Legends and Lore

Waugoshance Lighthouse

Locked up by Wobbleshanks

On the Doomsday List of lighthouses, Waugoshance stands guard on a reef at the very top of Lake Michigan where it enters the Straits of Mackinac. Built in 1851, it replaced a lightship that had moored nearby for nineteen years. It eventually was shut down in 1912, allegedly because it was declared obsolete by White Shoals Light, but some wondered if it was an inability to keep a lightkeeper because no one wanted to live with the ghost nicknamed "Wobbleshanks."

John Herman, who had served at Waugoshance as everything from Second Assistant Keeper to Head Keeper, managed to while away the loneliness with "spirits" (the alcoholic kind). This propensity to drink also led him to play practical jokes on his assistants. One time, he locked an assistant in the lantern room and left him. While the assistant yelled and pounded to be let out, no one ever came. John Herman was gone. It was assumed he staggered and fell off the pier and drowned. The year was 1900. From then on, strange things happened at the lighthouse. Doors would open and shut at random (perhaps replaying the last joke of Herman's career?) and between the loneliness and the legends, keepers came and went with amazing speed.

During World War II, Waugoshance was used as a strafing target by navy pilots, yet it survived the bombing runs, although one of the heat seeking missiles caught the keeper's house on fire and burned it to the ground. The interior of the tower was also damaged. Since then vandals have taken the spiral staircase, and the weather has done further damage. The photo shows the metal it was wrapped in at one point peeling away from the tower.

A few years ago, a gentleman named Jack Edwards and his friend Mark went out to Waugoshance to hunt for John Herman. The two took out a cooler, a fifth of scotch and three glasses, hoping to entice the spirit with spirits. Pouring three glasses, they toasted Wobbleshanks, and set his glass down. He never showed. The rain started, coming down in torrents, and the two ghost hunters huddled under tarps, waiting and watching the doors and windows until they fell asleep. When they woke the next morning, the tightly capped bottle of scotch was still there, and the levels had not changed in the glasses. Disappointed, they went home. Until two weeks later. From the Waugoshance Preservation Society page:

One evening I (John) got a telephone call from Mark. After our in-search-of ghosts adventure, we had left the cooler on the back porch and the partially empty bottle of scotch on the table inside his cottage. When Mark returned a week later, the first thing his nose told him was that something was very fishy. The cooler proved to be the culprit. Inside was a partly decomposed whitefish that had been baking for a week in the July sun. The bottle of Scotch was still inside where we had left it. The level was still the same. However, it contained water instead of Scotch whiskey!

Who was responsible? Whiskey transformed into water sounds like an old teenage trick, but there weren't any teenagers around, My first suspicion was that our lame-joking, well-wishing friends dropped by and set us up. If so, neither of them has been willing to take credit. Could it be - and I realize this is a far stretch for those who are skeptical of ghosts - that the ghost of John Herman had visited us that dark stormy night at Waugoshance? Could a ghost drink almost a fifth of Scotch and replace it with Lake Michigan water? Could a ghost leave a fish in our cooler? We had been convinced that our little excursion was a failure. We hadn't bothered to uncap the bottle and smell the scotch. We had no reason to be suspicious. I don't recall that we even opened the cooler. Could it be that Mark and I had become the latest target of the practical jokes of lightkeeper John Herman's ghost?

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Gibraltar Point Lighthouse

An Unsolved Murder

Gibraltar Point is arguably the first lighthouse built in Canada, in 1808, and this tale is of the murder of the first lighthouse keeper, John Paul Rademuller, who was allegedly murdered, although no body was ever found. Maybe. John, who was alleged to be running a sideline job of smuggling liquor, was killed by two soldiers he’d refused to serve. The body was never found, but a quote from the paper at the time, the York Gazette, states:

“Died on the evening of the 2nd of January, J.P. Rademuller, keeper of the lighthouse on Gibraltar Point. From circumstances there is moral proof of his having been murdered. If the horrid crime admits of aggravation when the inoffensive and benevolent character of the unfortunate sufferer are considered, his murder will be pronounced most barbarous and inhuman.”

