We walk the fresh pale planks, turn around, and I see it why Waller would throw down the most moneyjust shy of a million dollarsever spent privately on a lighthouse. Vandals subsequently entered the lighthouse and smashed sections of the second-order lens. Seacoasts, Sounds, River Entry, Bays, Channels, Range Lights. View Bobby Sager results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Find the closest hotels to Minots Ledge Lighthouse, Select a photograph to view a photo gallery. See Photos. While the island itself is barren, it has a lush history best told in the words and deeds of its keepers and their families. You realize they had it all figured out long ago, says Waller, now a pro at finding the right tools and the right people. The Late Gale at Minots Rock Light, John W. Bennett, 1851. Since the act passed, theyve transferred ownership of 68 lighthouses to non-profits and historical commissions for free, and sold 39. Bobby Sager. For Waller, who owns a special effects company in Boston, restoring the lighthouse and its artifacts is a continuum of problem-solving. Only three months into his tenure as keeper, sitting in the living quarters atop the tower and supposedly out of reach of the waves, Isaac Dunham wrote The wind E. blowing very hard with an ugly sea which makes the light reel like a Drunken ManI hope God will in mercy still the raging seaor we must perishGod only knows what the end will be. By October 1850, Dunham quit, and John Bennett took his place, only to despair soon afterwards at his perilous situation in storms. A few years ago, the mooring was ripped out of the ocean floor by a gale, and a breaker dragged Dave Wallers boat, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter he bought used, into the shoal below the lighthouse. Rocks weighing fifteen tons or more were moved twenty feet, and two outbuildings were swept away. William C. Williams signed on as second assistant on August 5, 1885, earning $450 annually. Turn left on On December 21, 1917, Head Keeper Octavius Reamy was approaching the lighthouse in a motorboat loaded with provisions and fuel obtained on the mainland, when a large wave overturned his vessel. As early as 1695, a schooner crashed on those treacherous rocks and sank, leaving no survivors. The Dalai Lama, Sting, and Bobby Sager at Sager's home in Boston in 2012. Sitting at a table just steps away from where Hillary Clinton recently appeared at a fundraiser, Sager said hes driven by a counterintuitive impulse: a kind of altruistic selfishness. Bobby Sager Team Sager | Sager Family Foundation Boston, Massachusetts, United States 493 followers 448 connections Join to connect Sager Family Foundation Yale University Experience. 1 from Minot. Tower closed. The light from six lens-lanterns was displayed from April 22 to May 1, while the old lens was removed and the new one installed. 1 Philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager, founder of the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow, met Moise in 2005. Ruth doesnt recall many stories from Gordons service on the island, but she does remember that the difficulty in accessing the island with the stations boat delayed his coming to visit her in Boston on more than one occasion! Minots light has been giving people feelings since it was built in 1860. 440 to 660 Think of making your bed thus in the crest of a breaker! Its peaceful. When I accepted the post, I closed my ears against the reports of the former keeper, treating them (as I now find) too lightly, and here I shall remain so long as a vestige of the lighthouse remains; but the truth must be told. 3.15 6 Lighthouses the Government Is Giving Away or Selling - Treehugger Bobby Sager Profiles | Facebook I was scared out in that placeIt was an awful life., On August 20, 1932, a newspaper printed a letter about the life of a keeper at Boon Island. Thats when I look up, and realize were only halfway to the entrance. The first light of dawn revealed only the bent remains of a few pilings. Writer, Editor, Skier. The new lights characteristic was fixed white, and a fog bell mounted on the gallery encircling the lantern room, was tolled once every thirty seconds as needed. When youre out here, the whole world stops, as far as youre concerned, says Waller. Grover was cleared in court, but the accusations, and other difficulties, would continue. If you apply too much logic to itlook at the cost, the resale, and the amount of workit doesnt make sense, says Waller. Lighthouse