Missing Mass. Lighthouse Found -- In California

The historic lighthouse of Wellfleet, Massachusetts had mysteriously disappeared in 1925. Recently, an intrepid researcher uncovered its unlikely location.

1 minute read

June 5, 2008, 5:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


"File it under lost and found in a big way.

Long thought gone forever, a Cape Cod lighthouse that once overlooked Wellfleet Harbor was recently rediscovered almost 3,000 miles away on a rocky Californian cliff.The story has always been that that little 30-foot lighthouse in Wellfleet was taken down and destroyed," said Jim Walker, chairman of the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation. "Here we are 80 some odd years later and it's been discovered. I think it's fantastic that it's not lost and gone."

The fate of the 30-foot-tall, cast-iron tower that stood at Mayo's Beach until 1925 was uncovered late last year by lighthouse researchers digitally archiving historic photographs.

Colleen MacNeney, whose parents, Bob and Sandra Shanklin have photographed every lighthouse in the United States, reported the find in this month's edition of Lighthouse Digest.

"This is the most exciting thing that I've found," MacNeney said in a telephone interview from Florida yesterday."

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 in Cape Cod Times

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