Light Hearted

Light Hearted ep 333 – Valeria Araúz Molina, Île Vierge, France

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DSC_4849adj-683x1024.jpg]The 1846 and 1902 lighthouses on Ile Vierge. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Ile Vierge is a 15-acre island off the northwest coast of Brittany in northwest France. The first lighthouse on the island was a 108-foot-tall square tower that began service in 1845. It was considered too short, and a new tower was built between 1896 and 1902. The new lighthouse tower is built of granite blocks and stands 271 feet tall, with nearly 400 steps inside. It’s considered the tallest traditional-style lighthouse in the world. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/valeria-e1766766707547.jpeg]Valeria Araúz Molina [https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4E03AQHz1s8-wCXlhQ/profile-displayphoto-shrink_800_800/B4EZp3S4MMHUAc-/0/1762938029363?e=1768435200&v=beta&t=tL-y_Dmxhlw0E2EVhvXIG5o0DHVk2FOa2n2JbJIHKck] The island and the 1902 lighthouse are open to the public on special tour days in the summer. A local company takes visitors out by boat and landing is only possible at high tide. Overnight accommodations are available in the old keepers’ quarters in the base of the 1845 lighthouse. Our guest, Valeria Araúz Molina, is the Ile Vierge project manager. She has guided tours in French, English, and Spanish. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ile-vierge-stairs-DSC_4837-1024x683.jpg]The stairs inside Ile Vierge Lighthouse. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont.

Light Hearted Lite #35: Lighthouse preservationist Mike Vogel

In this episode we revisit a conversation from June 2022 with Mike Vogel, who at that time was the president of the U.S. Lighthouse Society. Mike Vogel retired as editorial page editor of The Buffalo News in 2011, after a 43-year journalism career. He was the organizer and founding president of the Buffalo Lighthouse Association, which carried out the restoration of Buffalo, New York’s historic 1833 lighthouse. He has served as president of the organization for well over two decades. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/IMG_4861adj-e1656010860864-1024x725.jpg]Buffalo Main Lighthouse, New York. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. [https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71LXBUyQHbL.jpg] Mike has also played an important role in the national lighthouse preservation movement. As First Vice President and then president of the American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee, Mike was instrumental in helping the government develop guidelines for the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Mike is also the author or co-author of five books , including “Harboring History: The Heritage Behind Buffalo’s 200-Year-Old Overnight Success.”

Light Hearted ep. 332 – Sketch artist Jim Lammers

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/691c8d1a9828b.image_.jpg] Jim Lammers, who lives in Minnesota, was educated as an architect back when freehand sketching was an integral part of the curriculum. His writing and sketching has been published in a number of professional journals and on websites. His most recent book is “Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: An Architect’s Sketchbook.” [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/71QVTuhDbHL._AC_UF10001000_QL80_.jpg] The illustrations in Jim’s book are not precise architectural renderings. The depictions are roughly accurate in their dimensions and details, but they also have a very personal, slightly whimsical quality. The sketches are Jim’s way of interpreting these scenes and communicating the experience to us.

Light Hearted Lite #34: Lee Radzak, Split Rock, Minnesota

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/unnamed-1-1024x681.jpg]Lee Radzak Split Rock Lighthouse, on a 127-foot-high cliff on the northwest shore of Lake Superior, began service in 1910. The light station is now the centerpiece of 2200-acre Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Lee Radzak became the lighthouse site manager in November 1982. Over the next 36 years, he and his wife Jane raised a son and a daughter, marveled at the lake’s beauty, endured gigantic storms, and answered the questions posed by more than four million visitors. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IMG_3635adj-1024x662.jpg]Split Rock Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/image-819x1024.png] After retiring in 2019, Lee began work on a new book — The View from Split Rock: A Lighthouse Keeper’s Life. The book, which was co-written by journalist and author Curt Brown, takes readers into the life of a modern-day lighthouse keeper at Split Rock. This is an edited version of an interview that was first heard in episode 127 in July 2021.

Light Hearted ep 331 – Joe Santiana, Ashtabula, OH

Ashtabula, Ohio, is a community of about 18,000 people at the mouth of the Ashtabula River on Lake Erie. In the late 1800s the city was a major port for the shipping of coal and iron ore. The first lighthouse in Ashtabula Harbor was a small wooden tower built in 1836. When the channel into the harbor was widened and a breakwater was constructed in 1905, a new lighthouse was built at the end of the breakwater: the square two-story dwelling with a short tower on its roof that still stands today. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_5386adj-cropped-1024x621.jpg]Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/joe-santiana-IMG_3880-1024x740.jpg]Joe Santiana The lighthouse was automated in 1973. A house that was built on the mainland in 1871 for the keepers and families is now the Ashtabula Maritime & Surface Transportation Museum, with more than 25,000 historic items on display. Ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the Ashtabula Lighthouse Restoration and Preservation Society in 2007. Our guest, Joe Santiana, is the president of the Ashtabula Lighthouse Restoration and Preservation Society.