Little River Light

A home for the Holidays

  For the first time in 162 years one solitary person spent Christmas in Little River Lighthouse.  As part of a social experiment Bill Kitchen will spend a year alone on the island in Machias Bay.  As a bonus people can pay to spend a night, it would be quite an experience, wouldn't it?
  Mr. Kitchen has all of the modern amenities that weren't available when Keepers and their families lived in lighthouses all over the world.  Bill has a cell phone, Internet access and TV, life will still be a challenge without company though.  But what about back when families lived there, I give one example.
  The Corbett family manned the light in the 1921-1939, a Keepers pay at that time was $68.00 a YEAR, and all the vegetables they could grow and of course fish and lobster.  Mr. and Mrs. Corbett had three children the oldest was Neil.
  Neil would help his dad wind the clockwork that rotated the light and ran the foghorn, the mechanism was wound like you would a non-electric clock (they still make those?).  On July the fog stayed on the Island for 575 hours and the "clock" had to be wound every three to four hours!  That was a busy family!  Neil went on the serve in World War Two, came back to Cutler and earned a living as a lobsterman.  He also formed the Quoddy League, a semi-pro baseball league with about 14 teams.  The League lasted into the 1960's; Neil was elected to the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame for his achievement, he died in in 2008.
  So the light has a long history, Mr. Kitchen will spend an interesting year alone and the last time a family spent Christmas on the Island was 38 years ago.
  You can find more at: www.LittleRiverLight.org or http://lighthouse.cc/littleriver/history.html

An old photo of the island and light.

Making the place liveable again, a worker from a conservation association.

Neil Corbett