The Deer Isle/Stonington area is a basic fishing village. Deer Isle is an island off the coast of Maine in Penobscot Bay connected to the mainland by a suspension bridge. It has a population of about 3,000 year round people. There are many breathtaking views and it is a large tourist attraction in the summer. The Mark Island Lighthouse is located on Mark Island in the Deer Isle Thorofare at 44 ° 08' N and 68 ° 42'W. You could also visit the Chamber of Commerce website.

Mark Island Lighthouse is located in the Deer Isle Thoroughfare. The island has 6 acres of land. The lighthouse is 25 ft. tall, including where the light is. The light is 51 feet above datum (mean low water). The lighthouse is squared not round like many others and is ten feet on each side. Inside, a cast iron staircase winds its way up to the lantern. There is a foghorn and it goes off every 15 seconds. The frequency is 390 hertz +/- 5%. The light flashes white every 6 seconds. The flash is visible for 8 miles. It is solar powered, with a 1.5A lamp in a 250mm lantern. The original lantern was purchased from France.

The Maine Lights Program was created by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton at the end of 1996. The program transfers 36 of the 64 working lighthouses on the Maine coast to other federal, state, local or nonprofit groups to help preserve and protect them. The coast guard is still maintaining any active lights and horns to help navigate. Mark Island or Deer Isle Thorofare Light is now owned by Island Heritage Trust, a conservation group on Deer Isle.

The original lens in the Mark Island Lighthouse was designed by a French physicist named Frensel. He designed two types of lenses - flashing and fixed. He made them in six different sizes. The largest were used in landfall lighthouses. The smallest were used in tiny harbor and channel lighthouses. Lighthouse keepers used to have to keep lenses clean and polished so the light would be bright and visible from a distance. They had to make sure the lenses flashed properly too. You could also visit the Shore Village Museum in Rockland website.

The number of species on an island depends on how many the area can support. The only animals living on the ground on Mark Island are the meadow vole, masked shrew, and mink. Often you will find herons taking a rest on the island. Many times you can find as many as a half a dozen bald eagles sitting on the trees and rocky shore off Mark Island. Nesting on the island you can find ospreys. Swainson's thrush and several other species of nesting and migrating warblers have been recorded on the island. Harbor porpoise have been observed in the water nearby Mark Island. You could also visit the Penobscot Marine Museum website.

Mark Island painting by David Taylor, Coastal Artist of Stonington, Maine (207-367-8808). Taylor specializes in maritime commissions when he is not busy lettering boat transoms.

In celebration of the deed for Mark Island Light passing to Island Heritage Trust and putting the light under local care and control, a number of citizens of Deer Isle produced art work for the March 14, 1998 Mark Island Light party.

This poem was written by Ann Stinson, retired librarian who is herself a descendent of a light keeper, Thomas Small, the first keeper. In doing research to compile the list of light keepers and locate their descendents, she was moved by the newspaper clippings about a light keeper’s daughter who died on Mark Island of pneumonia following a lifelong battle with Polio.

Local natural history writer Marnie Reed Crowell produced a commemorative booklet whose title page reads:

Dedicated to those who kept the light: Thomas Small, 1857, Paul Thurlow, 1861, Levi Babbidge, 1864, Samuel E. Holden, 1868, Melissa Holden, 1874, James A. Morris, 1876, Charles A. Gott, 1881, Howard M. Gilley, 1887, Will C.Tapley, 1896, Charles B. Stanley, 1905, Stanley Kimball, Elmer E. Conary c. 1933, Mr. Purrington, Allen Carter Holt, Henry Smith, Alvah Robinson, Ralph Stanley Andrews, Sr., 1945, Irving Hines, 1948, Joe Friend, James McPherson, and Richard Kwapiszewski c. 1958