Hello everyone, I'm Emily and I'm Vince and this is the lighthouse lowdown
So it's testing you there the rumor has it there's no history boots. Oh my gosh
Just before we started I realized I had a space for the history buoy and didn't complete it
so you actually on record saying that we're already three minutes in and
what
And that's the second time this year and it's
halfway through February as we record this so
Pretty bad. It's a shame. I maybe once know I was gonna say maybe once per month
I'm allowed but that's far too much for how often we record so
That's the only time you've ever let that sound go to completion
But I have a cold so
Blame it on that got some brain fog going on. Oh
Oh couldn't possibly remember the history buoy
So we'll just jump straight into our lighthouse today and that's because I
Did not do my due diligence apologies to everyone out there. I know how much everyone counts on me
But I also said last I was going to cover the membership levels for the US le just and I am
Going to do that. It's just seems to be getting further and further away from this moment
It'll happen. Yeah, so our lighthouse today
We talked about a little bit of this a couple times and in our very last episode
We talked about Bartholomew Gus knows
the guy who
Bart Bart Bart for short
Bad Bart, right? Yeah. Yeah
Unfortunate part. He I don't think he knew the repercussions of his actions and he's
Reprocussions of his actions and I looked it up a little bit more. He wasn't the only one
It was also like all the people is everybody everyone part took then. What are we picking on Bart for Bart?
You mean from the last episode or right now, right? Well last episode well because he soured Native American
That's right ruined it sold it but we're not looking at all that
We're looking at just Cape Cod today and Martha's Vineyard in particular. Oh cool. It's and I once again
I've decided we're going to Cape Cod and we're gonna spend a day in Martha's Vineyard. And so I'm gonna do a little
spotlight on a couple of those lighthouses coming up and one of them is today for those who don't know would you tell me or
You already told me but tell them why is it named Martha's Vineyard? I thought that was cool Bartholomew
Sailed by he never he didn't stop there, but he assumed that it was uninhabited
It's a lots of wild grapes and on top of that his deceased daughter's name was Martha named after his wife's mom
And so he named the place Martha's Vineyard very sweet
There's that I'm gonna pull up a map because I'm gonna talk about it's a map Edgar town
Hopefully that's how you pronounce it. I assumed
Eggerton that's how no
Gosh, I'm gonna be just shocked with myself in particular if it actually ends up being something other than Edgar town
Gosh now you have me wondering we discovered it's
Chatham and Eastham Chatham and East oh
Chatham and Eastham see I've ruined it. I've ruined it. I'm sorry. It's okay. So Martha's Vineyard, Edgar town
Yes, so we're gonna be focusing in on there
I just decided to pull up a map because last time you asked me for a map and I didn't pull one up
Mappy maps? So Martha's Vineyard is a island off the
Southern part of Cape Cod
It's just under 87 and a half square miles with a population of 20,000 and that swells to over
200,000 in the summer so permanent residents or like and tourists but Martha's Vineyard is really
It's a summer. It's a summer. It's an affluent summer live-in island
So Martha's Vineyard also includes the adjacent
Chapa
Chapa Chapaquidic Island so that that's I felt something coming that I hadn't checked the pronunciation of but
It's pretty big chunk over here Chapaquidic
How you get to huh? Yeah, I agree. Okay Chapaquidic
You get there through Edgar town, but you still have to take a ferry
It just runs constantly 24 7 so nice maybe not 24 7 at least all day
It runs. Yep, can't swim it. So technically they're separated islands, but it's in when people talk about Martha's Vineyard
It's included. It's so close. The first settlement on this island was Edgar town
Which is why we're talking about it first called Great Harbor in
1642 when the settlement was founded by
Thomas Mayhew who was the son of Thomas Mayhew who had a son named Thomas Mayhew
Oh
Gosh
But Thomas Mayhew the first had excellent relations with the existing Native Americans on this island
And I think he went back and forth and kind of had built up trust in a relationship with them
So his son Thomas Mayhew the second was the one who started the settlement and continued these
this excellent relationship with the Native Americans there and
They were so friendly in fact that when their people
Started the King Phillips war later on in the century
They decided not to partake with their people on the mainland in this war against the English colonies
The King Phillips award King Phillips King Phillips war. Okay, was that the Declaration of Independence? I
Don't know history
I didn't know it either actually King Phillips is referring to a
