8-7-2010 National Lighthouse Day

Yes, can you believe it? National Lighthouse Day! Great news for the guy that got the Lighthouse-themed Virginia license plates. Sue is out in California for a Grandma visit. She left last Wednesday. I stayed behind for some meetings on Thursday and Friday that I probably could have skipped, but it was better that I didn't. Anyway, since Sue is not high on lighthouse hunting forays, what better time for a .... Road Trip!

So off I go at 8:30 on Saturday morning to visit 6 lighthouses on the peninsula of Maryland between the Potomac and Patuxant rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. First up, Blackistone. It's on St. Clement's Island, the first landing of Catholic pilgrims in Maryland in1635. The island is a lot smaller now than then. I took a motorboat over and back. It was hot today and the flies were biting if you stayed on one place. The lighthouse had actually been rebuilt, probably for tourist draw. The original one got destroyed by naval fire from Dahlgren.

Next up, Piney Point. This was farther east on the coast. Drove through a beach community - summer homes and rentals -to get there. It was pretty torn up since they had gotten ARA funds to rebuild walkways and generally spruce the place up. Well, check off another one.

Then, Point Lookout at the very tip of the Maryland peninsula. This one demonstrated why finding lighthouses is such a good strategy for seeing the country. I found that this Point, at the very tip of the peninsula, was the home of a massive Northern hospital during the Civil War AND a massive POW camp for Confederates. Some 50,000 soldiers went through the POW camp and more than 4000 died on disease,neglect and abuse.

There was a State monument to the Civil War dead in the POW camp - that's the tall traditional obelisk in the picture. But just 50 feet down the road was a more modern monument to the POWs, done by a private group on private land. Their point was that the Federal and state governments wanted to censor what this organization of POW camp survivor descendants had to say about the North and the Federal government, so they built there own memorial, complete with a central Stars and Bars flag and the confederate flags of all the Southern states in the Civil War. Ah yes, Friends, the Civil War lives on in the south and Maryland is the South.

Then I headed up the coast along the Chesapeake to try to find an offshore light. After some driving and a wee bit of trespassing, I found it and got a picture. This was the Point No Point light.

Then farther north, across the big bridge over the Patuxant River, to the town of Solomon Islands. There one found a Maritime Museum and the Drum Point light relocated to the harbor behind the Museum.

I then drove a few miles north and out through several private communities to get to a locked gate in front of the Cove Point light ( the light is just peeking over the top of the house in front of it) - missed being able to get in by about 30 minutes. Oh well, good excuse to come back - Solomon is a nice looking place that Sue would probably like - and then there's all those lights up by the Chesapeake bridge ....