fanatics have reached out to tell him theyre glad hes renovating it, and that they can see the good parts of private ownership. After three years spent cutting the rock to form a foundation, the first six courses of the lighthouse were laid, dovetailed, and dowelled together in 1858. }Customer Service. A before and after view of the fourth level inside the tower. On a windy January afternoon, our boat covers the nine miles from Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina to its offshore mooring in a swift 35 minutes, plunging five feet down and back up over waves that look like rolling hills in Vermont. Captain William H. Swift, an engineer in the U.S. Topographical Department, knew that it would be terribly expensive if not impossible to build a traditional solid cylinder that could survive full exposure to the ocean. Ruth Abbott Carley, who met Gordon B. Kenny at the USO on Boston Common and was dating the coastguardsman while he was stationed at Boon Island Lighthouse in 1951 to 1952, kindly provided the images embedded in this paragraph. Owner/site manager: private. We made kites and flew them anytime, as there was always a breeze coming off the ocean.. I was thinking of that recently as I sat on a South Shore beach, listening to excitement rise in Joe Castigliones radio voice as a home-team fly ball cleared the bullpen wall at Fenway. Outside's long reads email newsletter features our strongest writing, most ambitious reporting, and award-winning storytelling about the outdoors. Gulls circle round in clear skies, and time slows. On the evening before Thanksgiving Day 1890, few provisions remained at the station. Naval Museum in Kittery, Maine where it may be viewed by the public. High above them, Minot Lights signature 1-4-3 beacon will spread its simple message across the sea: I love you. It lets the federal government give away lighthouses to qualifying local governments, non-profits, or community development organizations. Lets talk about something more serious, more substantial, suggested Sager, 62, sporting a gray T-shirt, dark slacks, and stocking feet. Instead, Swift proposed a radical new design consisting of nine, sixty-foot-long iron pilings cemented five feet into the submerged rock, atop which would perch the lantern and keepers dwelling. The sea washd the small rocks from under the Lighthouse and Dwelling house; the island was all under water for 4 hours., On May 10, 1839, the complaints about Keeper Grover must have finally hit their mark, as the keeper wrote in his log: Turnd of[f] of Boon Island after Serving as Lighthouse Keeper 22 years and 10 months and 20 Day Without Cause.. UNLOCK PROFILE. At 9 PM all my family was forst to go to the Lighthouse and Stay until 5 next morning. Many link the name Boon Island to the wrecks of the trading vessel. He studied economics at Brandeis and has a masters degree in management from Yale. Keeper Williams account of the storm included the following: It was the hardest night we ever passed, and no one slept on the island during the entire night. Vessels mostly use satellite, GPS, and radar to dodge rocks, avoid the bottom of the ocean or bay, and dock safely in a harbor, even if someespecially small boatsstill rely on lighthouses as visual aids, like buoys. The film, also starring the lighthouse historian Jeremy DEntremont and Ford Reiche, who took on a similar extensive restoration of the Halfway Rock Light Station, in Casco Bay, Maine, is directed by Rob Apse, with a portion of the proceeds preserving Whaleback Lighthouse, at the mouth of the Piscatequa River in Kittery, Maine. Join Outside+ to get Outside magazine, access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more. Among other things, the lighthouse needs to be repointed and sealed up. Graves . Breathing the salty clean winter air, out in the middle of the harbor, we stand in front of his time machine. The underside for the placement of the fresnel lens, Graves Light. In December 2014, just months after acquiring the lighthouse, Girard sold the property to Boon Island LLC for $119,673. Keeper Williams was inside the tower worrying about what he and his boys could enjoy the next day, when suddenly there was a crash on the parapet deck. The auction attracted seven bidders, who submitted a total of seventy bids, and ended on October 13, 2014, with a high bid of $222,000. The lighthouse is a three-story cast iron square structure, 45 feet in height, that rests on a cylindrical tower. I look back