Portland Head Light

Dear Diary,

Another day and another stunning Maine landscape...this time the lighthouse at Fort William park on Cape Elizabeth in Portland Maine. This lighthouse was first lit in 1791 and is the first lighthouse built by the new federal government after the revolutionary war. My ancestors were residents of Cape Elizabeth in the late 1700's and probably say this lighthouse being constructed.

My great-great-grandfather was a sea captain who sailed out of what was then called Falmouth, Maine. Maine didn't become a separate state until 1820. Up until then they were a part of Massachusetts. I believe that was when Falmouth became Portland. I like to imagine my great-great grandfather sailing past this light on his way out to sea.

I'm really getting into tracing my Maine roots and on Wednesday will go on a tour of the oldest cemetery in Portland, the Eastern Cemetery, where three of my ancestors are buried. I am so fortunate to live so close to the sea and also close to the mountains and lakes in Western Maine.

The painter Edward Hopper immortalized this lighthouse and it is one of the most photographed and painted of Maine's 65 lighthouses. (You can also see, in the distance. a second light house in this photograph.) It is easy to see why it is so famous by its spectacular setting. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was born in Portland, Maine also wrote a poem of it, an excerpt below...

Sail on; Sail on ye stately ships
And with your floating bridge the ocean span.
Be mine to guard the light from all eclipse,
Be yours to bring man near unto man.