The Bell is Coming Home!

Curtis Island Fog Bell, Light Tower and Light Keeper’s House circa 1896 (Image courtesy Pat Skaling)

CAMDEN — In a time when acts of goodness and kindness are overshadowed by less altruistic reactions, a story of two small coastal towns communicating and reaching a neighborly decision is worth noting.

In 2023, when the Town of Camden began talking about restoring the Curtis Island Light Station in partnership with the  Curtis Island Lighthouse Foundation, members of the Foundation wondered whatever happened to the original Curtis Island fog bell.  The platform for the fog bell stood near the keeper’s house, but no fog bell had been on the platform since the Coast Guard decommissioned the Light Station in 1970 and removed the bell.