In the Quoddy Head State Park stands the West Quoddy lighthouse. This lighthouse is located in Lubec, Main. The place that this lighthouse stands is the most eastern point in the United States main land.

President Thomas Jefferson was the one that ordered the lighthouse to be built in 1808. However, at that time the lighthouse was constructed out of wood, and in 1830 it needed to be rebuilt. In 1858 the lighthouse was rebuilt again, but this time it was built more durable. Also, at this time a Victorian style house was built for the lighthouse keeper. The height of the lighthouse was built to forty-nine feet tall, and a fifty step, iron staircase was installed. This is the same lighthouse that still stands today making it over 160 years old. There have been some changes made since then, like in 2004 the copper dome would have been replaced on the lighthouse due to hail.

The West Quoddy lighthouse has a unique color design and is the only one like it in the United States. (The Assateague Light has a similar design but the stripes are a different size.) The West Qouddy lighthouse is red and white in color with a “candy stripe.” Each stripe is twenty-five inches wide, and there are seven white stripes and eight red stripes. The design resembles a candy cane, but instead of the stripes being a spiral they are horizontal. Some say the lighthouse has red stripes to help aid the visibility of it, when there is snow on the landscape.

As other lighthouses it was kept lit by different types of oils, and as time progressed kerosene took the place of the oil. Then in 1932 electricity was the power behind the light. In 1988 it was fully automated, and today the United States Coast Guard maintains the lighthouse.

Lighthouses have different patterns of shinning/flashing their light. TheWest Quoddy lighthouse’s pattern is two seconds on, two seconds off, two seconds on, nine seconds off. This pattern is kept all day long, and can still be witnessed to this day.