Owls Head Light facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Owls Head Light

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Location	Owls Head, Maine
Coordinates	44°05′31″N 69°02′39″W / 44.09194°N 69.04417°W / 44.09194; -69.04417
Year first constructed	1825
Year first lit	1825
Automated	1989
Foundation	Granite
Construction	Brick
Tower shape	Cylindrical
Markings / pattern	White with black lantern
Focal height	100 feet (30 m)
Current lens	4th order Fresnel lens
Range	16 nautical miles (30 km; 18 mi)
Characteristic	Fixed white
Fog signal	Horn: 2 every 20s
Admiralty number	J0104
ARLHS number	USA-574
USCG number	1-4105

The Owls Head Light is an active aid to navigation located at the entrance of Rockland Harbor on western Penobscot Bay in the town of Owls Head, Knox County, Maine. The lighthouse is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation. It is the centerpiece of 13-acre (5.3 ha) Owls Head State Park and was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Owls Head Light Station in 1978.

History

The town of Owls Head is located south of Rockland, and includes an eponymous peninsula that projects northeast into Penobscot Bay, with its tip roughly east of downtown Rockland. The light station is located at the eastern tip of this peninsula. The light station was established in 1825 with the construction of a round, rubblestone tower by Jeremiah Berry and Green & Foster. The tower was rebuilt in 1852. It is a 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) cylindrical brick tower on a granite foundation standing on top a cliff. It has one of the last six Fresnel lenses in operation in Maine. The light is located 100 feet (30 m) above mean sea level.

In 1854, a keeper's house was built separate from the lighthouse. The cottage now serves as the headquarters of the American Lighthouse Foundation. A fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in 1856. A generator house and an oil storage building were added in 1895.

Renovations carried out in 2010 saw the tower restored to its 1852 appearance. In addition to repainting the tower, repairs were done to the bricks, the lantern's ironwork and windowpanes, and the parapet's floor.