Cove Point Lighthouse - Coastal Lighthouses on Waymarking.com

First lit in December 1828, the Cove Point Lighthouse is Maryland’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse. The lighthouse sits on the eastern most point of Calvert County, four miles north of the entrance to the Patuxent River. Still shining today, the Cove Point Lighthouse aids ships moving up and down the bay along with those southbound entering the Patuxent River. Built by John Donahoo who used locally manufactured bricks, the Cove Point Lighthouse stands 38 feet tall, from base to lantern deck. The walls at the bottom of the truncated cone are over 30 inches thick. When first lit, the Cove Point Lighthouse used 11 lamps with the same number of 18 inch reflectors. Less than 30 years later in 1855, the lighthouse received a fifth-order Fresnel lens. That lens was replaced in 1899 by the fourth-order lens still in use today. The clockwork winding mechanism for rotating the lens, while not in use, is still in working order.

In August of 1886, the keeper of the Cove Point Lighthouse recorded, in his log book, that he felt tremors which originated from an earthquake in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The time of the lighthouse keeper is long gone. Today the Cove Point Lighthouse is automated with all of its key components being connected to the Baltimore Headquarters.

In October of 2000, the Cove Point Light Station became the property of the Calvert County Government. Passed onto the Calvert Marine Museum, the light station is open to the public only by way of the museum.

Calvert Marine Museum

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/09/2011 Krip's Curves visited it 09/10/2009 greenparrot visited it 06/25/2009 Yoogi&BooBoo visited it 06/20/2009 makntracks75 visited it 06/04/2009 WanderingRedneck visited it

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