Boon Island Light
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Long Sands Beach
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York's Big Hotel Era

Boon Island Light, also, Long Sands Beach, also, York's Big Hotel Era. . , Boon Island Light , Boom Island can be easily seen on a clear day just six and one half miles off Long Sands beach, At night its light flashes every thirty seconds warning of the rocky shoals it guards. This small island is a mass of uninhabited barren rock just 450 feet long. 150 feet wide and approximately 14 feet above the sea at high tide. Boon Island has been the scene of fifteen or more ship wrecks This perilous history of ship wrecks begins with the wreck of a coast wise vessel named the "Increase which traded between Plymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Pemaquid in the Province of Maine. Its crew of three whites and one Indian survived their mouth long experience subsisting on- fish and gull's eggs. , Boon Island is best known for the wreck of the Nottingham Galley which departed London on September 25th, 1710 bound for Boston. This ship of 120 tons, 10 guns and a crew of fourteen men, was under the command of Captain John Dean, when it ran into a winter storm with sleet, snow and gale force winds. On the morning of December 25th, 1710, it ran aground and broke up on Boon Island. Harsh winter elements and starvation ended in cannibalism before 'ten survivors of the crew were rescued twenty-six days later. This ordeal prompted local fishermen to place a barrel of non-perishable food on a high point of the island for any future shipwrecked sailors. , The first lighthouse on Boon Island was commissioned by the Federal Government in 1799. This fifty foot high beacon, made of wood, was destroyed by a storm in 1804. Its replacement built in 1811, was badly damaged in October 1831. A third lighthouse was built and it too was destroyed by storms. The current lighthouse was built in 1852 and has survived the forces of nature for almost 150 years. It is a granite structure, twenty-five feet in diameter at its base, 137 feet high and twelve feet in diameter at its top. The lonely and sometimes dangerous life of the lighthouse keeper ended in 1978 when Boon Island Light was automated. , Long Sands Beach , Long Sands Beach stretches for a mile and a half between the spit of land known as the "Nubble on your fell and "Prebbles Point on your right, which today is the location of Libby' Ocean Side Camp. The beach affords fine views of Nubble Light; Boon. Island Light, and on a clear day, the Isles of Shoals , In May, 1938, the U.S. Postal Service initiated airmail service to Northern New England. The State of Maine had very few airports to help promote the Airmail Service. Long Sands Beach at low tide offered an ideal landing strip for the first airmail promotion to the Town of York and Southern Maine. , The first and only National Air Mail Service to the Town of York took place on May 19, 1938. This was cause for community celebration with school being suspended for the day and the townspeople having a holiday , The shipwreck of the schooner. "Robert W” occurred during a severe north-east storm on February 12th. 1923. This 82 foot vessel loaded with box board ran aground on Long Sands Beach about opposite where the Anchorage Motor Inn is locates During the storm its two man crew lashed themselves to the rigging for hours before being rescued by local residents. Over the years, the old- proud schooner settled in the sand where it served as fuel for Fourth of July bonfires. The sometimes calm cruel sea had claimed another victim. , York’s Big Hotel Era , The coming of the steam railroad in 1887 replaced the horse drawn stage coaches which up to that time had connected York with the world around it. The steam railroad connected York to major railroad with terminals in Portsmouth. It was followed two years later by an electric trolley line known as the Portsmouth, Kittery and York Street Railway. This heralded the beginning of York's big hotel era which was to last until the mid 1900s , One of the earliest guest houses on Long Sands Beach known as The Sea Cottage, opened for guest in 1871.Centrally located, it was a stagecoach stop. The Sea Cottage offered its guests recreational activities typical of the times and in keeping with its location. These activities included picking blueberries behind the hotel roasting marshmallows on the beach and eating steamed clams. Later the Sea Cottage became the Hotel Mitchell where it was usual for regular guest to stay for a season and to have the same room and same table in the dining room every year. Each guest table was set with vitamins and the guest special prescription. Eventually, the Hotel Mitchell, its land and the adjacent parcel of land were sold to Seares Duarte who open the Anchorage Hotel. The original hotel was located on the same site as the current Anchorage Inn behind you. , ( photo captions ) , , First Day of Issue Air Mail Letter featured York’s Old Gaol, May, 1938 , , The Shipwreck of the "Robert W" , , The First Anchorage Hotel ,