The Unexplained
I have been asked many times over the years, “Is Owls Head Lighthouse haunted.”
My answer is always the same. I tell people that I have worked at the keeper’s house for twelve years – and have been regularly going inside the lighthouse for seventeen years. Throughout this span of time, I have never experienced anything unusual.
As an avid researcher, however, it is not lost on me that ghost stories and unexplained occurrences are a part of lighthouse history. Numerous accounts of keepers and their family members encountering strange happenings have been recorded and passed down through the years. Even modern day lighthouse stewards and visitors have shared similar unnerving experiences.
Many attribute these unexpected brushes with the unknown to the presence of ghosts. Be it a keeper or someone else who lost their life at or near a lighthouse, more than a few people hold a strong conviction that the unfortunate person’s spirit either comes and goes – or remains, at the light station. This belief has ensured that lighthouses and ghost stories are forever entwined.
Though I do not spend much time exploring these anecdotal stories, it is factual to note that a myriad of peculiar things have happened at these enduring places.
Tragedies did occur from time to time. History documents that lightkeepers lost their lives in the line of duty and their family members sometimes fell ill and died at lighthouses - unable to see a doctor or receive proper medical care in a timely fashion.
Of course, despite the presence of a lighthouse, shipwrecks still happened, especially during fog and storms. These harrowing incidents caused a number of sailors and passengers aboard the stricken vessels to lose their battle with the sea. There were also times when these shipwreck victims washed ashore at lighthouses - their bodies bruised and battered, and occasionally, unrecognizable.
For those who kept the lights shining, these dreadful occurrences made an indelible mark on their minds – and became sewn into the very fabric of lighthouse life.
Most lighthouses have a remote aspect associated with them, and many in Maine are surrounded by a restless sea that is cold and unforgiving in its ways. And then there is the wind! It is almost always present at lighthouses, whistling or screaming like a banshee, and somehow able to unnerve even the most disciplined of minds during long nights.
Ah, the night! It is my experience that darkness is much deeper at lighthouses, especially those located on islands and wave-swept, rock ledges. Even the guiding light aloft can lend an eerie feel to lighthouses - its probing beam continually sweeping through the mysterious unknown as the trail of light fades away - only to come back around again and again.
By its very nature, lighthouse duty was filled with profound periods of isolation and loneliness. During the era of staffed lighthouse, the mind and spirit of keepers and their family members often could not escape the heavy toll these feelings exacted upon them. Such emotions were hardest to contend with during wintertime when those who kept the lights were cut-off from others for long stretches of time.
All of the above and more segued into unexplained experiences at these aged places, which are eternally battered by time, wind and sea.
There are those who tended the lights that are adamant that ghosts are indeed a part of lighthouse life, while others cannot pinpoint the source of their uneasiness, but feel it deeply nonetheless. Regardless of one's stance on the topic, it is undeniable that baffling and unnerving things did - and do, occur at Maine's lighthouses. In time without end, such sagas are part of lighthouses and their allure.
