Minots Ledge

Minot’s Ledge lighthouse was a dangerous place. Many people warned that the spider-legged structure was unstable. The platform it was built on was mostly submerged and several workers were swept away by the waves during its construction. Despite the warnings of impending doom, no-one listened.

One night in 1851, the head lighthouse keeper went ashore, leaving two assistant keepers to man the light. While ashore, a blew up and battered the lighthouse.

The next morning, all that was left of the lighthouse was a few bent iron rods. The rest of the building was missing, swept away by the waves. The two assistant keepers who were tending the lighthouse at the time were both washed out to sea. Their dead bodies washed up on nearby islands a few days later.

A new, stronger lighthouse was built on that very spot in 1860. Since then, fishermen report hearing ghostly cries from the house at night, and one swears he saw a man hanging from a ladder on the side of the tower, screaming, “Stay away! Stay away!”

Shadowy figures have been seen in the lantern room, taps on the shoulders and whispers at night have all been heard or felt by subsequent keepers. A cat brought to the tower for companionship, went berserk when near the lantern room, running around in circles and screeching.

Some lighthouse keepers couldn’t take living in the haunted building. One committed suicide and another went insane and was taken away in a strait jacket.