Bluff Point Light House on Lake Champlain.

Lake Champlain’s last lighthouse.

Bluff Point Lighthouse on Valcour Island was built in 1874 to guide boats between the island's west side and the shore. It was the last lighthouse built on Lake Champlain and operated until 1930.

Built of blue limestone rock, sporting a red-shingled Mansard roof with an integrated octagonal tower that rises to thirty-five feet, the light could be seen from 18 miles away.

The lighthouse is open for tours in July and August (usually), and visitors must make their own way by boat. The Clinton County Historical Society (which manages the lighthouse) will charter a boat a few times a year to take tourists to the island. Check their website or Facebook page for the most recent information.

Bluff Point Lighthouse’s first keeper was William C. Wait, later replaced by Civil War veteran William Herwerth in 1876. Herwerth died in 1881, and his wife Mary ran the lighthouse for 21 years. 

The lighthouse once included a kitchen, living room, pantry, keeper’s room, four bedrooms on the second floor, a spiral staircase, and a ladder giving access to the light at the top.

A point of trivia: Bluff Point Lighthouse was built overlooking the site where, almost 100 years earlier, the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War, known now as the Battle of Lake Champlain, was fought.

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