Native American chief who took the name Philip. So I'm pretty sure
King Philippe King Phillips. Yes, I don't know what I don't know history
Sometimes called first Indian War Peta McCombs rebellion
I feel like that was how they referred to it in my history class when I was a child. Okay
armed conflict
in
1975 between a group of indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and the English New England colonies
War is named for Metacomet
It's a hundred adopted the English name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father and the Plymouth colony
Okay, so hundred years before the Declaration of Independence
Okay, kind of interesting not a hundred years. He said 1670s, right? Yeah
Yeah, 1776. Oh, you
Know why I got you know, I got thrown off. I was thinking 1716, which is when the Boston light went into service
That's what really matters to me so
War King Philip King Phillips war. Yeah, so that was started by this
Tribe of Native Americans. I don't know what it's called when it's like the certain like Cherokee
But there were separate groups of Cherokee people. Yeah, so I don't know what you call it the umbrella
Someone would know but I don't anyway just all of that is to say that
English and Native American on Martha's Vineyard were very kumbaya and
We're not each other's throats. Nice. Yeah, that's nice. I don't know when that ended
Maybe it never did I don't have to go that far. I don't know
I wonder if there's still a native presence or if that's so there is yeah, they actually this
Gosh, what is it? Like what do I refer? I that's why I like
Section of native like there's a name for it
Anyway, these Native Americans still are recognized on in this area of America. Okay still being
I said didn't rename the island from Chepa Chepa aquatic. Yeah, I'm sorry everyone
It's part of who we are not being able to pronounce anything and winging it last second
Anyway, so the island today has five lighthouses and the first was actually not in Edgar town
Which I think is interesting since it was the first settlement
But that's not the one I'm covering today. I'm covering the one in Edgar town. Okay. Okay
I'll cover the other one later the the other ones gay head lighthouse
it was the first one and they named it that because the clay cliff that they saw was colorful and
So the cheerful so they named it gay headlight in the head because lots of places are the head of
land mass
I'm holding up my arms and pointing different directions as if these are peninsulas
I'm looking at the peninsula
But they're the first order lens for that lighthouse is in the Martha's Vineyard
Museum that we're gonna go to so we get to see a first order lens. Nice and that's the og is gay head. Yes
So and and there's a stamp for the lens itself. Oh cool
No, did we see a picture of this and we're doing our research? I think so
I bet yeah, so we've done some you guys may or may not have heard at this point
We're doing some research on traveling to Cape God
We are going to go this summer. It's gonna be a great time. We're gonna see lighthouses
We're gonna have the food that the locals tell us are good. At least that the internet tells us is good
Yeah, you guys tell us what's good. Let me know if there's a golf course that can hit up as well
Oh, no, there's so many it needs to be public. He needs to be able to rent clubs and
It's any anywhere in Cape Cod, I looked at Martha's Vineyard, I don't think that's the one there's only one for
On Martha's Vineyard, oh one's public. Okay, but either way
I would like to hear that at the lighthouse lowdown at gmail.com
Yes, please send us recommendations actually send us recommendations for literally anything because we are pretty busy
Like we're packing this trip full of stuff to do but we can make like everything's flexible
On a trip so yeah, just red ball it out
No, I can't I can't rally
I had your town tell us about it. Okay
So Edgar Towne Harbor was a hub of whaling
Oh, hence the need for a lighthouse and also kind of why
Like kind of points to where the the affluent part of this island came from is that like some of the money for a while?
Yeah, that's right. Like a solid. What was it? I think a solid quarter of all whaling ships left this harbor
Wow
It was a it was a hub up. So in 1828 Congress approved
$5,500 for a lighthouse at the end of a pier in the harbor. Oh the quality of this photo is not very good
Look at this photo
Well our
65 inch screen it's a little blurred out. Yeah, that's that was a failure on my part. But anyway, this is a picture of
Moby Dick
Moby Dick the whaling yes story. Oh, yeah was based out of Nantucket. Oh, no way
Okay, so that's the island that's next. I was wondering if twenty five percent of whaling ships left from yeah, Edgar Towne
Wow, that's interesting and tuck it is the I'd have to read more. This is a super super quick Google
Yeah, maybe they lived in Nantucket and the harbor was actually familiar to you. Is that why you decided to look that up?
