Sand Island Lighthouse visited today!

SUNRISE FROM DAUPHIN ISLAND BRIDGE

Thompson Engineering hosted a trip to the Sand island Lighthouse today April 29, 2008 it consisted of contractors who were interested in bidding on the emergency repairs for Sand Island Lighthouse.

The Alabama Lighthouse Association provided the Safety boat for the trip, Warren Lee operated the lighthouse safety boat on this trip. The new 150 hp- four stroke Yamaha outboard recently installed on the lighthouse's tender performed flawlessly. Peter Tanner had taken on the task of researching, bidding, and outfitting the lighthouse tender. Peter did and excellent job. We now have a safe dependable tender for lighthouse work! The Dauphin Island Sand Island Lighthouse Committee and the Alabama Lighthouse Association share the tender and its costs.

The landing craft with contractors and engineers aboard departed Dauphin Island Marina at 6AM and returned about 11AM. The trip was a good one. The wind was out of the north and the tide was outgoing. This allowed for a SSE approach to the island by the landing craft carrying the visitors. Not much wave action at the lighthouse today to contend with at all.
I will post photos soon...

A really nice trip!

I HOPE ALL OF YOU GET THE CHANCE TO VISIT THIS LIGHTHOUSE AND ENJOY THE BEAUTY AND THE SOUNDS OF THE OCEAN.

See ya soon,
Warren Lee
Sand Island Lighthouse Chairman

latest news about Sand Island Lighthouse

Greetings, I am sorry for the long delay in posting. Things have really been happening this winter regarding our lighthouses.

1. A new outboard motor was purchased by The Dauphin Island Sand Island Lighthouse Committee and the Alabama Lighthouse Association for the lighthouse tender. Peter Tanner took on the responsibility of finding the best deal and having all of the work done to the Tender.
Peter did and excellent job. I will post photos of the tender here soon as I get them.

2. Thompson Engineering won a 2007 Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce , community service award in part to their efforts in helping save the areas lighthouse's.
Our Congratulations to Thompson Engineering for winning this prestigious award!

3. Thompson Engineering has been working on the partial emergency repair program underway for Sand Island Lighthouse. They recently had a meeting with all the different government entities about the work planned for this summer.

4. Much work has been done recently on requesting grant moneys for the Sand Island Lighthouse stabilization project. Four submissions were made on behalf of the Sand Island Lighthouse in the past week.

5. I am presently working on our Bieannual report to the National Park service on behalf of the Town of Dauphin island . As you are aware, the Alabama lighthouse Association was instrumental in obtaining ownership for the Town of Dauphin Island Alabama of the Sand Island Lighthouse. Our continued assistance of the town of Dauphin Island is part of our ongoing support of the project.



That is about all I have time for right now!
Enjoy the beautiful spring weather and please take time to smell the roses!
(Or Cherry Blossoms)

Sincerely,
Warren Lee
Alabama Lighthouse Association
Sand Island Lighthouse Chairman

NEW INFO ON lighthouse web site

The PDF and WEB pages have been added to the http://www.sandislandlighthouse.com.com web site.
Please take a look. There are photographs of one of the actual keepers of Sand Island Lighthouse.


Warren Lee
Sand Island Lighthouse

Have you seen the lantern at the Mobile Airport?

Well with the help of the United States Coast Guard the Alabama Lighthouse Association has obtained the original lantern from the Middle Bay Lighthouse and now has it on display in the recently renovated lantern room in the lobby at the Mobile Alabama Municipal Airport.

Wow what a unique site to see the two of them reunited. If you get a chance take time to visit the airport and see this great exhibit for FREE. Once the National Maritime Museum is completed in Mobile this will become one of the premier exhibits at the museum. And thanks to the volunteer efforts of the members of the Alabama Lighthouse Association you can see this piece of history up close. But be careful there are many historical tidbits around the exhibit and you might learn a little bit of Alabama's history if you are not careful!

Enjoy,
Warren Lee
Sand Island Lighthouse

Lighthouse Project Team to visit Sand Island Lighthouse this week

Project Team to visit the lighthouse this week on or about Nov 12 2007 The team is prepared to enter the tower on this trip.

The climbing experts will scale the inside of tower to replace the safety line to the top of the tower. This line is made fast for usage with their climbing harnesses by the rest of the team when climbing the tower as a safety rope.
Other team members will excavate the weight well at the bottom of the tower. The excavation will examine the well for evidence of settlement cracks. The tile floor will be exposed in several areas and also examined for cracking. The present condition of the floor and weight well will be documented for future use. Another group of the team will be inspecting the exterior of the structure as part of the bidding of the repair project that is underway to fix some of the damage near the bottom of the lighthouse.

New outboard engine approved for lighthouse tender

The Alabama Lighthouse Association and Dauphin Islands Sand Island Lighthouse Committee have agreed to co purchase a new outboard to re power the lighthouse Tender. This vessel services both the Middle Bay Lighthouse and Sand Island Lighthouse.

I will post photos of the vessel when the new engine is installed.

Warren Lee
Sand Island Lighthouse Chairman

TIDBIT OF HISTORY (Important Lighthouse documents found)

James O. Thompson of Lakewood CO contacted me recently and said he was related to one of the past keepers of Sand Island Lighthouse. He told me about his relatives with documents to support his claims. He was kind enough to copy and forward 27 pages of what they had to me.

Once in hand I found it not only documented his grandfather James F. Goodson, born June 16Th 1890 in Aberdeen Miss service at Mobile Alabama's Sand Island Lighthouse but they also document Toney Ryan's and Herman E. Bosarge service, who were also keepers at Mobile Alabama's Sand island Lighthouse.

I will have these documents scanned and put them on the Sand Island Lighthouse.com web site as well as offer them to the Alabama Lighthouse Association for that web site to use. These documents show how much the keepers were paid and the dates they were transferred to other lighthouses and even names what lighthouses they were transferred to or from. A really great find

The documents date from 1928 to 1937 with pay ranges from $1320 to $1620 per year. That is $27.50 a week or $110 a month salary in 1928 to $31.15 a week or $135 a month in 1937

Included are photos of the Keeper James F. Goodson on a Lighthouse service boat, walking along a street on the sidewalk (location unknown) and one of him shaking hands with someone(unknown) at Fort Morgan.

One of the photos shows us the engine room at Burwood Lighthouse in 1937 and the equipment to operate that lighthouse.
What is really special is he commented on the back of this engine room photo

"This is what takes the fun out of light keeping".

Reading the keeper James F. Goodson's own words has personified his perspective that the modern inventions of his time were taking the fun out of light keeping to me. And possible he resented a little the replacing of keepers by automation!

This is something that continues with technological inventions today with people being replaced by machines and computers.

As you can see times have not really changed all that much after all.

I hope you enjoyed this tidbit of history!

Sincerely,
Warren Lee
Sand Island Lighthouse Chairman
Alabama Lighthouse Association
Date this Oct 29, 2007