(EDITOR’S NOTE) Mayor Romeo Thekan has called a meeting in her office on March 24th, from 5pm to 6pm, to discuss Ten Pound Island. Everyone is welcome.
Ten Pound Island with fish and lobster hatchery, air station, lighthouse, keeper’s house, and oil house. Photo submitted by Toby Pett.
Ten Pound presently
After reading the Gloucester Daily Times’s article about the city’s Recreational Boating Committee’s recommendations on how better to serve boaters, I have been looking at old photos and reading about Ten Pound Island. This tiny island located at the eastern end of Gloucester Harbor has a storied and fascinating history. The timeline (see below) was created to help give an overview.
The following is the part of the article that caught my attention:“Perhaps the most innovative idea in the report is to consider creating a community boat house — possibly similar to the house boats moored along the Annisquam River — and a dock upon Ten Pound Island that could host the Gloucester High School and YMCA community sailing and boating skills programs, as well as other public programs and access for rowing and kayaking.”
I am looking forward to learning more about the possibilities for Ten Pound Island and trust that our Mayor and community leaders will do a thoughtful study to create a comprehensive plan on how to co-exist with the birds that breed and nest on the Island. In our region, we have so many great examples to follow on ways to manage land for wildlife; two that come to mind immediately are the Plum Island Piping Plovers and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.
I think it important our community understand that more than likely, the vegetation found growing on Ten Pound is in a transitory state and that over time, if left to naturalize, will become a forest. The shrubs and brushy growth, so ideal for nesting birds, will eventually give way to hardwood trees, which may not be the best habitat for shore birds.
There is the hope that developing trails and managing the island flora will create an even better and more permanent sanctuary for our cherished wildlife. Today the Island is only accessible to private boaters. If a community dock were built at the site of the preexisting dock and trails were created and well maintained, just imagine the enjoyment and educational experiences Ten Pound Island could provide for all.
Ten Pound Island Timeline
1644 Early settlers graze rams on the Island.
1817 Mariner Amos Story famously reports seeing a sea serpent (along with many others) near the Island. See account below.
1821 Ten Pound Island Lighthouse Station is established to safely guide mariners through Gloucester’s Inner Harbor.
1833-1849 Amos Story serves as Ten Pound Island Lighthouse Keeper.
1880 Winslow Homer stays with the lighthouse keeper during the summer creating over 50 watercolor paintings.
1881 Present conical cast iron tower, lined with brick, replaces original stone tower. Wooden keepers house is constructed.
1889 U.S. Fish and lobster hatchery is established.
1925 U.S. Coast Guard establishes first in the country air station, primarily to capture rumrunners during Prohibition.
1940 Lighthouse keeper’s wife Evelyn Hopkins honors Edward Snow, the Flying Santa who dropped Christmas presents from a plane for lighthouse keepers’ children, by nailing “Merry Christmas” boldly in newspaper, which could be read from the sky.
1954 Fish hatchery abandoned.
1956 Ten Pound island Light Station is decommissioned and replaced by a modern optic. The original fresnel lens is on display at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland.
1965 Keepers dwelling razed.
1988 The Lighthouse Preservation Society initiates restoration of Ten Pound Island Light.
1989 A modern optic was installed atop the tower and relit as a Federal aid to navigation.
1995 The oil house is restored.
1996 -1997 (*Possibly longer, checking dates) Shuttle to and from the Island is provided by the Gloucester Harbor Shuttle.
Currently, Ten Pound Island serves as an active aid to navigation.
“Merry Christmas” written with newspaper hammered to the ground
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Amos Story sea serpent sighting account: “It was between the hours of twelve and one o’clock when I first saw him and he continued in sight for an hour and a half. I was setting on the shore, and was about twenty rods [330 feet] from him when he was nearest to me. His head appeared shaped much like that of the sea turtle, and he carried his head from ten to twelve inches above the surface of the water. His head at that distance appeared larger than the head of any dog I ever saw. From the back of his head to the next part of him that was visible, I should judge to be three or four feet. He moved very rapidly through the water. I should say a mile in two, or, at most, in three minutes. I saw no bunches on his back. On this day, I did not see more than ten or twelve feet of his body.”
In a separate sighting, Story’s wife, “a woman held in high esteem for her veracity” noted through a telescope what at first she believed to be a log that had washed ashore, until it moved, that is. Throughout the month, more and more witnesses told similar stories of a sleek brown serpent-like creature in Gloucester Harbor.
Links:
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/ten.htm
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=478
http://www.newenglandlighthouses.net/ten-pound-island-light-history.html
http://www.uscg.mil/history/stations/airsta_tenpoundisland.asp
http://www.nelights.com/exploring/Massachusetts/ten_pound_light.html
http://fitzhenrylaneonline.org/catalog/entry.php?id=44
https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/ten-pound-island-from-bill-hubbard/
More Photos Here Continue reading “(EDITED) VISITOR ACCESSIBILITY TO TEN POUND ISLAND FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OUR COMMUNITY AND BELOVED WILDLIFE”
Good Morning Gloucester 