This weekend marks the end of an era for Sally Snowman, the last official lighthouse keeper in the US. She is retiring from her duty of caring for the oldest lighthouse in North America, located on a small island in Boston Harbour, where the US history began.
For 20 years, Snowman, 72, has been the guardian of Boston Light Beacon on Little Brewster Island, which will soon be sold to a private owner. The new owner will have to preserve the historic lighthouse, which was declared a national landmark and received government funding to keep it manned in 1964, making it the last lighthouse in the country with a staff.
‘It’s a fairy tale come true’
Snowman, who likes to wear 18th-century clothing to welcome visitors to her island home, said in an interview with US public radio that she had a lifelong dream of becoming a lighthouse keeper since she was 10 years old and visited the lighthouse for the first time.
“It’s sort of a metaphysical type of thing that – I felt something so deeply in my heart and in my cells and the space between the cells that it came into fruition. It’s a fairy tale come true,” she told NPR.
{{/usCountry}}“It’s sort of a metaphysical type of thing that – I felt something so deeply in my heart and in my cells and the space between the cells that it came into fruition. It’s a fairy tale come true,” she told NPR.
{{/usCountry}}ALSO READ| Prince Harry & Meghan Markle win Americans' hearts anew
The lighthouse was built in 1716, nearly 100 years after the first European settlers arrived. It was destroyed by the British in 1776, three years after the Boston Tea Party sparked the revolution against their rule. It was rebuilt the following year.
Snowman became the 70th keeper of Boston Light in 2003, and the first woman to hold the position. She is also the last one, as the lighthouse is now fully automated and operates as a navigational aid, along with a foghorn.
‘What a way to go’
Snowman had worked at the lighthouse for 10 years before becoming its keeper and has authored three books about it. She said her favourite spot to meditate was on a deck that surrounds the top of the tower.
“Seeing the far expanse of the universe, the sunrises, the sunsets – they are phenomenal,” she said.
“To me, they were never the same twice. The sea was never the same twice. The cloud cover was never the same. It was like dying and go[ing] to heaven.”
She said she also enjoyed the thrill of living through storms and blizzards, “with snow and the sea just pounding on the back of the house and every window”, and added philosophically, “If the house got washed off the island during the storm when I was asleep, what a way to go.”
ALSO READ| US prosecutors urge court to reject Trump's immunity claim in 2020 polls case
She also said she expected that the new owners and their staff would continue the traditions of the lighthouse keeper, as she had done, even though the job itself is no longer relevant.
“Many of them will dress up in costume to tell that story. So what we’re doing is just turning a new page,” Snowman told the station.
“What I see now is, how do we preserve the history? And the way to do this is to do what we’re doing right now, talking about keeping these places alive.”