In 1893, the fourth keeper of the light, a George Durnan, claimed he’d dug up a coffin and some bones from a jaw near the keeper’s house. The rest of the skull nor any other bones were ever found, so to this day it remains a mystery. The site was known to have been a burial ground for aborigines, although the presence of a coffin would preclude them.

Does Rademuller still haunt the lighthouse where he was murdered? Keepers have reported seeing a ghostly figure on the stairs, especially on stormy nights. Later keepers and visitors have reported an “eerie mist” of swirling light and orbs around the tower. Photographs have been taken of them, also. The sounds of footsteps climbing the stairs, or of someone dragging something up to the lantern room have also been reported, along with strange thumps and groans when no one is inside the light.

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TO MY KNOWLEDGE THIS IS FOR REAL! Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Matinicus Rock Lighthouse

The Locked Up Ghost

Perhaps best known for being the home of Abbie Burgess, a true lighthouse heroine and subject of the popular children's book, "Keep the Lights Shining, Abbie," Matinicus Rock sits out in Penobscot Bay, about 6 miles south of Matinicus Island, near Rockland, Maine. It's just a rock outcropping, and a very harsh environment for anyone. But especially so for one unknown keeper, who perhaps couldn't take the desolation and loneliness and climbed up into one of the disabled towers, strung a rope around his neck and hung himself. His death was discovered a few days later, when the residents of Matinicus Island noticed the light hadn't been lit in a few days.

The tower he hung himself in is always kept locked. Coast Guardsmen say it's because if they don't, he escapes and causes havoc. The Guardsmen swore he still clumped around the tower, breaking dishes, turning over chairs and throwing supplies into disarray. The men stationed there thought they'd figured out how to stop the haunting when they locked and barred the door going into the tower. Maybe he'd stay put, they reasoned. He did, for a while. But then a crewman had to fetch material from the tower and he opened the door and new problems tormented the station. The light did not work, machinery malfunctioned and the foghorn developed laryngitis. Only as long as the door stayed locked did the lighthouse remain quiet.

Boon Island Light

Horror at Boon Island

No mention of haunted lighthouses would be complete without Boon Island. Although it's in far southern Maine, and not one of my local lights, it's still worth mentioning, because of the horrors that have occurred on the island. It is most famous for the wreck of the Nottingham Galley, which crashed into the island in December of 1710. Some of the crew survived by cannibalism, eating the flesh of their dead shipmates before they were rescued by fishermen. There was no woman on the Nottingham Galley, though, so the ethereal young woman shrouded in white who is seen on the rocks at dusk may be Katherine Bright, who came to the 400 square yards of rock as a newlywed with her lightkeeper husband. A mere four months after arriving, a surge tide from a winter storm swept the island, and while trying to secure the island's boat, the keeper slipped on the rocks and drowned. Katherine somehow managed to pull his body ashore and dragged it to the lighthouse. She left his body at the foot of the stairs, and took over lighthouse duties for five days and nights, without eating or sleeping. On the sixth day, the light was out. Fishermen from York investigated, as the storm was over now, and found Mrs. Bright sitting on the stairs holding the frozen corpse of her husband. She and her husband's corpse were taken ashore, but by that time she'd completely lost her mind. She died only a few weeks after being rescued. Her screeches can still be heard along with her apparition.

