Boston Light’s Sally Snowman ending historic run as last Coast Guard lighthouse keeper in US
By JACOB WYCOFF
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HULL, Massachusetts (WBZ) — It’s the final chapter for the keeper of Boston Light. When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, Sally Snowman’s 20 years at the helm will be over. She is the last Coast Guard lighthouse keeper in the United States.
Snowman spoke to WBZ-TV recently outside the Lifesaving Museum in Hull. She spoke about the love of her life, Boston Light.
“In my heart of hearts, Boston Light is my home,” said Snowman. “I took to it like a fish to water.”
In 2003, Snowman became the keeper of the lighthouse, which originally opened in 1716.
“I’m the 70th keeper and the first 69 were all men,” Snowman said proudly. “When I got offered the job, I couldn’t believe it.”
The call of the stone tower came to her at a very early age.
“My first experience to Boston Light was when I was 10 years old. I stepped off to the beach and looked up at the light and said, ‘Daddy, when I grow up I want to get married out here’ and I did in 1994!”
Snowman and her husband had such adoration for Boston Light, they even wrote a book about it. Ultimately, that helped land her dream job. The lighthouse was civilianized post-9/11 in an effort to free up members of the Coast Guard.
Every year, she lived on little Brewster Island for about six months. She was alone during the week and with her husband on weekends. Snowman did the little stuff, cleaning, checking mechanical equipment and admiring the natural beauty around her.
“There’s a view out every window. even in the bathroom when you’re in the shower, you can see Graves Light,” said Snowman.
Her role was changed in 2018 when the lighthouse failed a safety inspection and she was restricted to daytime maintenance trips. She also spends some of her time now at the Lifesaving Museum in Hull. A perfect spot to keep an eye on the lighthouse.
But the tide is going out on this last lighthouse keeper in America. Long since automated, there will be a transfer of ownership through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000.
“Oh, I know I’ll miss it,” said Snowman.
And when asked just how hard it will be to say goodbye, this woman that is so easy to talk to, could barely speak.
“It is such a huge honor,” Snowman said after a long pause. “And it’s something I’ve been dreaming about since I was 10 years old. Just keep on dreaming the dreams.”
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