Massachusetts - Plymouth Lighthouse

The Plymouth Lighthouse is located at Plymouth, MA. It stands at the southern tip of a sandy peninsula known since Pilgrim days as "The Gurnet." (The word "gurnet" derives from a fish of the same name and plentiful along the Devonshire coast of England.) It was the site of the first "twin light" station in today's United States. John and Hannah Thomas owned the land where the Commonwealth of Massachusetts established the two lighthouses in 1768, essentially a small wooden house with a lantern attached to either end of the roof. John, and later his widow, operated the station for several years, giving Hannah the distinction of being the country's first female light keeper.

Both wooden towers were destroyed by a fire in 1801. They were temporarily replaced by a single beacon, while a second set of towers, 30 feet apart, were built in 1803. These, in turn, were superseded in 1842 with a pair of 34-foot pyramidal ones, used also as range lights to clear Browns Bank. In the 1920s, the Bureau of Lighthouses concluded its push to do away with twin-light stations. Plymouth's northeast tower was deactivated in 1924 and taken down. The southern light, shown above, was automated in 1986 and since operates on solar power. In December 1998, the Coast Guard relocated the lighthouse further back from the edge of the eroding dune. At the time of my visit in 2001, this lighthouse was active. In order to get this picture I used a 500mm lens with a 2X coupler.