Jonesport puffin lover Barna Norton dies at 89

JONESPORT – Some people spend their lives doing what they love, and that was the way it was for Barna B. Norton.

For 40 years, Norton ferried bird lovers from around the world to Machias Seal Island, 20 miles out to sea, to watch the puffins, arctic terns and razorbill auks frolic on the rocks.

Norton died Monday in his Jonesport home at the age of 89.

“He loved it when people started showing up and having a good time,” his son John said Wednesday from his father’s house.

“Everyone wants to go see the puffins,” he said.

The Norton family has laid claim to the 15-acre Machias Seal Island since 1865, when Barna Norton’s great-grandfather Barna “Tall Barney” Beal claimed the island for his family.

Both the United States and Canada say the island is theirs, based on different historical records, and the friendly dispute has yet to be resolved.

“It’s one of the only places on the planet where you can go into a breeding migration bird colony,” Norton said, noting that often only scientists are allowed in such places.

“As long as the general public is welcome on the island, that’s basically what my father was for,” he said.

Norton said his father would not bring visitors to the island until after the birds were done breeding for the year.

“It’s entirely different every day,” Norton said of his father’s ferry service, which he took over in 1985 when his father’s arthritis and bad knees no longer allowed daily trips.

“You get tired, but you never get tired of it,” he said. Canadian Ralph Eldridge, lighthouse keeper on Machias Seal Island, remembered his American friend Wednesday as a man of principle who worked hard and agreed to disagree about the ownership of the island.

“We agreed I could have my own opinion as long as it agreed with his,” Eldridge said with a laugh. “It was never a point of contention,” he said of the land dispute, “but occasionally it was a point of fun.”

Gleness Faulkingham, who kept house for Barna Norton, found him dead Monday when she went to work. She said Wednesday what others say about Norton: He was good to her.

“He was very nice to me,” said Faulkingham, who also took reservations for Norton from callers around the world who wanted to visit the birds of Machias Seal Island.

“He couldn’t be a better boss,” Faulkingham said. “He told me I was the boss. ‘Do what you want to,’ he said.”

Faulkingham also was related to Norton – in a small-town Maine way: Norton’s great-grandfather was her husband’s grandfather.

“He was a nice person,” said Charlotte Beal, whose bed-and-breakfast inn, now closed, was often filled with Norton’s bird lovers because he would refer people to her. “He was funny. He was always joking with everyone. We all liked Barna. He was like family,” she said Wednesday. “He was A1 in my book.”

John Norton said his father would not have liked the newspaper doing a story about him after he died. “He was a private person,” he said, “and not ostentatious as well.”

Norton served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, earning the rank of lieutenant commander.

In addition to the seasonal ferry service, Norton sold electronics and appliances for much of his life. He was predeceased by his wife, Beatrice Whitney Sinford, who he married in 1945.