Monday, June 19, 2017

Borden Flats Anniversary

In the spring of 2016, we were on an environmental tour of Buzzard's Bay when we learned that the iconic lighthouse just outside Battleship Cove had recently been converted to a guest house. We inquired, and decided that a stay at Borden Flats Light would be an indulgence only worthy of a very special occasion, not the mere 29th anniversary that was coming up at the time.

We are patient people, so we had no trouble planning more than a year ahead for this brief adventure, and we were not disappointed. Click through the slides below (or go directly to the Flickr album) to see the lighthouse and environs as we did, beginning from a park overlooking the lighthouse and ending with our ride back to shore the following day.
Borden Flats Light
During our orientation by the young man who restored, maintains, and manages the lighthouse, we learned of its construction in Boston more than a century ago, the harrowing experience of the keeper who rode out the 1938 hurricane with his family, and much more. The restoration and decor are immaculate and the experience unforgettable.

Borden Flats Light marks a dangerously shallow area near the center of the Taunton River, between the town of Somerset and the city of Fall River. It is 14 miles from the ocean, but in an reach that is otherwise navigable by naval vessels. It is just downstream of the Braga Bridge and Battleship Cove.

Lagniappe

The cooling towers at the Brayton Point power plant (coal-fired, not nuclear) appear in several of my photos. This $620 million dollar mistake dominated this view for just a decade. The April 27, 2019 demolition is one minute of video worth watching.