at the months that we spent on Boon Island as a marvelous part of my life. But her description of the water system would disgust most people. The loss of lives and property here have been annual, and will continue to occur until alight is established, and the one at Scituate suppressed. Boon Island Light sold for second time, Paul Briand. The U.S. General Services Administration, which is essentially the real estate arm of the government, was tasked with getting rid of it. Great Lakes Lighthouses, Seacoasts, Islands, Sounds. The museum has the following table of lens sizes posted. Keeper Williams and his assistants saved the six crewmembers, though afterward, the keepers and the crew were almost equally incapacitated by exposure. In 1919, Keeper Harry Smith and his two assistants rescued seven men aboard the schooner Hazel E. Ritcey, after it struck a rock and sank near the island. BILLIONAIRE GIVES BACK - New York Post Plans for original Minots Ledge Lighthouse, Granite blocks being assembled at Cohasset in 1857, Base of tower as it appeared on July 1, 1859, two double-dwellings were built at Cohasset, Memorial plaque ready for lowering to seafloor. The ladder up from sea level, Graves Light, built in 1905. Current Address: KVFV Alaminos Dr, Santa Clarita, CA. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/File/Globe Staff, What kind of a guy buys a lighthouse? It's not just the Minot's Ledge lighthouse that's changing hands. He can be reached at, the government had auctioned it off in 2014. A new, forty-nine-foot-tall granite tower with an octagonal wrought-iron lantern was built by Colonel Seward Merrill for $3,406.65 in 1831. (Photos courtesy of Dave Waller) But when you own a lighthouse, the repairs are never really done. Brides (1940 at least 1942) . Rick Friedman/Sager Family Found Stay up-to-date with important news developments, delivered right to your inbox.. There was always something to do on the island. Mary Luther spent summers there with her grandfather, William C. Williams. What kind of a guy, Fine. In 1847, a crew began working from a schooner anchored next to the ledge, and over two years and $39,000 later, on January 1, 1850, Minots Ledge Lighthouse was illuminated for the first time. Their website is full of Black Hawk helicopters and former cop cars. In 2000, the GSA, the Coast Guard and the Department of the Interior passed The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, an amendment to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. By 1818, an increase in salary prompted unscrupulous competition for the job at Boon Island. Boone Island Lighthouse Phone & Email (1) All Addresses (1) Family (4) Social; Court (2) And More; In 2013, the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum announced it was having difficulty paying the premium on the $800,000 insurance policy for the Boon Island lens. 3rd Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, Massachusetts at Lighthousefriends.com In June 2007, Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team divers were transported to the waters near Minots Ledge Lighthouse aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Abbie Burgess. It is old and its interior is in bad condition, needing thorough renovation. The only reason I ever wanted to make money was to be able to make choices. In spite of Boston Lights historic importance, it will be a huge challenge for the next steward to preserve the station, says Jeremy DEntremont, when I later reach him inside New Hampshires Portsmouth Harbor Light, home of the American Lighthouse Foundations local chapter. He even salvaged a stanchion railing from a World War II minesweeper for the mahogany deck. Everything gets done according to what he wants. Christopher Sager, Santa Clarita, CA (91350) - Spokeo Shad Sager - Previous Managing Member for Skyline Music Group Some have been preserved by gigantic efforts: Already Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, the tallest lighthouse in the country at 193 feet, and Gay Head Light on Marthas Vineyard, among others, have been physically moved back from the edge of the sea, a painstaking process involving digging up the foundation and rolling it inland on hydraulic beams. Not wanting to see the lens returned to the Coast Guard, the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce held a raffle that generated $2,000, enough to pay the premium for two years. Captain Sumner H. Cobbett and some of his crew from the North Scituate Coast Guard Station set off in a rowboat in pursuit of the leaky dory and were finally able to rescue the men, who were exhausted and suffering badly from exposure. Last summer we went back and piled cousins and aunts into a rented house. From 1897 to 1905, his son, Charles S. Williams was first assistant, following his promotion from second assistant. 