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Clearly one of the most isolated along the Maine coast, the first lighthouse on Mt.Desert Rock was built in 1830 to mark the entrances to Frenchman and Blue Hill Bays. The tiny waveswept island, approximately 600 yards long, 200 yards wide and only 17 feet above sea level at its highest point, is located some 25 nautical miles south of Mt.Desert Island.
The first structure was a short wooden tower atop a stone keeper's dwelling, with a system of eight lamps fueled by whale oil. In 1847 a new 58-foot granite tower replaced the initial weather-beaten tower; the original keeper's house remained in use until 1876. The present keeper's dwelling is the third, built in 1893. A third-order Fresnel lens was added in 1858, along with a fog bell and bell tower. Because the bell was scarcely audible above the roaring surf, it was replaced by a fog whistle in 1889. Electricity in the form of a generator came to the light and keeper's house in 1931.
Even in relatively mild storms waves wash over the island. An 1842 report by Maine's Superintendent of Lighthouses noted that a storm relocated a 57-ton granite boulder on the island; the report also mentioned that another storm moved a 75-ton boulder some 60 feet. Because the island has no topsoil, gardening was a challenge. Each spring keepers would bring barrels and bags of soil to establish vegetable and flower gardens for the summer. But with the first winter gales the results of those efforts would be washed away by the sea and the rock swept clean of all dirt.
The lantern was removed from the light in the mid-1970s to accommodate rotating aero beacons. Public complaints and storm damage convinced the Coast Guard to install a new lantern in 1985. The last keepers were removed by helicopter in 1977 and the property is now owned by the College of the Atlantic for use as a whale watching station.
The college's Allied Whale program compiles and catalogs the North Atlantic population of finback and humpback whales. More than 4,000 individual humpback whales and 500 finbacks have been identified. The light station is used as a research base when whales are feeding in that area.
Directions:
The light can be seen only by boat or by air. Whale-watching trips usually head to feeding grounds in the Mt. Desert Rock area, so the lighthouse may be seen from one of these excursions. However, because the route is determined by location of the whales, close view of the light cannot always be guaranteed. The trip to the light is about 1.5-2 hours each way and weather can often preclude good viewing and photography.
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