoals, navigate through densefog, and find the Potomac River's mouth. Thebeam shone until 1966, when an automated light off Point Lookout assumed the job of the original wood-and-masonry lighthouse.
Trailblazing Women.Lighthouse keeping was one of the firstnon-clerical government jobs available toAmerican women. In 1830, when PointLookout's first keeper James Davis died after three months of service, hisdaughter Ann replaced him, working on for17 years. Then came short tenures for three men followed by two years for Martha Edwards. Her daughter Pamelia kept the light from 1855-1869.
A haunted lighthouse?Isolated wind-swept buildings often attractghost stories, if not ghosts, and the pointLookout lighthouse is no exception. Decades-old tales about strange sounds and sightings led a parapsychologist to study the lighthouse in 1980, and the Maryland Committee for Psychical Research held a s?ance there.The committee reported the image of a Confederate soldier. But proof remains elusive.
"[Grandfather] would fix us baked turtlefor dinner which I didn't look forward to."Recollection by Mildred Lucy GoldhboroughVoight, granddaughter of William Yeatman, lighthouse keeper for 37 years.
During Yeatman's lengthy tenure(1871-1908) the light was expandedand modernized, a buoy depot built, and the house raised one story, with a new tin roof and porches added.
(caption) The Point Lookout Lighthouse, built by John Donohoo, began operations on September 20, 1830.
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