West Quoddy lighthouse opens Sightseers flock to Lubec landmark at nation’s easternmost point

LUBEC – Maine’s famous lighthouse striped with bands of red and white, the West Quoddy Light Station, opened Saturday for the season.

The guest book at the visitors center showed that 78 people from 14 states stopped in and signed their names on the rainy day. But the weather probably didn’t stop them from taking photographs of the lighthouse, known for its colors and locale at the easternmost point in the nation.

Lighthouse visitors hit a high last year when 18,300 people passed through the visitors center that opened three years ago. Diana Wilson, the center’s volunteer director, said the number represented about 200 more visitors than in the previous season.

The lighthouse site dates back to 1808. Three years from now, the West Quoddy Head Light Keepers Association will celebrate 200 years of the lighthouse tradition at Quoddy Head State Park.

Sooner than that comes a smaller celebration, a day of fun and family activities on Saturday, June 18. Last year’s event – held on a rainy morning in June – brought out 400 people who came for music and memories at the old lighthouse and the new visitors center.

Although the visitors center has brought in a steady 18,000 people in each of the last three seasons, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Land estimates that a truer count of visitors to the park and lighthouse is between 60,000 and 80,000 each season.

Rangers operate a meter that counts cars, and they base their higher numbers on passenger estimates per car.

New this year are extended hours for the visitors center. Although the lighthouse can be approached any time of day, the visitors center is open between 10:10 a.m. and 5 p.m. seven days a week. Last year, it closed at 4 p.m.

“So many people would arrive at 4 p.m. last year and be disappointed we were closed,” Wilson said. “I asked the other volunteers if they wouldn’t mind staying open until 5 p.m.”

Five of the center’s 20 volunteers are women in their 80s. A sixth woman is 91.

The lighthouse, now automated, became the property of the state in 1998 under the Maine Lights Program, intended to protect and keep public 36 of Maine’s lighthouse stations.

The light itself is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, which visits quarterly to check the light and clean windows at the top of the tower.

The lighthouse otherwise is closed to the public, except for tours to the top on a single day each season – June 18 this year. In addition to the lighthouse tours, musicians will entertain, including Alan Furth’s Black Socks String Band, bagpiper Paula Tinker, and singers Duane Ingalls and Noel Veilleux.

Four vendors will showcase food from Lubec: Bold Coast Smokehouse, Murphy’s, Seaside Chocolates and Sun Porch Industries.

Remarks will come from Gwen Wasson, an 83-year-old Lubec woman who grew up at the lighthouse, and from Ken Black, who is retired from the U.S. Coast Guard and is known as “Mr. Lighthouse.”

Guests will include state Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, and state Rep. Ian Emery, R-Cutler.

For information on the June 18 celebration or the lighthouse, contact Judith Ashley at 733-2180.