Spectral Keepers of the Lights

A Strange Guardian of the Light

This isn’t really about a haunted lighthouse, but I figured this story should go here, because some unknown visitor to the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse just might think it’s a specter. When the lighthouse, built in 1901, was automated in 1970, the Coast Guard placed two mannequins in the tower to prevent vandalism. One was named Sarah, who wears a blond wig and a Coast Guard vest, and a male mannequin companion, unnamed, who has gone missing. While the Coast Guard assumes someone stole him, rumor has it that Sarah threw him out because “she” wanted the lighthouse all to herself.

The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society is currently leading tours to the lighthouse, located seven miles offshore of Toledo, Ohio, during the two day Toledo Lighthouse Festival. The society acquired the lighthouse in May, and hopes to raise one million dollars for its renovation. The festival is located at Maumee Bay State Park, and one of the highlights, besides the boat rides out to see the light, is the work of sand castle artist Richard Powell of Findlay, OH, who is sculpting a replica of the lighthouse in the sand. For more about this story, check out the Toledo Blade online.

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