7 Minot's Ledge Lighthouse - Cohasset, Massachusetts From the top deck of Graves tower, Waller points two miles south to Little Brewster Island, home only to Boston Light, the first lighthouse in the United States, built in 1716. Musician Annie Lennox and philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager arrives for the 'Power Of The Invisible Sun' photocall at the Saatchi Gallery. Use Sager is now fixing up two more lighthouses (Minots Ledge Light south of Boston and Maines Boon Island Light) he landed at auction when they were offloaded by the Coast Guard. The catch? Hanna soon realized the sum was insufficient and requested $450 annually. You have to be pretty creative to live in an offshore lighthouse in the first place. It is situated in Cape Blanco State Park, amid miles of trails. After two more working seasons, six thousand tons of Quincy granite supported a bronze lantern nearly 100 feet in the air. Tower (1861 1874), Levi L. Creed (1874 1881), Frank F. Martin (1881 1887), Milton Reamy (1887 1915), Octavius H. Reamy (1915 1924), Per F. Tornberg (1924 1936), George H. Fitzpatrick (1936 at least 1941). I think thats what attracted me to Graves and to other things in my life. The local brewery makes a Minot Light, Thoreau wrote about it, and its been used in ads for Cape Cod Cranberries and American Tobacco cigarettes. As a seven year old, Moise was a soldier in the Congo. Keeper Per S. Tornberg, who was in charge of the lighthouse from 1924 to 1936, had an even closer brush with death. I heard a plane just now, but therell be days when theres just the rise and fall of the tide and the wind.. The stone tower, built of granite supplied by Joseph W. Coburn of Boston, is 133 feet high -- the tallest lighthouse in New England. More Than Just a Soccer Ball, The Hope Soccer Ball They always say the best government is a benevolent king because his heart is in the right place, he says. In the case of the lens built for Minots Ledge, the number 143 was produced by eight flash panels that created three groups of flashes: the first showing one flash, the next four flashes, and the last three flashes. A wreck on this fatal reef is always attended with the destruction of human life, owing to its great distance from the shore, and the tremendous sea that rolls in over the rocks when the wind is at the eastward.. The General Services Administration, which likes to call itself The Nations Landlord, is in charge of selling off any federal property thats deemed irrelevant. On April 16, 1851, the fierce winds of a noreaster left the tower reeling in the pounding seas and blinding snow. Although this request was repeated for over a decade, a fog horn did not replace the bell until around 1960. Turn north on 228, and follow East Street, I had read that. Right in her hair.So after that, she started using the chamber pots. Crossing back over the bridge, we make our way up: five spiral clangy metal flights; past a bunk room, the keepers quarters, and a third-floor kitchen; and to the lantern room. Waller and I gaze from the top deck through the windows of his seaswept kingdom at the shoreline towns, historic shipping ports that arose here in the first place because of the water, and we look toward Boston Light. Continue on Main Street Waller has done a ton of work on the tower. Following some competition, Boon Islands original second-order Fresnel Part of that is nostalgia. Brazil. The granite had to be cut and assembled on Government Island, attached to the mainland in Cohasset Harbor, and then pulled by oxen to a vessel that would transport the stone out to the ledge. The reasoning was that the legs would offer almost no resistance to the wind and water. Part way to the tower, the dory sprang a leak. Outside a lot. (Photo: Shane Sager). Boon Island Light history - NEW ENGLAND LIGHTHOUSES: A VIRTUAL GUIDE Among the federal detritus, lighthouses are a special case. I have made a calculation and find that what would make me comfortable, Oliver wrote, would amount to nearly five hundred dollars [per year]also the wages of a Man and Boy would be thirty dollars a month. Interested parties had sixty days