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Available Framed or Unframed - Click for Details |
Location: Off Petit Manan Point
Nearest Town: Milbridge, Maine
Latitude: 44.3684 Longitude: -67.865
Body of Water: Atlantic Ocean
Open to Public: Site: Yes
Tower: No
Station Established: 1817
Present Tower Activated: 1855
Status of Light: Operational
Tower Height: 119 ft.
Optic: DCB-24, 1972
Second Order Fresnel, 1855
National Register Reference #: 87001879
Listing Name: Petit Manan Light Station
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The site of the Maine's second tallest light at 123 feet above sea-level started out in 1817 with a tower just over 50 feet tall that could not be seen beyond eight miles. In 1851, federal inspectors deemed the existing tower and its fourth order lights to be insufficient to protect mariners from the sandbar between Petit Manan Island and Petit Manan Point as well as the hazardous rocks common to the Maine coastline. Based on this audit, the Lighthouse Board ordered that a lighthouse with minimum 120 foot height of focal plane be built to replace the existing light. A fog bell was also ordered as additional warning at this location which is covered in fog upwards of 20 percent of each year. Over the next four years, the current granite tower with second order Fresnel lens was constructed.
 The granite for the lighthouse was cut in Trenton, Maine. Each block was assembled at the quarry, numbered, dissembled, ferried to the island, and reassembled. Second in height in Maine only to the Boon Island Light (137 feet above sea-level), the Petit Manan Light can be seen for over 25 nautical miles. The new lighthouse, however, had its problems. Repeated turbulent storms caused the Petit Manan lighthouse tower to start swaying in heavy winds only a year after being built in 1855. In 1887, significant repairs were made including a noteable improvement to the anchoring of the watch room and tower. The site also has a 1.5-story, wood, Victorian frame keeper's house (1875), engine house (1876), a brick fog signal building (1887), an oil house, a boat house, and additional buildings.
The light and foghorn were automated by the Coast Guard in 1972, at which time a DCB-24 optic replaced the Fresnel lens. The lens and other parts of the Petit Manan lighthouse can be viewed at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine. A renovation of the lighthouse was completed in 1998. In the spring of 2001, the light was put out of service for a couple months by a strong storm that damaged the power cable to the island. Later that year, the light was converted to solar power.
The site is located at the east point of Petit Manan Island within the Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge roughly ten miles south of Milbridge and can be seen via boat tours from Milbridge and Bar Harbor. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service owns all the buildings except the tower which is owned by the Coast Guard but was designated for transfer in mid-2004 under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service and four private, non-profit organizations, including the Friends of Petit Manan Light, are possible suitors. While the light itself is not open to the public, the Petit Manan lighthouse site is open between September and March (closed during summer months in support of bird habitation) and is a healthy 2.5 mile hike from Petit Manan Point.
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