Creepy Boon Island Light Still Haunts Maine’s Coast with Its Cannibalistic Past
Boon Island Light
Boon Island near Cape Neddick, Maine
Boon Island Light stands faded and rugged on a small rocky island off Cape Neddick. The history behind this light is as creepy as it's appearance.
You can only see the lighthouse from the sea or the air, and no tours are available. But why would you want to go ashore an island with such a dark and creepy past?
Legend and lore swirls around Boon Island Light and it's earliest keepers. Living on a 300 by 700 foot island off the southern coast of Maine had it's challenges.
In the deepest, darkest depths of winter, supplies were often scarce. Conditions prevented new shipments of food and the keepers grew tired, hungry, and restless, according to NewEnglandLighthouses.net.
The website tells the tale of a new keeper and his wife who kept the light shining for several months before the husband got sick and passed away. The wife tried to keep the light going even after his death, but she was eventually driven mad.
...Local mariners noticed the lack of a light at Boon Island. They landed to investigate and found the young woman wandering the rocks aimlessly, driven mad by grief and exhaustion. The young woman supposedly died a few weeks later.
The most famous and darkest story of Boon Island occurred before the lighthouse was established in 1811, according to NewEnglandLighthouses.net. A British ship called the Nottingham crashed ashore during stormy weather, the website states, and after three weeks passed with no sign of rescue, the people turned to cannibalism to stay alive.
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