No, just the only whaling book story. I know is Moby Dick. Wow, what a coincidence
Anyways, I'm sorry to interrupt you you're good in this picture. It's hard to tell but this is the
I got a shirt
This is the first light it's super different from what we see today
And I'll get into the whole story of that but this the original one was a two-story dwelling with a lighthouse tower coming from the center
So it's integral
the pier wasn't built for another year and a half after the light was lit at the end of
1828 and so for a while the keepers had to row back and forth from the beach to
Light so and it was on wooden piles or like wooden ears. Yeah
So so it's pretty shallow where it's at then. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's not very deep. I guess that makes sense for a lighthouse. Yeah
Oh
That's not true
Give one example, okay
I don't have an example
I was thinking I thought of standard rock where it's like in the middle of a lake and so i'm like it wasn't shallow
But it was on a reef that was like dangerously shallow. Yeah, so I just I thought of that one as well
So the pier was
1500 feet long
Wow costs $2,500 to build which is crazy because that's like half the cost of the lighthouse a great deal you think
I don't know less expensive than that. It's just a wood like a wooden
Walkway. Yeah
But an integral lighthouse is a house
With a light lantern room. Yeah, you know, so I guess I don't know
They're pretty good at building houses. The walkway was called the bridge of size, which I looked up because
People would go to this bridge to watch their family or husbands or whoever leave on their whaling ships
And sometimes the expeditions were like five years long. So it's called the bridge of size. It's very sad. Si ghs
Yeah, first keeper at edgertown harbor lighthouse was jeremiah. Damn it
I didn't look at my damn it. I didn't look up how to pronounce his last name. I think it was a bullfrog
um
Okay, I typed it in it says to pronounce it as peas. So i'm just gonna pronounce it as peas
p a s e
Jeremiah served at edgertown for 13 years as the first keeper and then two years later
He served for another six years. So he took a little gap
and apparently political party
before
The lighthouse board was created was very important to lighthouse keeper placements. So if there was a change in power then the lighthouse keeper would change
Interesting. I don't know if that was true for everywhere, but at least like maybe in these early lighthouses
Yeah, so when the wig party was in power peas was replaced with sylvanus crocker both times
crocker the big wig
peas was a democrat and wig was like a more conservative party that died out but
Every time so he served 13 years got kicked out for two by crocker and then
He served another six years wig party went back into power and crocker came back in he was just waiting
Yeah, he's just like come on. Come on. I don't have to do with my time
Yeah, and actually another I read another instance. It's not exactly like this, but I read another instance at pimaquid point
I didn't really mention it
Another political party thing that marcus h hanna who
I've heard of before and has his own section in that main lighthouse book that I showed you last time in the last episode
He was really well known for being super brave and courageous like he got like awards
He was in the civil war and he was like known for really putting his life in danger to save other people
So he was awesome, but he was allegedly a stanker to work with he was like
grumpy like he was
He like he he when when you needed him he would save your life
But any other time people are just like oh this guy. Yeah, so anyway, um, he wanted to be placed at a better light station
Than pimaquid point so he allegedly used his status as a republican with president grant to move him to two lights
Which is cape elizabeth. I feel like i've heard of two lights to be covered
No, we haven't yet. Okay
But i've heard of it. Yeah, which effectively boots out the current head keeper who wrote in the log book quote
Mr. Hanna from pimaquid light station will take my place but not with my consent. I am no longer a republican
Oh my gosh
I'm like, oh shit
So anyway political stuff came up often in keepers positions. Yeah, I did not know that
I'm sure there's a lot of other instances but instances you're doing great. Take a sip of coffee
Coffee today was provided by emily. Yeah, it's fantastic and uh captain cecil's atlantic
Really?
