Maine: Pemaquid Lighthouse Park
18 images Created 10 Dec 2014
A unique landscape of beautifully striped bedrock descends from Pemaquid Light to the Atlantic Ocean. Pemaquid Point Lighthouse was built in 1835 and commemorated on Maine's state quarter (released 2003). Visit Lighthouse Park at the tip of Pemaquid Neck in New Harbor, near Bristol, Lincoln County, Maine, USA. From Damariscotta on bustling US Highway 1, drive 15 miles south on Maine Route 130 to the park. The keeper's house (built 1857) is now the Fishermen's Museum at Pemaquid. Geologic history: Silurian Period sediments laid down 430 million years ago were metamorphosed underground into a gneiss 360-415 million years ago, and intruded by molten rock which cooled slowly, creating the park's exposed metamorphic gray rocks with dikes of harder, white igneous rock. Underground heat and pressure tortured and folded the rock layers into the striking patterns that are now pounded and polished by the sea and rough weather. While you are in the area, see Eartha, World's Largest Globe (41.1 ft in diameter) at DeLorme Headquarters Map Store, in Yarmouth, Maine. DeLorme makes my favorite state atlases. Take Interstate 295 Exit 17 (10 min north of Portland).