Bird Island Lighthouse

The Pirate Who Became a Lighthouse Keeper

William S. Moore (not the same one who was with Captain Kidd), who was alleged to have been a pirate, took over as the first Keeper at Bird Island Lighthouse (Marion, Massachussetts) in 1819 after having fought in the War of 1812. Supposedly he owed the US govt. money, who perhaps used that as an excuse to "banish" him to the lonely life of a lightkeeper. He brought with him his wife, a blowsy wench who'd married him in his more prosperous days. She was a heavy tobacco user, and suffered from tuberculosis.Mrs. Moore was forbidden to leave the island by her husband, since he feared she'd leave him for someone else. The dampness of lighthouse life left her in pretty bad shape, and the lack of tobacco on the island led her to despairing cries which could be heard on the mainland. The townspeople took pity on her, and would smuggle bags of tobacco out to the lighthouse, fearful that Moore would find out. Even the local doctor entreated Moore to "put her out of her misery" and let her have her tobacco. He refused, and when she died, he raised a distress flag. A minister came out and they laid her to rest on the island. Moore was blamed for her death by not allowing her off the island. He in turn blamed the townspeople for bringing her her beloved tobacco. Some thought privately that he outright murdered her, and the circumstances surrounding her death covered up, but that was never proven. Legend has it that some later keepers were frightened by "the ghost of a hunched-over old woman, rapping at the door during the night."

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Yaquina Bay Light

A Mysterious Disapearance

Over to the Left Coast, at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, Oregon... This light was discontinued three years after it was lit in 1871 (although it has now been relit as of 1996 as a private aid to navigation). Muriel Travenard was born at the end of the 18th century to a sea captain and his wife. Her mother died when she was young, and for a time she sailed with her father. However, as she grew into a teen, on one trip, he decided to leave his daughter behind with some friends in Newport. Weeks lengthened into months, and the captain didn't return. Muriel was unhappy but had made friends with other teens, which helped to assuage her grief. One day, her group decided to explore the abandoned lighthouse. It was a mess, dilapidated, and not as much fun as they'd hoped, but they did find a strange iron plate in the floor on the second level. It was a door to a compartment that had a deep hole cut into it. They looked inside, but left the door open, and went off to explore the rest of the area. In the late afternoon, as they were preparing to leave, Muriel remembered she'd left her scarf inside and went back in to get it. Her friends waited, but she didn't return. Calling her out didn't work, so several went back in to look for her. After searching without success, one of the kids noticed a pool of blood on the floor, with a trail of drops leading up to the iron plate, which was now closed. The teens tried and tried to open the door again, but couldn't. After coming back with help, a complete search of the lighthouse and grounds was made, but still no one could pry open the plate. Her body was never found, and a dark stain marks the floor where her blood was found. Some people have claimed to have seen her ghost peering out of the lantern room or walking down the path behind the lighthouse, but no one knows just what happened that fateful day.

Disclaimer: This story may or may not be true. It seems it may have originated from a short story written many years ago. But which came first, the story or the legend it was based on?

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Fairport Harbor Light

An Unusual Ghost Story

Fairport Harbor Lighthouse on Lake Erie, the oldest lighthouse on the lake, is home to probably the cutest ghost. The light was discontinued in 1925, and was turned into a museum. In 1989, the resident curator was in the kitchen when she saw out of the corner of her eye something small and dark flitting by. A few seconds later she saw it again. Looking around the corner of the door, she saw a small gray cat, almost like a puff of smoke, scampering around the floor. It had no feet, and moved about the floor almost on invisible wheels. It had iridescent gold marble like eyes and feathery gray fur. It seemed to chase something, then scooted around the corner and disappeared. The curator saw the puff many times over the winter, and even played with it by tossing an old sock down the hallway, which the cat would chase. The last family of keepers, the Babcocks, had a little boy who died when he was 5 years old. Shortly after, Mrs. Babcock took ill and was confined to bed for several months. During that time, she was kept company by one particular kitten of the many house cats, who delighted in chasing a ball down the hallway and bringing it back to her. The living room where the curator encountered the ghostly kitten used to be the bedroom where Mrs. Babcock stayed.

An addendum to this tale: Workers doing some reconstruction of the lighthouse is the winter of 2000-2001 discovered the mummified remains of a cat in the crawlspace. It was determined that the poor creature had gotten trapped in there and was unable to get out of the cold, dank space. The remains of this kitty are on display at the museum.

Just thought I would give you a break from all this reading , then we will get back to it karen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUMwu_gXK7Q&feature=related