The first lighthouse was built here in 1808 under President Thomas Jefferson. In the early years keepers were paid a pittance, $250 yearly which was increased to $310 under an act of Congress in 1827. The extra money was for ringing the warning bell continuously during a heavy fog or storm. Taking care of the oil-lit flame was full time work; the lenses had to be cleaned daily inside and out, no easy task in winter with a high gale blowing. The installation of a Fresnel lens in the early 20th century ended the days of the oil burning light.
Other duties performed by the keepers were recording of weather, tides, ships passing through the channel and answering distress calls, which were not always successful. On a foggy night in 1906 the ship Ella G. Ellis ran aground, and was dashed to pieces on the rocks — only the captain survived.
Today’s lighthouse, the third one on the cliff, was built in 1808. With it came a much needed convenience — a Victorian style house for the keeper and his family.
In the West Quoddy Visitors Center are exhibits of old photographs, uniforms donated by former keepers, instruments used to measure weather and interpretive displays showing the wattage of a lighthouse bulb and what a fog horn sounds like.
Visitors to the lighthouse can glimpse a keeper and his family’s lonely life. Marooned on a tiny slip of barren land not wide enough to raise farm animals or a garden, they had to travel two miles to Lubec for all their supplies and for their children to attend school.
Since 1808 there have been 61 keepers at West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. What drove them to work so hard for such little recompense? For some, it was the only way of life they knew; many keepers’ fathers had been lighthouse keepers. For many Lubec was home; they were Downeasters with a strong work ethic.
That way of life is now a thing of the past. West Quoddy was automated in 1988 and today comes under the auspices of the Coast Guard and Homeland Security.
— Frances J. Folsom