Beacon onto Maine’s sea history

Seguin Island, 2½ miles off Maine’s shore, is home to Seguin Island Light Station.

In 2011, Seguin Island, owned by and under the stewardship of the nonprofit group Friends of Seguin Island Light Station (FOSIL), was added to the Maine Island Trail. Visitors are not only welcome but encouraged.

Over time, the Friends have uncovered much about the island’s past. In the early part of the 20th century, Seguin Island was a small community with livestock, gardens, and three families with several children.

Commissioned by President Washington, Seguin is Maine’s second oldest lighthouse and its highest above sea level, a landmark along this coast.

The Friends organization fought to keep the first-order Fresnel lens, worth $8 million some say, on site, and this gargantuan lens — 9 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter and made of 282 glass prisms — is the only one north of Virginia still operating. It was installed in 1857, and its fixed light beam can be seen for 20 nautical miles.

A signal has operated on the island since 1796.

In 2010, Ethan DeBery started ferrying visitors on the Leeward from Fort Popham to Seguin Island.

The ferry leaves five days a week from the Civil War-era fort about a mile and a half from Popham Beach State Park.

DeBery’s rubber dinghy takes four to five people at a time from the moored Leeward to dry land. Ankles get splashed upon stepping onto the beach — all part of the adventure.

DeBery navigates the Leeward into a cove with a rock-strewn beach, the only safe spot to land on this 64-acre outpost.

The island’s five buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

A small museum of historic photos and artifacts occupies one side of the keeper’s house.

Hiking trails cross the varied landscape, making it a great place to explore.