Wow run through the espresso machine. I did it was maybe not the smartest thing to do but
I don't know. I really enjoy it. Yeah, I know it's a
It's not pure coffee at this point, but it's good. What do you mean? Oh, well, it's got honey
I'm a child. So I like that stuff. I went a little heavy on the sugar, but I think it's still
A plus. Honey is basically liquid sugar as well. I know
Anyway, that was just something i'd mentioned
1840
The wooden beams holding up the lighthouse were really starting to rot away
And I mean that's over a decade
So that's pretty good for just wooden beams just sitting in the water. Yeah, they were replaced with a stone pier
Let me pull a picture. You can see it at the bottom here. Pretty nice
Pretty nice
Why is there a crack in the house where in the middle right there under the window
Oh this yeah
Um, probably some damage. There was lots of complaints
That the room the house was leaking stuff because looking at it. You can actually tell it's not weatherproof
Like this is not this is aggressive. Yeah, this is just a house on salt water
Just a house with no buffers or anything just on the water recently. What was the storm?
Earth january we talked about the storm that affected. Oh, yeah east coast 10th and 13th. Yeah, but uh
In some of those photos we talked about like sea walls that were built. Yes and
Foundations like tall foundations. This house doesn't have this house would have been
Decimated by a storm like that. Is that a poop pipe you think right there? I think so
I think this might just be straight up open to the oh
Let's go. I mean it's away from the town. You can see the town over there. Yeah, so there's some distance
It would be broken up if you're dropping donations
Keeping the fish happy
Gross, I know i'm the worst the fog bell is also on that side of the house. That's kind of neat. Yeah. Yeah
I was gonna I see a picture and I point it's a good eye because I I didn't really have anything to say about that in particular
um
But I thought it was cool that it was just on the side of the house like that
I wonder how they actuated it. I don't know. I'm sure it was
Through the top or maybe there's a hole in the side. I don't know. This actually is an add-on to the house
So it's not like see a nice lightning rod running down water is a conductor
So does the lightning rod run down into the water? You might as well
Right, is that stupid? I don't know water is also
Uh salt water particularly highly corrosive, which is why those
Probably why those wood piers did not last very long
so your
Metal wire i'm just interested. I like to look it up
Anyway, because I covered lightning rods previously but not on water. Yeah. Oh true
Makes a big difference. Sorry caffeine got me. You're good
um
My next point was that the official keeper's dwelling was not well suited for being on the water, which is what I see here
So there was a quick turn over on keeper's and most preferred to stay somewhere on the shore rather than the light itself
And I don't know if that had to come out of their own pocket or if that was I doubt that was supplied
By the lighthouse board. Yeah
Additionally the wooden pier did nothing to protect the harbor from shifting sands
And that's something i'll mention later like a sand movement is like a big deal on this area
so
The keeper sylvanus argued to build a breakwater instead of just having this walkway
So in 1847 for four thousand seven hundred dollars a stone breakwater topped with a wooden walkway was built to help preserve the harbor
And eventually they made like other improvements to the keeper's cottage including adding a fourth order for now lens
So that's nice. And then they added an oil house this fog bell
Area that you pointed out. Yeah storage shed, etc
Nice some riprap making it up. Yeah, they added some they oomphed it. What was that called again? Nathan told us? Oh, um
revetment
Yeah revetment revetment stone
Cool after that there wasn't a lot of notes about it except for that. It was a quote-unquote tolerable place to live
nice that is until it took significant damage from
Um a hurricane in 1938 which was just referred to as the great hurricane. It was category five
306 million dollars in damage, which is six point five billion dollars today
And uh killed 800 people injured like 1700 people. So
It was a big one
dang
it was a bad one, so
The year after that the coast guard took over all the lighthouses
And immediately destroyed this one because it would have been so costly to upkeep
And they weren't going to have keepers there anymore or anything. So they were planning on building a skeleton tower
Instead like in its place in the 30s. Oh 40s. It took over. Yeah
so they were going to build a skeleton tower with a the beacon on top but
The town hated that idea and so instead they took the 1881
rear range light from cranes beach, massachusetts
Uh dismantled it and brought it over instead which is the tower that we have today and it looks like it's just every other
Cape cod lighthouse out there. Yep. It looks nice. I like this photo. Yeah, this is where it was located originally
So this is a picture of it when it was still a background picture. Yeah
It is really nice very sharp
Old photo. I don't know what that's called. What's the railing style? Is that gothic?
