|
Bloggin' the Whole Story Thanks to everyone who frequents this website for the photos and blogs. On this blog site there will be a variety of photos and descriptive posts. Some posts involve extensive research, both from talking to locales and supplemented from the internet, while others are posted for the simple photo alone. Please enjoy and don't be afraid to give back your comments, good or bad. Cranberry Red
I Have An Idea, Let's Paint it. . . RED ! The Coquille River Lighthouse, known as Bandon Light to the locales, was first lit in 1896 with a fourth order Fresnel lens. It is located at the mouth of the Coquille River as it enters the Pacific Ocean on the southern coast of Oregon. This is not my first blog on this lighthouse. Previously I described a little more about the history of the Light and the disastrous Bandon fire of 1936. See the link to the previous blog on May 5,2015: http://www.capistranobeachphotography.com/blog/2015/5 The image above was taken in late afternoon in November 2015. When I first photographed the lighthouse in the summer of 2014, I thought it strange that the color scheme from the last restoration in 1976 had this cranberry red color over the concrete base. It just did not look historically identifiable with the lighthouse, its history nor the area in which it resided. After all, it did not look indigenous to a historical lighthouse that for over 120 years protected the shipping lanes in and out of the Coquille river. In the past the lighthouse had been painted light grey and white, not cranberry red ! In the late 1800's and early 1900's, the area was a hub for coastal shipping related with the timber industry, ship building, fur trading and crops. It is a local crop that may perhaps lend the best explanation to the idea of the cranberry red base color painted for the 100 year anniversary of the lighthouse. Bandon is a local center of cranberry production. So much so that it competes with Middlesborough Massachusetts as a cranberry capital, albeit on the west coast and on a much smaller scale. More than 100 growers account for 95% of Oregon's cranberry production, and about 5% of the national crop, harvesting about 1600 acres of cranberry bogs just around Bandon proper. In the fall of 1994 a record crop of nearly 304,000 barrels or 30 million pounds were harvested. Different hybrid varieties are grown here now such as the Stevens variety but it was the hybrid vine variety from Massachusetts first introduced to nearby Hauser by Charles McFarlin in1855 that had been the mainstay in Oregon. It reigned supreme in Oregon for nearly 8 decades of constant production. McFarlin had initially come to Oregon to pan for gold. He not only did not make his fortune at panning for gold, he did not even make a living at it. So he turned to the only other thing he knew and that was the cranberry vine. He brought the vines from Cape Cod and then planted these in Oregon's first cranberry bog near the town of Hauser, just north of Coos Bay. This west coast variety was named in honor of him and his success in adapting it to the coastal climate. Brandon is also the location of the country's first wet harvested cranberry bog where dikes are built around the bushes and then flooded with water. The Cranberry Festival in Bandon is celebrated each fall and has been since 1946. Starting an American Dream
An American Dream . . . .
The picturesque village of Somesville in the township of Mount Desert is located on Mount Desert Island in Maine. It is at the north end of a fjord named Somes Sound. The first white settlers with any permanency in this area were Abraham Somes and James Richardson in 1761. They traveled northward from Massachusetts Bay up the coast of Maine in an open and narrow sailing craft called a Chebacco and settled at the head of the interior waterway of the island. Their families joined them there a year or so later. They had been instructed by then British governor of Massachusetts Bay, Sir Francis Bernard, to go settle here and establish mills. What they did not realize at first about the island was the predominance of stone. It turned out to be the most productive location for a lucrative industry. The island had an over abundance of siltstone, sandstone and granite. Hundreds of people followed. Stone quarries soon sprung up along with other industry as well. They named their little village, Somesville, and the inlet it was on they called Somes Sound after Abraham Somes and his family. The settlement here was so successful that Somes and many associated with the hard work of the area soon became very wealthy. Logging mills, quarries, shoe factories and woolen mills flourished and began supplying materials to the lower colonies. The thriving stone business soon led to farming, fishing, logging and ship building industries. By 1840, the Somes family was the wealthiest on the island. Dams were built that provided power for the island's stone cutting industry and by 1886, the estimated export of cut stone from Mount Desert Island exceeded 3500 tons. In 1975, concern was raised by the locales that so many of the historic buildings and outbuildings on the island were being lost to neglect and development that a Historic District was created and many of those structures placed on the National Registry of Historic Places to preserve the remaining buildings and residences of the original settlers. It also included their churches, school, post office, cobbler shop, trades buildings, meeting hall and library. As you pass through on Main Street of Somesville, you cross over Somes Pond Outlet. The Sound is on the east side of the road while on the west side is the small mill creek that gently flows into the fjord. On this same west side of the road lies the historic Selectman's Building, seen in the photo above. It was built in 1780 by John Somes, son of Abraham. The building had been used as the town hall until 1911. "Selectmen" are voted by the town's citizens to conduct the official business between the annual town meetings. Over the creek lies this arched pedestrian bridge. The 1981 memorial bridge bears the name of Thaddeus Shepley Somes, a descendent of Abraham Somes. This seems like one of the quintessential small New England rural scenes really. No hustle-bustle of a busy community, no shopping malls, no big semi-trucks roaring past at freeway speeds and no tall mega structures. It is serene and peaceful, very peaceful.
