Newburyport Front Range Lighthouse

Fires
lights
and
coasts
The town of Newburyport has a long ship building and nautical history, mostly because of it’s location right on the Merrimack River. The river empties in to the sea and is wide enough for some large ships to go into Newburyport.
Unfortunately the river can also be very treacherous. Lots of huge storms, fog and currants turns the lovely river into a real killer at times. Many ships have been lost trying to get into Newburyport. So the good people of the town decided that something had to be done to make it safe.
At first huge bonfires were lit to help guide the way up the river but that proved less than satisfactory. So in 1873 a lighthouse was construction at the point where the river narrows into the town. In fact two lighthouses were built.
Having two lights was once thought to make things easier for ships to judge angles and distances but frequently proved to just makes things more complicated. The idea was to have a small one in front and then a taller one in the back to contrast the first light. With the fog and other variables it never worked quite as well as advertised and the idea soon fell out of use.
The front range lighthouse in Newburyport is small, only about 25 feet tall and right next to the river. It originally had a 6^th order Fresnel Lens that was later removed. It served it’s purpose of guiding ships into the town until it was deactivated in 1961.
It still is a very cool looking little light but is frequently neglected and ignored because of the looming presence of the much taller rear range light just a few hundred feet away.
The light is now part of the Coast Guard Station and is blocked off by a fence. But nice views can be had if you go right down to the river and peer around the fence. Don’t try to actually go on the CG property, I learned the hard way that they don’t like that.
It’s a little light but one that did it’s lighthouse duties for decades. Survived all kinds of storms and everything else nature could throw at it. It’s no longer is active but still a cool part of the maritime history of Newburyport.