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Saddleback Ledge Lighthouse Fun Facts
Location: Isle Au Haut Bay
Closest City: Vinalhaven, Maine
Latitude: 44.01435 Longitude: -68.726917
Body of Water: Isle Au Haut Bay
Open to Public: No
Station Established: 1839
Present Tower Activated: 1839
Status of Light: Operational
Tower Height: 42 ft.
Optic: 300mm Optic, 1954
Fourth Order Fresnel, 1885
Fifth Order Fresnel, 1856
National Register Reference #: 88000158
Listing Name: Saddleback Ledge Light Station
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Isolated. Treacherous. Durable. These three words define the Saddleback Ledge lighthouse and those that had the stamina and strength to work and live on this desolate slab of rock roughly halfway between Vinalhaven and Isle au Haut. This forty-two foot conical, gray stone tower, erected in 1839 along with the Bear Island and Eagle Island lights, still stands at this site, a tribute to its nineteenth-century designer Alexander Parris. Saddleback Ledge has been known over the years to be one of the toughest locations to land a boat. After 45 years of braving harsh seas and brutal rocks, a landing boom was installed to assist with bringing inbound passengers ashore. The original fifth order Fresnel lens was upgraded to a 2,000 candlepower, fourth order lens that same year.
Travel to and from the island has always been at the mercy of mother nature. As one legend tells it, the station's keeper went ashore for supplies and was not able to return for several weeks due to inclement weather.
Lighthouse duties fell to the keeper's fifteen year old son. With little food or water, the keeper's son ensured the light was lit each evening as his father looked on from the shoreline, taking the lights appearance each night as a sign his son was alright.
As with the Boon Island light off Cape Neddick, keepers regularly ferried soil from the mainland to Saddleback Ledge in an attempt to grow vegetables in the rock crevices. One storm is all it would take to wash all remnants of each such attempt out to sea. After well over 100 years of manual operation, the Saddleback Ledge light received a 300mm optic and was automated in 1954. While the tower still stands after all these years, the keeper's quarters that were originally attached to the tower were demolished in the 1960s.
Lighthouse Accessibility
- This site can only be seen by boat.
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