The Tower from Europe
La Tour Tower in Laguna Beach In 1925, California State Senator William E. Brown, who represented the 37th District, was at the end of his rope. His wife was constantly complaining about the stifling 85 degree heat (!) of Beverly Hills and wanted a summer retreat where the temperatures were cooler. They built a French provincial revival style house on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in south Laguna Beach. Senator Brown had settled in Los Angeles from up state New York in 1886 and found his California fortune in manufacturing. He and his wife spent time in France after World War I helping in the war relief effort. It is perhaps there they got the inspiration for not only their house design, which in and of itself is unique and historic as one of Laguna Beach's landmark homes, but also for the medieval-looking tower to their beach below. The tower gave them direct access to the beach from their house some 50 feet on the bluff above. The tower is 60 feet tall and is made of poured-in-place reinforced concrete, coated with cement plaster, with a rubble stone base and a conical shaped wood-shingled roof. Small iron latticed clad openings in the tower give light to the interior heavy wood spiral staircase. Just to the south of the tower is a round, low-walled concrete structure thought to be a seawater pool also built by Brown for his family to enjoy the ocean water without them having to swim in the rough seas of the Pacific. In 1940, Brown sold the house and tower to a retired Naval officer by the name of Harold Kendrick. He brought new life to the tower's existence by playing the role of a seafaring pirate and hiding gold treasure coins in the cracks and crevices of the tower structure for the neighborhood kids to discover. Some conjecture that this is why the tower is often referred to as the Pirate Tower. Another past owner of the house and tower is Hollywood diva Bette Midler and her artist husband Martin Von Haselberg. In February of 2012 the tower was condemned by a Laguna Beach building inspector because it was no longer fit for human occupancy due to hydrostatic compression, a result of the endless pounding by the Pacific Ocean. Plaster was cracking and pieces of concrete falling to the beach below. However, the tower is still standing and enjoyed by tourists and locals alike. It is located at the north end of Victoria Beach and only accessible by a public access stairway about a 1/4 mile to the south. To view the tower up close does require climbing over rock outcroppings and dodging waves at mid to high tide. This photo was taken with an Apple iPhone 6 Plus at full resolution of 2448 X 3264, f/2.2 at an exposure of 1/2600, no flash.
Needles in the Haystack
After following U.S. Route 101 south from Portland for 80 miles or so you come across Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach Oregon. This 235 foot tall basalt monolith sea stack is not the only Rock called Haystack on the Oregon coast but maybe arguably the most popular. There is one in Tillamook County near Pacific City and one in Coos County Oregon near Bandon. However this one in Cannon Beach is the only intertidal rock, meaning it is accessible by foot at low tide to view the marine tidal pools. There is also a bird refuge on the rock above the mean tide level where humans are not allowed to climb. Birds such as the tern and puffin find this home. The Rock has been federally protected by Fish and Wildlife regulations since 1990 when it was declared a Marine Garden and seabird nesting refuge. The smaller rocks around the monolith are known as The Needles. Over 225,000 people a year visit this location. Traveling down the Oregon coast from Washington this last Thanksgiving we stayed several nights in Cannon Beach. A good time of year to visit since the tourist population is minimal. The weather was unseasonably pleasant, in the mid-50's. At sunset tourists and locals alike walk the beach. I was told that it is not uncommon to have several hundred people on the beach at sunset even during these pleasant winter nights. This photo was taken at around 5:15pm during the middle of the week and that may account for the lack of beach activity. With only the one couple on the beach in the distance, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity afforded me to snap this time exposure. The sky was clear, the sunset colors were right, the crowds nonexistent and with the tide retreated. With tripod set into the salty sand, I shot this photo on the Nikon D800, with the 24-70mm zoom lens set to 40mm, f/22 at 1.3 seconds, no flash and an ISO 100. I always enjoy bright, vibrant colors and therefore most often use the "Vivid" color setting on the camera.