I don't know
Old english the way that it's like slopes and then points down again is very gothic
So I don't know the architecture words, but that's cool. We should look at the little portal windows. Yeah, big fan of those pretty cute
So anyway, that was moved over to the end of the breakwater
it's 45 feet cast iron all white except for a black lantern room and
And has a fixed red light. Nice. We like that
Well had a fixed red light when I was first moved over to Martha's Vineyard
So it was originally at the end of the breakwater
Which it doesn't look that way today
And so I was like what happened that they put it at the end of the breakwater and then move it back in but
What happened was?
It said to sand eventually over time filled in the space
Around the lighthouse and now it's like has it its own beach its own beach. That's cool
But what actually happened was there was a series of hurricanes. I can't remember
What year but a series of hurricanes destroyed sand from the eel pond barrier beach, which was northwest of edgertown
Have a picture
So on the left side, there's a picture of where edward
Oh my gosh edgertown light used to be at the end of the breakwater and up here is this eel pond barrier
like
Which is now called lighthouse beach. There's a bunch of hurricanes which broke up that area and all the sand was like suspended in the water for a long time
And then if you look on the right, there's a map of what it looks like today. So that is epic
Isn't that awesome? So all the sand moved down over to edgertown harbor light and surrounded it and now
edgertown harbor
Called lighthouse beach is its own barrier beach for this little son of a steve. So that's yeah, that's awesome
That's why there's no like streets probably on that mass is it's probably not it's probably sand. Yeah unstable
So you're telling me that the lighthouse didn't move
Yeah, but the sand moved I was joking around the breakwater earth
You know, he was uh, he had some quote like what would it cost to buy the whole earth?
I just thought it was funny. Sorry. I remind me. So there's a riprap pier. No breakwater breakwater
Yeah, I mean it's kind of a uh
appear right, yeah, but do you think that
Accumulated the sand and then built up to what we have now this landmass
Well, yeah, it's like the waves so the waves become saturated with sand as the waves
Are hitting something then they release the sand and so that just piles up and piles up wherever the water is breaking on it
So that's really interesting and you can see the breakwater from underneath the sand if you go see the lighthouse
Wow
Like it's it's just rock. So it's underneath
All the all the beach. That's cool. Yeah, i'm really excited to see it
I can't wait so you can you can physically walk to it now not walking on the breakwater
Mm-hmm. It's all sand. That's really neat. Yeah, the lighthouse was refurbished by the coast guard in 1985
And I think they repainted it. It was looking a little rough
So they gave it a new white coat of paint and did some other stuff to it
And shortly after that, they changed it to a flashing red light every six seconds, which is what we have today. Still dope
Yeah, almost a decade later
The light was leased to Martha's Vineyard Historical Society for 30 years in 2007
They received two hundred fifty thousand dollars from the community preservation act for a restoration. So they fixed fixed her right up what year?
2007 nice. I know the economy crashed in oh eight like hardcore, but we've heard a lot of these restorations
Have happened. I would say like 90 through 2010
Which is I wonder where that came from a lot of the preservation
Yeah, there was a lot of stuff happening
In like the early 2000s, I'm thinking of Florida, California even um northwest ones
Talked about they're all just like a lot of lighthouses were just neglected
Yeah, and maybe people started to notice those things. Yeah
And start fixing them up. Yeah. Well good quarter million. It's not a
Not nothing. Yeah, nothing to sniff at especially on a shorter lighthouse tower. Yeah, what is this one 40 feet?
