Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, Maine. Or, Maybe I Like Visiting Lighthouses to Look at Rocks.

Pemaquid was one of my favorite lighthouses I saw in Maine. The structure itself is great – particularly the tower – but the setting is fantastic. The dramatic angles of the basalt and the crashing waves are stereotypical Maine, but much more stunning than you might imagine.

About the history of the lighthouse or any sort of facts, I don’t know: I wasn’t paying attention. It was built in 1827 but beyond that all I can tell you is the I spent most of morning looking at the rocks. I do have to say that the view from the top of the tower was pretty excellent though. The former keepers quarters housed a nice collection of historical fishing-related items which was a better than average. I browsed quickly, but did take a picture of the description of a type of fishing method I hadn’t heard of before. Called a brush weir, it was a circular formation of poles driven underwater into the mud and wrapped with a kind of basket weaving of brush that was sunk and secured to the poles. A few months of seaweed and other growth would fill in any holes. How it works is that fish will swim into the single opening in the “wall” and swim in circles without exiting because they don’t like to get near the sides. As the tide lowers and the water disappears, the fish are thus concentrated and can be easily netted by hand. Introduced to westerners by Native Americans, this technique was first documented in the 18th century in Nova Scotia before coming to Maine around 1820, where it remains in use today. If I had a decent picture of the actual model I’d show you, but I failed in that respect as well.