Landmark Lighthouse
On a peaceful Sunday morning I the walked through the forested canopy from the parking lot down to the steep wooden stairs just above the jagged stone water's edge at the base of the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. It was an inspiring view in the early morning at about 8:00 with no one else around. As a photographer, this was ideal for a serene landscape and lighthouse photo. The tide was just right and the skies were bright and blue. A little unusual even in the summertime for Maine. Anytime you're along the coast anywhere, especially in the morning, it is always a toss up as to what the weather conditions will be like. But this day was purposeful. Located in Acadia National Park at the southwest corner of Maine's Mount Desert Island, this lighthouse stands proud and majestic some 56 feet above mean high tide on Maine's rugged coastline. This island is the second largest on the eastern seaboard, behind only Long Island in New York State. Like a quiet centurion placed at the top of an unforgiving coast, this lighthouse is perhaps one of, if not the most, photographed lights in the country. It is currently an operational aid to navigation maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. A light of some sort has existed at this location since 1855 but it wasn't until 1858 that Congress appropriated $5,000 to build this stone foundation and brick conical tower with a fifth order Fresnel lens. A fourth order Fresnel lens is now operating and the lighthouse is now automated. It has been on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1988. This Light aids ships as far out to sea as 13 nautical miles. It marks the turn point into the fishing village Bass Harbor in the municipality of Tremont around the southwest corner of Desert Island. This area of the island is what locals like to call the "quietside" of the island. No unusual stories to tell about this lighthouse, just a handsome landmark lighthouse on the coast of Maine and the only one on Desert Island.
Drummer Boy
On the afternoon of December 14, 1774 a drummer boy marched alongside a local liberty-minded former sea captain named John Langdon through the streets of Portsmouth Hew Hampshire to stir the town folk to action against the British loyalists' held Fort William and Mary on New Castle Island in Portsmouth harbor. Within an hour, Langdon had aroused an angry crowd willing to risk their lives to overrun the outpost. One year after the Boston Tea Party, this Sons of Liberty crowd of 400 local merchants, mariners and rag tag farmers in and around Portsmouth, were determined to descend on Fort William and Mary, and take the munitions stored there; cannons, gun powder and small arms. The band of patriots overwhelmed the Fort. Surprisingly, the Fort was only manned by five soldiers and an officer, no match for the angry crowd. Muskets were fired but no deaths occurred. This was the first major overt action of insurgency of the American Revolution against a British held military installation in the Colonies, though this is a relatively unknown historic fact. King George called it a treasonous act worthy of death. Paul Revere had ridden from Boston to Portsmouth the night before this raid to warn that British troops were headed north from Boston to secure the Fort and its munitions from any possible raid. Scuffles with the British had already been going on for some ten years before this raid. One of the main causes stimulating the locals into action against the Fort was King George's new law banning sales of guns and munitions to colonialists. The sentiment of upheavel in America had been growing. Now in the winter of 1774, the raid occurred on what was then called New Castle Island or the Great Island; the Fort occupied a part of the island. The munitions and supplies that were confiscated by the patriots were to eventually be used against the British. Some 100 kegs of gun powder were seized and hauled off on barges. Records show that as the armoury was being seized, the insurgents yelled "huzzah" in unison. This was an old colonial term similar to our "hoorah" today. It is believed by many historians that the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of 1775, 6 months later, was the first armed confrontation of the American Revolution directly between British soldiers and colonial patriots that was supplied by gun powder and munitions seized at Fort William and Mary. Fort William and Mary had originally been called The Castle when first built as a stronghold in 1631. It was renamed Fort William and Mary by the British in 1692 and became Fort Constitution after being rebuilt and fortified in 1808. The Fort was used during the War of 1812 as well as during the Civil War. Since 1771 the Fort has always been home to some kind of a navigational light at the south entrance to Portsmouth harbor. At first, it was only a lantern hoisted on a pole but later that year became a wood framed lighthouse covered entirely in wood shingles. Perimeter stone walls, just out of view to the right in this photo, were heightened and refortified during the Civil War and are still in place today. In 1804 a replacement lighthouse was built about 100 yards further west and was about 80 feet tall. When the nearby Whaleback Lighthouse out in the bay (seen in the distance to the left hand side) was built in 1831, this replacement Light was shortened due to its reclassification as merely a harbor beacon for navigation. In 1877, the replacement light was demolished and a new lighthouse was built on the rock you see in this photo, some 48 feet tall, built of cast iron and lined on the interior with brick. From inside the Fort the existing stone walls block the full view of the lighthouse from this north side. So to take this photo I crawled out through the cannon portal in the battery wall with camera in hand. While hanging out over the harbor water below, my wife held my feet . . . just in case. Yes, it was worth it. |
