Wood Island Lighthouse is the fifth-oldest lighthouse in the state, and it has cast its beacon into the Gulf of Maine for more than two hundred years. Its myths and legends have passed through the generations as it set the scene for murders, suicides, shipwrecks, ghosts, heroism and even humorous events. The lighthouse keepers, their families and even their pets have helped shape a unique patchwork of history at this lonely outpost. Local historian and board member of the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse Richard Parsons reveals the fascinating human history behind this welcoming light. This book is another magnificent product from The History Press and Saco author, educator and historian Richard Parsons. The history of Wood Island Lighthouse is told in 21 stories of the isolated lives of keepers and their families, raising children, farming, maintaining the light, shipwrecks and homicide. Parsons is dedicated to the preservation of the Wood Island Lighthouse (he can see it from his house). The stories he tells are exciting, entertaining and full of the lives of the men, women, children and dogs who’ve lived there since it was first established in 1808. There are stories of shipwrecks and rescues, but best are the stories of the keepers, their wives and children, and how they lived a life of forced solitude with few amenities. There are stories of lighthouse dogs like Sailor, who pulled the rope to ring the fog bell during inclement weather, and Kelly who refused to get in a boat and never left the island. -Bill Bushnell Richard Parsons taught history and English for thirty years in public schools before joining the staff of the Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University. There he worked with others to digitize resources held by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and the Library of Congress, among others, to make them available to scholars and educators. Later, as a member of the Center for Technology and School Change at Columbia University Teachers College, he worked with pre-service and in-service teachers to bring more effective uses of technology into the public school classroom. Today, he resides on the coast in southern Maine, where he gazes across the bay at the Wood Island Lighthouse nearly every day. He has joined with others who have devoted their energies to the restoration of America’s historic treasures and serves as historian and member of the executive board of the Friends of the Wood Island Lighthouse. He lives in Saco with his wife, Shari Robinson, and his dog, Donner.