to submit a letter of interest, after which they would be given an opportunity to inspect the lighthouse. Also: bikes, going places, and what the F were doing to the planet. I dont have to fill in all the boxes before I decide to do something, for better or worse.. "If you apply too. It was kind of redundant.. Heceta Head, Oregon, is among the lighthouses that are open for tours or stays. Its Graves third bridgethe first one washed away in the Blizzard of 1978; the second was destroyed in the Perfect Storm (as titled in the book and movie) of 1991. Thirteen bidders participated in the auction, which closed on August 17 with a high bid of $78,000. [4] 6 Flannan Isles Lighthouse Scotland At the conclusion of the operation, a memorial plaque honoring Joseph Antoine and Joseph Wilson, the two keepers lost with the lighthouse, was lowered to the seafloor. which houses part of a third-order Fresnel lens used in the lighthouse can be seen at Government Island in Cohasset. It hits deeper, because it draws back to when you could get lost in the ocean, when you needed a beacon to bring you home. display: none; As work could only be carried out a low tide and during calm seas, workmen could only be on the rock for 157, 130, and 208 hours respectively during the seasons of 1855, 1856, and 1857. At first, Boon Island was barely able to attract and retain a keeper. She started in Hatteras, North Carolina, near where she grew up and moved north, toward Hull, Mass., toward my dad. When there are no takers in this phase, private owners like Waller go to bid on lighthouses through public auctions. New Haven's Southwest Ledge Lighthouse for sale - New Haven Register Go help someone.. To prevent further casualties, the aptly named Captain Michael Neptune Brennock was hired as a lifeguard, and only workers who could swim were employed. The keepers pet cat was the first casualty of the tower, which swayed so dramatically during a storm that the panicked animal jumped to its death. On October 13th, Bobby Sager, Polaroids chairman, won the auction and bought the lighthouse for $222,000. The lighthouse is privately owned. The rain would be allowed to wash off the roof where all the seagulls sat every daythen at the foot of the downdrains from thereof, a cup would be turned up to catch the water that came down the drainpipes. See Sarah Sager's age, phone number, house address, email address, social media accounts, public records, and check for criminal records on Spokeo. No longer used as a main navigational aid, the lighthouse as we know it is slowly being rendered obsolete. One exception is the countrys actual last official lightkeeper still working for the Coast Guard: Her name is Sally Snowman, and her job and second home, Boston Light, are in jeopardy. A bell-buoy was placed on Boon Island Ledge, about three miles east of Boon Island, starting in 1858 to mark this navigational hazard. But he is. Sager acquired Minots Ledge Lighthouse at auction later in 2014 and then Michigans Grays Reef Lighthouse in 2016. Shad Sager Overview Shad Gary Sager has been associated with one company, according to public records. The tragedy that earned the area its name happened in 1754, when a prominent Boston merchant named George Minot lost a valuable ship there; henceforth it was called Minots Ledge. Lighthouses arent the only kind of obsolete public buildings that we put on a pedestal I think people feel similarly about fire towers but lights hit the crosshairs of history, design, adventure, and allegory. That summer, they posted a notice of availability. It says a lot about Dave Waller that he and Bobby Sager have worked out an agreement, making Sager a partner in the Graves Light project. The living quarters were also damaged, and boulders were swept onto the island. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. The need for a beacon at the ledge was not lost on lighthouse inspector I.W.P. The message: I dont do charity. Seeing the keepers predicament, the assistants in the lighthouse sprang into action and used a rope to lower Assistant Keeper Whitman to the water where he was able to seize Reamy. Some time around 1a.m. This lens was one of two lenses, built using the Mahan system, that were displayed at the Columbian Exposition held at Chicago in 1893. He also envisions it as a place where representatives of societies that wage war against each other, that commit unspeakable atrocities, can sit across from each other and find common ground. The valley is getting