Keeper of the Light: Sally Snowman
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“What a great day for a lighthouse tour,” Sally Snowman says as she smiled at our group unloading from the ferry. We gathered in the boathouse on 3-acre Little Brewster Island to get the scoop on Boston Light, the first lighthouse built in the United States in 1776.
“When I first arrived it felt like I was coming home,” says Snowman who served as a volunteer before the U.S. Coast Guard hired her as the Keeper of the light. “When I first climbed the tower I felt like I had done it a million times before.”
Snowman, the sole reamaining lighthouse keeper in the country for the U.S. Coast Guard, serves as site supervisor, caretaker and historian. To save costs, the U.S. Coast Guard has automated the other 278 federally run lighthouses.
I admired Snowman’s colonial style dress and bonnet she wears while sharing the islands history. “I made this. I alternate between a few dresses. They reflect what women wore centuries ago when the lighthouse was being rebuilt.” In 1716, British troops blew up the tower during the Revolutionary War but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rebuilt it 1783.
Visitors are welcome to climb the 76 steps to catch a glimpse of the Fresnel lens that beams 27 nautical miles out to sea. “It has a certain type of romance to it. It’s a type of romance you won’t find anywhere else,” says Park Ranger Donald Cann.
When autumn changes to winter, although less time is spent on the island due safety concerns, Sally prefers to be at the light during a bad storm or blizzard than on the mainland. “I have never been scared of the weather. Even when the house is rattling through powerful storms. I think about how this house has never been destroyed and I feel safe.”
As we chat, a fellow visitor hands Sally a four-leaf clover she found on the island. “These are things that count in my life,” she beamed. “I have learned so much living out here. I don’t want to feel stress. It ages you. Instead I read, write and play my flute when I am not working. It’s a simple life.”
Tours run through September 30.
Ticket Prices and Schedules: https://www.bostonharborislands.org/
Make sure to spot in the Museum at the base of Boston Light to spot the Coast Guards Oldest Artifact. A 293-year-old fog signal cannon was America’s first official fog signal. It was fired every half-hour to help ships steer clear of the Rocky New England shoreline surrounding Little Brewster Island.
