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Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Willard Beach and Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

Our weather here in Scarborough, Maine has been very fitful.  We endured two straight days of heavy downpour until Monday, May 1. When the sun broke out with blue sky and seawater, we took advantage of it straightaway and drove up to South Portland where Willard Beach is said to be a great destination for rockhounding and finding sea glass -- both things that appeal to Kathy.

Here we are.  This was a workday and the weather had been unpleasant, so we had very little company on the beach.  Kathy said that was fine; it meant less competition for finding treasure newly washed up on the beach.

 
To our south, the beach was graced with a natural jetty on top of which were perched two little houses reminiscent of scenes from the movie, "The Shipping News":

 
To our north perched sprightly was Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse, sitting jauntily on a man-made breakwater:

 
The Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse was built to warn mariners of a dangerous ledge that extended into the main shipping channel in Portland Harbor. The ledge, jutting out from the shoreline at Fort Preble in South Portland, was the scene of many shipwrecks and groundings. The ledge was marked by an ever-changing array of bell buoys, spar buoys, and nuns, but the buoys were of limited usefulness in bad weather and their positions were constantly being shifted by storm surges and ice.

By the late 1800s, Portland Harbor was one of the busiest on the east coast. The waterways bustled with schooners and steamships transporting goods and commodities, coal, food, and fish to and from the city. Additionally, there was thriving passenger traffic between Portland and other east coast cities and a growing stream of travelers to the nearby islands, which were becoming ever more popular as vacation destinations. By the time construction of Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse had been approved, seven steamship companies were carrying over 500,000 passengers annually past the dangerous ledge. Throughout that period an active military presence was also being maintained at Fort Preble in South Portland, Fort Scammel on House Island, and Fort Gorges on Hog Island Ledge.

Several high profile shipwrecks on the ledge finally prompted the steamship companies to begin a campaign for a lighthouse to mark the ledge. The Lighthouse Board was finally persuaded in April 1891 to establish a 5th order light at Spring Point Ledge. However, it was not until March 1895 that an appropriation was approved to begin construction.

 
When it was originally built, there was no breakwater, and the light arose directly out of the bay.  Access to it was exclusively by boat:
 
 
The breakwater now makes it accessible to adventurous walkers who want to hop from gigantic granite slab to gigantic granite slab.

But we get ahead of ourselves.  We were still walking up Willard Beach, looking for stones and sea glass, when we encountered two engaging French salutations scratched in the sand.  The first, "ça va bien?" was washed away by a roguish wave breaking on the beach just as David tried to snap its portrait.  The second survived the water's inundations to wish us good day:

 
Toward the north end of Willard Beach, the sand gave way to eroded, upended shale-like veins of rock:

 
Looking out over the rocks, we spotted one hardy sailboat moored in the bay:

 
Some of the rocky deposits survived displacement and revealed themselves on the cliffside in what might have been their original orientation:

 
At Spring Point, the north end of Willard Beach, we came suddenly upon the ruins of Fort Preble, a military fort built in 1808 and progressively added to through 1906. The fort was active during all major wars from the War of 1812 through World War II. The fort was deactivated in 1950. It is now on the campus of Southern Maine Community College.

 
A number of gunports survive, together with their metal frames and shutters, looking out on Portland's Casco Bay:

 
The City of Portland itself was visible from the shoulders of the fort --

 
-- as was the lighthouse itself, out at the end of the breakwater...and, yes, we did hop from granite slab to granite slab to get a close-up look at the light.  To the left of the light in the photo below, you can see the remains of Fort Gorges on Hog Island Ledge out in the bay:

After satisfying our curiosity about the lighthouse, we continued our walk up the stony beach, looking mainly for sea glass.  Kathy was blessed by the storm gods of last Saturday and Sunday, and she found maybe half a dozen nice little specimens, including some frosted glass pieces.  So, all in all, this was a successful venture!
 

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