There is something about lighthouses that stirs my imagination. Standing alone against sea and storm, they are symbols of safety, warning, and endurance. They also carry shadows—of wrecks, tragedies, and lives cut short. Maybe that is why so many lighthouses have ghost stories attached to them.
I knew that at some point I was going to write a story set in, or around, a lighthouse. It just had to be done. Since I commit random acts of writing, it took me a while to find my lighthouse story.
And then I had the idea for Specters in the Storm. I kept coming back to the idea of isolation, but also of protection. A lighthouse is both a beacon and a lonely outpost. It is the perfect place for whispers from the past—and for romance to spark against the odds.
Did you know there are dozens of haunted lighthouses in the United States alone? Here are five lighthouses with known, suspicious hauntings:
1. Point Vicente Lighthouse in Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Almost nightly, keepers or visitors saw the ghost of a woman garbed in a flowing white gown. The story was she’d walked the grounds of the light station for decades, waiting for her sweetheart, who’d drowned in a shipwreck, to join her.
Here is a photograph of the lighthouse.
2. Cabo Blanco Lighthouse, Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz
As hauntings go, this one is mild, but it’s a perfect one for an author. You see Cabo Blanco has a typewriting ghost. I just love that.
In the 1950s, the lighthouse keeper was a Navy ensign, who preferred typing to handwriting because it was faster, neater, and easier to read. One day he was found slumped over the typewriter in terrible pain. The other keeper raced for help, but by the time he got back, the ensign was dead.
The old lighthouse is empty now and only shares the coast with seals and huge cormorant birds
But before it was closed, adventurous souls would brave this desolate spot and enter the red brick lighthouse, shocked to find the silence of the empty structure interrupted by the clicking of typewriter keys. Though nothing was there. Not even a typewriter.
3. Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, Lincoln County, Oregon
Muriel Travennard was a local teen who lived with her father. One day he had to leave on a two-week trip. But months later, he hadn’t returned. She’d hadn’t heard from him at all. Hoping to cheer her up, some other teens invited her to join them in exploring an abandoned lighthouse.
Muriel’s father had been a sea captain, and often took her sailing with him on his sloop. So, the lighthouse intrigued her, and she went along.
The teens soon grew bored as the lighthouse was nothing but shambles. The only interesting thing they found was a strange iron door on the second floor that opened to a deep hole. When the group was ready to leave, Muriel realized she’d dropped her handkerchief inside and ran back for it. Her friends waited until it got dark. Worried, they called out to Muriel. She didn’t answer.
Frantically, they searched the lighthouse. They didn’t find Muriel but noticed a pool of fresh blood at the foot of the stairs. It hadn’t been there before. Crimson droplets led to the next floor and all the way to the edge of the iron door. This time, the teens couldn’t get it open. Terrified, they ran for help.
Officials conducted a thorough search, but no one could pry the compartment open. Even a crowbar couldn’t budge it. The iron door remained sealed, as if guarding the secret of what happened to Muriel.
A rumor spread that a drifter hiding in the compartment, preyed on Muriel when she accidentally came upon him. To this day, dark stains mark the spot where she bled out that tragic night. The mystery was never solved. Muriel’s body has never been found. The truth remains hidden behind the impenetrable iron door.
But many people have seen Muriel’s ghost. She haunts the lantern room, so the tower is kept cornered off. But sometimes her lonely spirit floats to the second floor. Perhaps Muriel is waiting…for justice…or her father, who never came. And no one ever found out what happened to him.
Here is a photo of the lighthouse.
4. Owls Head Lighthouse, Maine
Owls Head is haunted by several dedicated keepers so devoted to the safety of mariners, maintaining the lighthouse, and never leaving their post, they linger in spirit form, tending to the lighthouse after they die.
In the 1980s, when Coastguardsman Gerad Graham was stationed at Owls Head, his two two-year-old daughter Claire, awoke in the middle of the night to meet her father at the top of the stairs and said, “Fog’s rolling in! Time to put the foghorn on!”
Those terms had never been used in front of her. Over the next two years, Claire described a man with a beard wearing a blue coat and seaman’s cap. Was this a dedicated keeper from beyond the grave who appeared to Claire to ensure the foghorn sounded on time.
Here is a photo of the lighthouse.
5. Seguin Island Lighthouse, near Georgetown Maine
This light station, established back when George Washington was president, has had over forty keepers through the years. Few of them could handle the isolation and harsh weather on the rugged island.
In the mid-1800s, a lighthouse keeper’s wife had a hard time adjusting to the isolation of lighthouse living. The perpetual fog at Sequin kept her in a state of depression. What she missed most from the mainland was music: singing with friends, choir rehearsals, and the rich, joyful sound of the church’s piano and organ.
To ease her boredom and depression, her husband had a piano delivered so she could entertain herself. But only one sheet of music made the trip across the water.
So, the keeper’s wife played that one song repeatedly, often singing along. When her husband brought her new sheet music, she wouldn’t have it. Bent over the piano, at all hours, the woman kept playing the same tune, over and over again.
Residents along the shore also heard the never-ending melody as the sea breeze carried the notes the across water.
The lighthouse keeper realized she’d lost her mind, and it was making him just as crazy. One day, he just couldn’t take it anymore. Overcome by madness, he wrapped his fingers around his wife’s neck and strangled her—putting an end to the song. Then he swung an ax at the piano, violently chopping it into kindling. Lastly, the man took his own life.
But the faint sound of phantom fingers gliding over piano keys, playing a haunting melody, drifts from the fog covered island of Seguin to the shore. A solitary tune, playing over and over.
Click here to see a photograph of the lighthouse.
I had a lot of fun picking “my” light house for Specters in the Storm. And yes, it is a real lighthouse, one that was abandoned. It—and these others—inspired me while writing Specters in the Storm, where history, hauntings, and romance collide.
Only at Barnes and Noble, and just until the end of October, you can get Specters in the Storm for 2.99. Here’s the link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/specters-in-the-storm-pauline-baird-jones/1126668927?ean=2940185707241.
