16.03.13 Pemaquid Point Late Winter

At the end of Route 130 in Bristol is my favorite spot on the Maine coast, Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. The lighthouse was commissioned in 1827 by President John Quincy Adams and built that year. Because of poor workmanship (salt water was used in the mortar mix), the lighthouse began to crumble and was replaced in 1835. The original light was an Argand-Lewis parabolic reflector, lit with candles and with a visibility of 2 miles. Augustin Fresnel invented a superior way of focusing light in the early 1850s and most lighthouses in the US were converted to the Fresnel Lens, with Pemaquid Point receiving a fourth order Fresnel in 1856. The lens is one of only six Fresnel lenses still in service in Maine. The keeper's house was built in 1857. The lighthouse is owned by the US Coast Guard and is licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation. Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse (FPPL), one of the 21 chapters of the Foundation, operate the lighthouse and host lighthouse visitors from mid-May to mid-October.
Silurian Period sediments laid down 430 million years ago were metamorphosed underground into a gneiss 360-415 million years ago, and intruded by molten rock which cooled slowly, creating Pemaquid Point's exposed metamorphic gray rocks with dikes of harder, white igneous rock. Underground heat and pressure tortured and folded the rock layers into the striking patterns that are now pounded and polished by the sea and rough weather.