Colchester Reef Lighthouse

Colchester Reef Lighthouse. Making the Museum. Mrs. Webbs was captivated by this Lake Cham- plain structure thanks to the influence of Vermont writer, historian and preservationist Ralph Nading Hill. , Ralph Nading Hill...loved this lighthouse, and he came to me one day and he said," You know the lighthouse is going to be destroyed; you've got to come and see it. This time I said, "you're crazy aren't you? He said , "No come on out. I said, "How are we going to get out to the middle of the lake? It's so rough that boats can't even navigate in this lake somehow." "Oh," he said, "it's not going to get rough." "Well Isaid, "nothing ventured; nothing gained.' ... We got up there and we climbed up the reef; we climbed up the ladder; he open the door, and you've never seen such cobwebs. They were so thick that he had to go ahead of me and push them. They just said, "You're not going to come in. "And of course, then our teeth were set and we said, "We are going to come in, we're climb and up the light. " We climbed up to the very top of the lighthouse. We looked through all the room, and I said, "Ralph I've got to have the lighthouse." , In twenty-eight days in August, 1952, a crew dismantled the structure on Colchester Reef in Lake Champlain, often battling heavy winds and rain. They towed the material to shore and began reconstruction on site at the Museum the following month.