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Egg Rock
Looking out to sea
from Lynn Shore Drive,
you’ll see a 3-acre island located
approximately 3 miles off Kings
Beach
and rising almost 80 feet above sea level. This
is Egg Rock. Due to
its steep ledge, lack of protection
from the elements, and surrounding rocks, landing on Egg Rock has
always been
difficult. This
difficulty helped give
rise to the island’s name, which was derived from its primary function
of
serving as a protected nesting area for sea gulls.
In the 17th and 18th
centuries, several reported sightings of a sea serpent near Egg Rock
were
recorded in New England literature.
Concerned
by continued shipping losses over the years, Lynn,
Nahant and Salem in 1855 quit claimed Egg Rock (essentially handing
over
ownership) to the federal government for it to be used as a site for a
lighthouse. Egg
Rock Light was
originally built at the request of the Swampscott fishermen for $3,700
in
1856. Egg Rock
Light was first activated
with a fixed white light on September 15, 1856 and then
changed to a fixed red light about one year
later. George B.
Taylor was the first
lighthouse keeper, and lived on the island with his wife, five
children, and a mixed
Newfoundland-Saint Bernard dog named Milo.
Milo’s
fame for saving people from drowning spread far and wide. A British
artist, Sir
Edwin Henry Landseer (1803-1873) painted Milo
with one
of the Taylor
children. The
painting was titled “Saved” and became famous throughout the country,
with
copies hung on the walls of many homes. In 1897, the lighthouse was
destroyed
by fire but then rebuilt the following year.
In 1900, Egg Rock
Lighthouse was outfitted with a telephone
by cable from the mainland. During
World
War I, it served as a training site for the war effort.
Shortly after the light was abandoned in
1922, the lighthouse keeper’s cottage was sold for $5 with the
stipulation that
it had to be removed from the island.
The new owner attempted to the lower the
building down the steep ledge
by ropes onto a barge. During
the
process, one of the ropes gave way and the house went crashing into the
sea. In 1923, the
island was turned over
to Massachusetts
by the federal
government and it became a state bird refuge known officially as the
Henry
Cabot Lodge Bird Sanctuary. Since
1931,
long distance swims from Swampscott and Lynn to Egg Rock and back have
taken
place; the latest competition being named the Egg Rock Scramble.
For
more detailed information please see the links below:
http://home.comcast.net/~debee2/mass/EggRock.html
http://www.lighthouse.cc/egg/index.html
http://www.lighthousedepot.com/ link
Picture from: http://hdl.handle.net/10262/1157
Above information provided by Duncan and
Douglas Maitland
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