A Dark Lighthouse

By Maine Lights Today Staff January 15, 2020

The following account appeared in the Rockland Courier-Gazette on March 3, 1923. Hiram Grant served as keeper of the Fort Point Light Station in Stockton Springs from 1866 to 1882. Keeper Grant was also a Civil War veteran – and presumably, quite a character too!  

“A Dark Lighthouse…The temporary extinguishment of the Fort Point Light on the 17th, by order of the Lighthouse Department, recalls to mind the tradition of 1874, when similar ice conditions led the keeper, the late Hiram Grant, to suggest to the Department that the light be discontinued until such time as a vessel could get within 40 miles of the light.

“He received a terse note advising him that when the Department wished to discontinue any light it would promptly notify the keeper thereof. And that was that. He kept the light burning.”