He’s done bringing the beacon home.
The last U.S. Coast Guard lightkeeper ended her watch at the historic Boston Lighthouse after two decades at the helm.
Sally Snowman, 72, became a lighthouse keeper in 2003, which she said was a dream come true after seeing it for the first time when she was just 10 years old.
“There was a connection, an instant connection. When I was 10 I had no idea what that connection was, it just went straight to my heart. And to this day, it is there. It’s still there,” she told the Daily Mail ahead of her final day as goalkeeper on Saturday.
She is the 70th person to be a Boston Light lighthouse keeper, and the first woman to hold the position, in its more than 300-year history.
The lighthouse, which originally opened in 1716 and was blown up by the British in 1776 and rebuilt in 1783, has safely guided sailors through the dangerous waters of Boston Harbor from the small rocky island of Little Brewster.
Snowman’s first impression of Boston Light during a childhood visit to the island would inspire her for the rest of her life.
“Deep down in my heart, Boston Light is my home,” Snowman told CBS News earlier this month. “I accepted it like a fish to water.”
Sally Snowman, 72, has been the Boston Light’s keeper since 2003. She retired Saturday. CBS BOSTON NEWS
“I went out to the beach, looked at the light and said, ‘Dad, when I grow up I want to get married here,’ and I did in 1994! she added.
She and her husband even wrote a book about the lighthouse, which helped her get the job as Boston Light’s first civilian keeper since 1941, after the Coast Guard civilized the lighthouses to free its members after the terrorist attacks of the 11 of September.
For the past 20 years, Snowman lived on the remote island for six months, alone during the weeks but with her husband on the weekends, she told CBS.
The current Boston Light structure was built in 1783. CBS NEWS BOSTON
Her jobs at the automated lighthouse included keeping it clean, checking the mechanical equipment, and enjoying the natural beauty that surrounded her.
“There is a view from every window. even in the bathroom, when you’re in the shower, you can see Graves Light,” Snowman said, referring to another lighthouse to the northeast.
The first Boston Light structure was a 60-foot tower built in 1716 and was lit by candles, according to the National Park Service. It suffered multiple fires at the hands of American troops when it was in British hands during the Revolutionary War, before being blown up by British troops fleeing Boston in 1776.
Snowman married her husband in Little Brewster in 1994, after promising her father she would do so when she was 10. CBS NEWS BOSTON
The current 75-foot-tall structure was completed in 1783 and was illuminated by four fish oil lamps. It rose to 89 feet in 1859 and was electrified in 1948, projecting its light 27 miles into the Atlantic Ocean.
Boston Light became a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
As the Coast Guard prepared to automate the light and withdraw its staff from Little Brewster in 1989, the United States Senate passed a law requiring Boston Light to be permanently staffed, making it the only staffed lighthouse that remains in the country, according to NPS.
Snowman is the first female guardian of Boston Light in its more than 300-year history. CBS BOSTON NEWS
The law also required that Little Brewster be accessible to the public, which happened in 1999.
It became the last lighthouse in the country to be automated in 1989 and remains on always, “preventing the lighthouse keeper from having to climb the stairs twice a day,” according to NPS.
In 2018, when the lighthouse failed a safety inspection, Snowman was limited to daytime maintenance trips only, CBS reported. He now spends much of his time at the Hull Salvage Museum, where he dresses in 19th-century clothes and keeps a close eye on his beloved lighthouse.
Ownership of the lighthouse will be transferred through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 to an organization or charity that will maintain the landmark.
Snowman said it will be hard to say goodbye, although she hopes to volunteer as a Little Brewster tour guide and remain its historian.
“…We thought it was going to be short term, it has turned into 20 years. And then letting go, how to let all that go? “It’s analogous to a child growing up and going to college and allowing them to start a new chapter, so this is a new chapter for Boston Light,” he told the Daily Mail.
“I can’t even think about what January 1st will be like. But the other part is that I don’t feel like it’s really over.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn