The Lighthouse
In 1856, the U.S. government purchased a parcel of land on
Isle La Motte for $50 and constructed a stone pyramid supporting
an ordinary lamp. A local farmer was paid to tend the light,
but on stormy nights, when the light was so critical, the
lamp would often blow out. By 1868, the Lighthouse Board recommended
that a small lighthouse with a keeper’s quarters be
constructed.
Authorization came in 1877 for the lighthouse - a 25-foot
tower made of fabricated curved cast-iron plates. The tower,
similar to those at Point Montara, CA, Chatham, MA, and Nobska,
MA, held a sixth-order Fresnel lens, which shown a fixed white
light at a focal plane of 46 feet, visible for 13 miles. Keeper
Wilbur F. Hill lit its lantern for the first time in 1881.
A detached white frame house served as the keeper’s
dwelling, and a cast bronze fog bell graced the station.
Keeper Hill was well acquainted with Isle La Motte. His service
there began in 1871 at the old beacon and continued for 48
years until his retirement in 1919. Along with serving as
keeper of the station, he maintained a 100-acre farm nearby.
During the 1930s, in a cost saving measure, the Lighthouse
Board replaced the lights along Lake Champlain with steel
skeletal towers. One such tower, with an automatic beacon,
replaced the Isle La Motte light in 1933, and the lightstation
was sold into private hands. In 1949, the Isle La Motte Lighthouse
was purchased by the Robert C. Clark family from his family's
dentist, the original private owner of the lighthouse. The
Clark family had previously owned a camp on Isle La Motte
near St. Anne's Shrine.
In 2001, the Coast Guard considered the cost of replacing
the deteriorating steel tower and determined it might be more
cost effective to return the light to the original tower.
Through the cooperation of the Clark family, who own both
the Isle La Motte Station and the Windmill Point Station,
lights have been returned to both of these lighthouses.
After almost seven decades of darkness, the Isle La Motte
Lighthouse returned to active service on October 5, 2002.
The event was witnessed by a crowd of over 300 and accompanied
by the tolling of the nearby fog bell.
The lighthouse property is privately owned but can be viewed
from the lake.
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