Owls Head Lighthouse

History

The booming lime trade of the 1820’s on Maine’s mid-coast led to the construction of a lighthouse on Owls Head, a promontory at the entrance to Rockland Harbor in Penobscot Bay. In 1825, President John Quincy Adams authorized the building of the lighthouse, and the first keeper, Isaac Stearns, lit it that fall.

The present brick tower was built in 1852. It’s relatively short, only 30 feet tall, but it sits on a bluff about 80 feet above the water, so the light is about 100 feet above the sea. A tall lighthouse was simply unnecessary. The keeper’s house, a wood-frame dwelling, followed in 1854. A wooden ramp and long series of steps lead up from the house to the tower, a feature historian Jeremy D’Entremont calls unique among New England lighthouses.

The original lamps and reflectors were replaced by a fourth-order Fresnel lens in 1856, and that lens is still in use today. The lighthouse was automated in 1989 and its light can be seen up to 16 nautical miles away. Because this stretch of coast is so prone to fog, the station also has a fog signal.

The origin of the name “Owls Head” is somewhat of a mystery. Some have suggested that the promontory looks like an owl from the water (it takes some imagination). Others say Owls Head is the English translation of the Native name for the spot, usually written Medadacut. When Samuel de Champlain sailed by in 1605, the point was known as Bedabedec, which is said to mean “Cape of the Winds.”

The frozen lovers and Spot the dog

Owls Head Light is known for many tales that have been passed down through the years. One of the most memorable is the story of the frozen lovers. A massive storm hit the area on December 22, 1850, and five vessels went aground between Rockland Harbor and Spruce Head. A small schooner was anchored at nearby Jameson’s Point while her captain was ashore. On board were the mate, Richard B. Ingraham, his fiancée Lydia Dyer, and a seaman named Roger Elliott. Near midnight the anchor cables snapped and the schooner was driven across the bay onto the ledges south of the lighthouse.

The three huddled together on deck under blankets and were soon nearly frozen in the surf. As the schooner broke apart, Elliott escaped and made it over the icy rocks to shore, exhausted and nearly frozen. He reached the road to the lighthouse, where the keeper happened to be passing in a sleigh. Barely able to speak, Elliott told him about the others still on board, and a rescue party of about a dozen men was rounded up.

The rescuers found the schooner and the young couple encased in a block of ice. They appeared to be dead, but the men carried the block to the kitchen of the keeper’s house, chipped the ice away and kept the pair in cold water, slowly warming it and working their arms and legs. After almost two hours Lydia showed signs of life, and an hour later Richard opened his eyes. It was months before they fully recovered, but they eventually married and had four children. Sadly, Roger Elliott, the seaman whose struggle to shore saved them, never fully recovered.

A second tale is about a keeper’s dog. Keeper Augustus Hamor came to Owls Head in 1930 with a springer spaniel named Spot. Spot learned to pull the fog bell’s rope with his teeth whenever a boat approached, and the boats would answer with a whistle. One blizzard buried the bell in snow so deep Spot could not reach the rope. When the overdue Matinicus mail boat blew its whistle in the whiteout, Spot ran to the cliff edge and barked until Captain Stuart Ames got his bearings and steered clear of the rocks. Spot became a local hero and is said to be buried on the side of the hill near the former location of the fog bell, though the grave isn’t marked. His story is told in the children’s book Lighthouse Dog to the Rescue by Angeli Perrow.

The ghost stories (legend)

Oddly enough, the hauntings of Owls Head Light don’t appear to be linked to either of these tales. Still, in October 2006 Coastal Living magazine named Owls Head number one among America’s haunted lighthouses, and the stories come from people who actually lived here.

The old sea captain. Debbie Graham lived at the station in 1987–88 with her husband, Coast Guard keeper Gerard Graham, and their young daughter Claire. The previous keepers warned them about the resident ghost, and the Grahams, not taking it seriously, put Claire in the upstairs room said to be most “active.” The whole time they lived there, Claire had an imaginary friend she later described as looking like an “old sea captain.” One night she woke her parents to announce, “Fog’s rolling in! Time to put the foghorn on!” Nobody had used that kind of language around her. Keepers have also reported footprints in the snow that seem to start from nowhere and lead up the stairs to the tower, and historian William O. Thomson wrote that keepers sometimes found the tower door open and the lens and brass freshly polished. He’s also blamed for turning down the thermostat.

The visitor in the bed. Andy Germann was the Coast Guard keeper in the mid-1980s. His wife, Denise, told the Bangor Daily News that one night, while her husband was outside, she felt someone get into bed and saw a moving indentation next to her. She asked the visitor to leave so she could sleep. The next morning her husband told her he had seen a cloud of smoke hovering over the floor that went right through him toward the bedroom.

The Little Lady. The second spirit is known as the “Little Lady,” most often felt in the kitchen, where she’s said to slam doors and rattle the silverware. People who have encountered her describe a feeling of peace, and most agree she’s probably the wife of a former keeper who loved the place too much to leave. Malcolm Rouse, the last Coast Guard keeper before automation, said his wife saw the outline of a person dressed in white in a window, and their son often woke up saying a woman was sitting in a chair in his room.

How strong is the lore? Strong. These are first-hand, named accounts from Coast Guard families over several decades, reported in the press and collected by lighthouse historians.

Visiting today (checked November 2026)

Owls Head Light sits in Owls Head Light State Park, 186 Lighthouse Road, Owls Head. The light itself is still an active Coast Guard aid to navigation, but the Coast Guard no longer lives here. The tower has been licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation since 2007, and since late 2012 the keeper’s house has been the foundation’s headquarters, with an interpretive center and gift shop on the first floor. The original bell tower is gone, but the 1895 oil house still stands.

• Grounds: open sunrise to sunset. Park in the state park lot and walk about a tenth of a mile along the dirt drive.
• Tower climbs: Memorial Day to Columbus Day, Mondays and Wednesdays 1–4 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 10 a.m.–4 p.m., weather and volunteers permitting. Suggested donation $3. Children must be over 42 inches tall, there is a short ladder into the lantern room, and no flip-flops or open-back shoes.
• Keeper’s House museum and gift shop: mid-May to late October, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., closed Tuesdays. Call 207-594-4174 for off-season hours.
• Right now: tower climbs ended for 2026 on Columbus Day, and the museum closes in late October, so a November visit means the grounds only.
• Restrooms are by the parking lot, not at the lighthouse.
• From the water: you can see the light from the Rockland–Vinalhaven ferry and from excursion boats out of Rockland, Rockport and Camden.

FAQ

Who haunts Owls Head Light?

Two friendly spirits: the Old Captain, thought to be a former keeper, and the Little Lady, who is felt in the kitchen.

Is the frozen lovers story true?

Yes, in its main points. Richard Ingraham and Lydia Dyer survived the storm of December 22, 1850, married and had four children. Details vary from one telling to the next.

Can you climb the tower?

Yes, from Memorial Day to Columbus Day on Mondays, Wednesdays and weekends, for a suggested $3 donation.

More haunted lighthouses in New England

Read about Seguin Island and New London Ledge.

Sources

• American Lighthouse Foundation: Tour Owls Head Light: 2026 tower and museum hours, rules
• American Lighthouse Foundation: Interpretive Center: address, parking
• Jeremy D’Entremont, New England Lighthouses: Owls Head Light history: history, frozen lovers, Spot, keeper accounts

We run the NicheStuff store; some links in this post go to products we sell.