45 thanks, but the light was transferred to the town of Edgar town in 2014. So now the town owns it
That's upkeep on okay. Yeah, so five dollars to tour so you can go and check it out
I'm pretty sure they said the door is just open all the time and you can
Climb it drop a five in and there's a keeper there that will tell you the history and oh, that's cool
So it's a probably a city
It's city volunteer or city employee probably I was gonna say national parks
But that's not that was true in the outer banks where we went to ochre cove
Because that was a national park and cape cod is a national park
I think martha's vineyard might be private. I think so. Yeah, that's probably right that might explain some of the wealth accumulation. Yeah
Because cape cod has national park service like shops where you can get patches and stuff just like we did for cape cod or um
Um cape hatteras and stuff. That is pretty I was waiting for you to make a comment on it really great photo. Um
Looks a little bit of an orange light
So it's just a glare. It's a long exposure photo
Which is helps them capture the stars
Um, but they also capture a lot of the light traffic of the city and the harbor right there. It looks like a boat
and then uh
They might have edited somehow to make that light tower orange-ish
really pretty though, how you doing
Good it's good. Sorry you got this drink you made me is uh
Making me talk a lot nice. That's what we like
I want to talk to myself the whole time. Everyone's like, uh
No, the co-host is on
The co-host is feeling chatty
I am excited to go on this trip. Oh, I have so much fun. I've totally forgotten. Are we gonna see edgertown? Yes
Okay, definitely see edgertown
from there is where we'd go to cape podge, which is the one that i'm on the edge about because we'd have to
Put in some effort do that's right. Do a lot of the fairies come in
To edgertown. It's the kind of the main you said it's the main no
It's they come north to most fairies
there are some that come in here, but most of the fairies come into oak bluffs or
there's like those two humps of land one is oak bluffs and one is
vineyard haven or
Yeah, I think that's what if it has to do with the depth of the water or political reasons at this point
you know different towns are
Trying to get the the port traffic. Yeah, I don't know and if they're worried about getting back and forth across
between
chapiquitic chapiquitic
Other one and martha's vineyards the mainland
I wonder if they try and reduce how much traffic is coming in so that it doesn't impede that. Yeah
I do think they have a big bridge over there. I don't know
I wonder what the ferry is like
Um that really short one to chapiquitic island. I think it just goes all day long
Yeah, and you can take your car over it too. So we had uh, it was fantastic
Opportunity I was very fortunate to be able to do got to go to dawson city in the uconn in canada
And so we rode our motorcycles
On this highway the alcan alaska canada highway
And then we got down to the water and I was the one in in front and my phone was navigating
You know strapped to my handlebars and I've got this radio in my helmet. I'm talking to my dad my brother
And I was like, well, how do we where's the bridge? Is the bridge gone?
Is the where how do we get to this town? We're exhausted. It's the end of our day
dusty inside of everything I can taste dust, but
I see
I'm an idiot. We're supposed to cross on a ferry
To get into dawson city. Yeah, and the ferry is coming across the water and it's like glacial wash
So it's like this this gray
Water and it's rushing and so the ferry is aimed upstream
And it's coming straight across and it took like three or four minutes for it to get across and then
Unloaded and then we loaded which is his own story and then we got across and it's to go back the other way
It's also facing upstream just to fight the current
But this guy just does it all day long the guy's steering the boat. Yeah or lady
I don't know, but the pilot was just totally accustomed to that current
I wonder I was gonna say this job is probably really cool too. This ferry. It's not a river
But it's funny how that's like a story everywhere. I wonder how the waters are here
I would presume they're pretty calm if they built a lighthouse. That was just a house on the edge
Well edgertown. I was looking at the map is the biggest
land cove overall as the most protection from oh
I'm looking at i'm just guessing. Yeah, but it's the largest like inlet of land
There's the the other town that's up north. It's
Another another ferry town. It's in another cove, but it's much more narrow province town province town
It looks to be much more narrow. So it is very small. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yepers cool
Very pretty very cool
That's it edgertown harbor a classic story of replacing the original lighthouse with some other light
It's like NASA light and they're so similar looking all the lighthouses on cape cod look very similar
So it'll be fun to take pictures of them all a lot of them are this like steel banded tower. Yeah, I wonder if that's
Practicality or I think it's just looks yeah. I mean the outer banks was like all brick
Everything was brick. Yeah. Yeah, and they said something about um, when they moved this one
They didn't include a brick lining that it had originally and maybe was outside of the steel. Yeah
Outside of the steel. Yeah, so anyway, that's all
Well, thank you should have had a history buoy. I think this would have been a perfect length, but
It's a good length
Rest assured
And i'm saying it now
Next episode i'm gonna have a history buoy
No more disappointment for me
Very good. You can send us an email at the lighthouse lowdown at gmail.com check out our instagram our linkedin
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Yeah, that's it. We hope you enjoyed listening and we'll catch you next time on the lighthouse below