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 Mid-Coast, ME
58 feet; light is 75 feet above the sea.
Est 1847, built 1880
Historian Samuel Adams Drake aptly described it as “rising above the waves like
the last monument of some buried city of antediluvian times.”
Jeremy's Lighthouse Guide #13
Over 20 miles from the nearest port at Mount Desert Island, this waveswept rock
with its granite lighthouse is like a barren planet unto itself.. The Rock is
only about 17 feet above sea level at its highest point and waves batter it mercilessly
in storms. The first lighthouse on Mount Desert Rock went into operation in 1830
to mark the entrances to Frenchman and Blue Hill Bays. This structure was replaced
by a new 58-foot granite tower designed by the noted architect Alexander Parris
in 1847.
 Despite its isolation Mount Desert Rock was for many years a family station.
It became a tradition for the families to bring soil to the island each spring
for a garden. Local fishermen also made contributions of earth from the mainland.
By the summer a beautiful flower garden would be in bloom. With luck the flowers
would remain until fall, but the first gales of winter would sweep the rock clean
of the last bit of dirt.
The last Coast Guard keepers were removed in late 1977. The station was then
leased to Bar Harbor's College of the Atlantic for use as a whale watching station.
The college's Allied Whale program compiles and maintains catalogs for the North
Atlantic populations of finback and humpback whales. Students and faculty live
in the old keeper’s quarters during the summer, and the upper story of a shed
has been transformed into a classroom.
The lighthouse is best seen by private boat or from the air, although whale watches
from Bar Harbor occasionally pass near Mount Desert Rock.
Click for a complete HISTORY of this lighthouse
Copyright 2004 by Jeremy D'Entremont,New England Lighthouses
Photos are the property of the author and may not be used without permission.
Photos above from Jeremy D'Entremont.
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