Like a beacon guiding ships in the night, there is one attraction that will draw folks to the Maine coast this weekend.

“It’s an opportunity for people that are in the area, locals to get out and tourists alike, to come out and check out these lighthouses that you’d otherwise see from the ground maybe and want to see what it’s like up in the tower, and so, you get the opportunity to get a little history on them, get up in there and myself and my teammate will be located at two different ones and get to kind of talk to us and talk to some other locals that are involved with the lighthouses and really see the history,” said E1 Chase Miller, U.S Coast Guard.

Maine Open Lighthouse Day is Saturday, Sept. 9.

The annual tradition gives folks the opportunity to get a closer look at some of the watchtowers on the Maine coast.

“Lighthouses as a whole, I think, a lot of people have thought of kind of going to the wayside. You know, no one’s coming in from shore anymore looking for the lighthouse to guide them home. But these are actual channel markers. We’re upgrading, so LEDs are the new, the future of the lighthouses. We’re no longer with whale oil. Yeah, I think kind of interesting to see what people think about putting an LED in a lighthouse, or, you know, putting a sound signal that runs off a radio versus the, you know, the someone out there ringing a bell, so the advancements and seeing how that works with the locals is unique,” said Miller.

The Coast Guard is working with the American Lighthouse Foundation and the Maine Office of Tourism for this event.

Folks look forward to the sights and history every year, but the foundation also loves to see the interest it sparks in visitors.

“The response from Maine Open Lighthouse Day is amazing. You know, any given year we can see anywhere between 15 and 18,000 people statewide, and some of them are just so content to be there admiring the sights and the energy that you get from all the people involved in it. I think lighthouses are in a way they, of course, they still guide us. But they still, they beckon us. They beckon us to come near, you know, and when you do, a lot of times it inspires any type of emotion inside of an individual, and some people are like, I really like this. I really feel this, and I want to get involved,” said Bob Trapani, American Lighthouse Foundation Executive Director

You can find a list of participating lighthouses here: https://lighthousefoundation.org/eventcalendar/maine-open-lighthouse-day-2023/