Light Hearted

Light Hearted ep 334 – Marty O’Gara and John Ollila, Fairport Harbor, OH

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/DSC_5418adj-1024x683.jpg]Fairport Harbor Light Station, photo by. Jeremy D’Entremont. Fairport Harbor, on the south side of Lake Erie at the mouth of the Grand River, is considered part of the Cleveland, Ohio, metropolitan area. The first lighthouse in the harbor was a 56-foot brick tower built in 1825. The lighthouse that stands today is a 60-foot stone tower that began service in 1871. After a new lighthouse was built on a breakwater in the harbor in 1925, the government planned to destroy the old lighthouse. A number of organizations in the area objected, and the lighthouse was spared. In 1945, the Fairport Harbor Historical Society established a marine museum inside the old keeper’s house. Museum highlights include a Fresnel lens and the infamous “ghost cat” story. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_3889-1024x768.jpeg] Marty O’Gara and John Ollila by the third-order Fresnel lens from Fairport Harbor Lighthouse, now on display in the museum in the keeper’s house. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Our guests today are Marty O’Gara and John Ollila. John is the historian for the lighthouse and a trustee of the Fairport Harbor Historical Society. Marty is the president of the Fairport Harbor Historical Society.

Light Hearted Lite 36 – Bob Mannino, Nantucket Lightship LV-112

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Lightship_Nantucket_LV-112_in_Boston_harbor_2018_crop.agr_-1024x760.jpg]Nantucket Lightship LV-112. By Arnold Reinhold, Creative Commons license. Today we look back at an interview that was first heard in October 2020. Our guest is Bob Mannino, founder and president of the United States Lightship Museum. The USLM is the steward of the Nantucket Lightship LV-112, the largest lightship ever built in the United States. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Nantucket-LV-112-R.-Mannino-1024x953.jpg]Bob Mannino The Nantucket South Shoals were a great hazard to shipping, and a lightship was first stationed at the Shoals in 1854. The last vessel to serve there was the LV-112, built in 1936. Its position was 50 miles southeast of Nantucket Island and 100 miles from the U.S. mainland. The LV-112 was decommissioned in 1975 and today it serves as a floating museum in East Boston, Massachusetts. Bob Mannino has been involved for many years in historic preservation and related educational programs, maritime and non-maritime.

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.