smaller as the ocean is getting closer. Minots was constructed to replace an earlier light, which was swept away in a storm. Im not nearly so optimistic about the ones that are remote and inaccessible to the public, many of which will eventually face demolition by neglect., Many land-based lighthouses and the soil around them are contaminated with lead paint that must be remediated before someone saves them. Navigation has largely transitioned to mariner-operation systems. We went all in, he says. Two water tanks, weighing about four tons each, were lifted off their granite foundations and carried a distance of seventy-five feet to the northeast end of the island and totally wrecked. Head: Benjamin Wane (1811), David Oliver (1811 1812), Thomas Hanna (1812 1816), Eliphalet Grover (1816 1839), Joseph P. Junkins (1839 1840), Mark Dennet (1840 1841), John S. Thompson (1841 1843), John Kennard (1843 1844), Isidore S. Thompson (1844), John Kennard (1844 1846), Nathaniel Baker (1846 1849), John S. Thompson (1849 1853), Hiram Tobey (1853), Caleb L. Goold (1853 1854), George Bowden (1854 1855), Josiah Tobey (1855 1859), Nathaniel Baker (1859), Joseph H. Hart (1859 1861), George B. Wallace (1861), Benjamin Bridges (1861 1864), R.C. 2nd (8 minutes) Bobby Sager thinks in bulk. Fine. Several keepers were convinced that the ghosts of the two doomed assistant keepers still resided in the lighthouse, sending signals to each other, cleaning the lens, and warning others of the dangers presented by Minots Ledge. Two days later a Gloucester fisherman found a bottle containing a final message from the doomed keepers: The beacon cannot last any longer. South Africa. Minots Ledge Lighthouse lost its resident keepers in 1947, when the light was electrified and automated. Bobby Sager. The tower itself and its fourteen windows, which were sealed shut, were leaky. When a whale went by, spouting, Id make believe that was my submarine. And Harold Hutchins daughter Shirley Kelley said: As a kid, it was my idea of Paradise! From there it would run into a cistern in the cellar. (Photo: Javaris Johnson/Snipezart). The Fresnel lens, manufactured in Paris by F. Barbier, completed one revolution every thirty seconds atop a mercury-filled float and was placed in operation on May 1, 1894. . When he ran out of money a year into the renovation, he teamed up with another original bidder who matched his million, a local businessman named Bobby Sager, who has hosted celebrities like Sting and Tom Hanks at Graves. Hes rechinked the granite blocks to make it watertight, and put in running water and electricity. A brand of on-the-ground and up-close philanthropy that assesses needs and then fashions programs to meet them. The US General Services Administration put the lighthouse up for auction in 2014. And, with that, the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow was born. My mom did her architecture school thesis on lighthouses. Pakistan. Follow him on Twitter @FarragherTom. And with that, the discussion about lighthouses and meteorites was over for the moment. The solitude and thunderous crashing of the waves drove more than one keeper insane. Donovan (1895), Charles G. Everett (1895 1905), Ernest H. Small (1905 1909), Vivian A. Currier (1909 1910), Eugene N. Larsen (1910 1911), Fred M. Pease (1911 at least 1912), Percy A. Evans (at least 1939 1940). First, a little background: Sager grew up in Malden, where he met and married his high school sweetheart. In addition, a supply shed, measuring twelve by twenty feet, and a brick oil house were erected on the island. The flashes within a group were two seconds apart, while the groups of flashes were separated by five seconds of darkness. Shoals, Reefs, Harbor Lights, Islands in Rivers and Harbors. Third Assistant: Isaac A. Dunham (1850), Kendall Pearson (1851), Samuel Gardiner (1851), W.H. He imagines his family gathering there on sultry summer nights, the reflection of a full moon dazzling like diamonds on the Atlantic. The men sought refuge in the tower as the angry seas damaged the fuel tanks, helicopter pad and generator building, and destroyed the boathouse and boat launch. The first man offered the position refused. At the mooring a few hundred feet out from the station, we hop into the dinghy, his sixththe sea took all the othersand from the stern I look at Waller, 59, in his thick-rimmed black and gray specs under a matching beanie rolled above his ears, rowing in galoshes and yellow waterproof fishing suspenders.