Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 44° 05' 33" N 69° 02' 39" W
Nearest town: Owl’s Head. Located at the south side of the entrance to Rockland Harbor, western Penobscot Bay.
Established: 1825. Present lighthouse built: 1852. Automated: 1989.
Height of tower: 30 feet. Height of focal plane: 100 feet.
Optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens.
Characteristic: Fixed white.
Fog signal: Two blasts every 20 seconds.
The growing lime trade in Rockland and Thomaston led to the establishment of a light station, with a 30-foot stone tower at Owl’s Head. Isaac Sterns was the first keeper at $350 per year. The present brick tower was built in 1852.
Author Edward Rowe Snow interviewed Clara Maddocks, wife of keeper Joseph Maddocks, when she was 102 years old. Maddocks became keeper at Owl’s Head in 1873, and there were at least eleven shipwrecks in the vicinity during his twenty-three years as keeper. Mrs. Maddocks remembered a particularly cold winter when the bay was so frozen that she observed a horse and sleigh cross from Rockland to Vinalhaven.
Augustus B. Hamor came to Owl’s Head as keeper in 1930. Keeper Hamor had a Springer spaniel named Spot who gained wide fame. Spot learned to pull the rope that rang the fog bell with his teeth, a ritual he repeated for every approaching vessel. Spot’s unusual abilities turned out to be good for more than entertainment. The Matinicus mail boat almost ran aground one snowy night, but Spot’s loud barking warned the captain and enabled him to steer clear of the rocks.
The 1854 keeper’s house remains a residence for Coast Guard personnel, while the surrounding grounds are now a state park. The grounds at Owl’s Head Light State Park (207-941-4014) are open daily; there is a large parking area and a moderate walk (about 10 minutes) to the lighthouse.
In December 2007, the lighthouse tower was licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF). The effort is directed by a committee of the Friends of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, a chapter of ALF. A major overhaul was completed in 2010, thanks to a $248,000 joint project between the Coast Guard and ALF. The lighthouse is open for tours in summer; the schedule in 2011 was three days per week. Visit www.rocklandlighthouse.com for more information.
SIDE TRIP: Owl’s Head Transportation Museum
This gem of a museum has one of the finest collections of pioneer-era aircraft and automobiles in the world, with more than one hundred historic aircraft, automobiles, bicycles, carriages, and engines on display. Among the highlights are a 1963 prototype Mustang car and a 1935 Stout Scarab, called the world’s first minivan. The museum is on Route 73 in Owl’s Head, two miles from Route 1. It’s open all year.
Owl’s Head Transportation Museum
Phone: 207-594-4418
Web site: www.ohtm.org
A famous story concerns a schooner wrecked near here in December 1850. An engaged couple was found on the vessel, and it was reported that they were frozen in a block of ice when they were taken to the keeper’s house at Owl’s Head. They were gradually revived, and they lived to be celebrated as the “Frozen Couple of Owl’s Head.”
From Route 1 North in Thomaston, go through two sets of lights; you will see the Knox Mansion on your right at the second set of lights. About one mile after this, turn right onto Buttermilk Lane. Follow to the end (2.6 miles) and turn left onto Route 73. Continue for 1.3 miles and then turn right onto North Shore Road. Continue for about 2.5 miles; turn left at a triangular intersection onto Main Street. After 0.2 miles, turn left at Lighthouse Road and continue about a half-mile to the large free parking area.
The lighthouse can also be seen from harbor tours out of Rockland (207-596-5660, www.mvmonhegan.com). Many other cruises in the area may also provide a view; check with the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce (207-236-4404, www.camdenme.org) and the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce (207-596-0376, www.rocklandchamber.org).
