Three Sisters

I had a lot of hopes for Three Sisters Lighthouses. It’s obvious that this historic site is not being preserved. 2 out of the 3 lighthouses no longer have the lights on them. Additionally, they’re all locked and deteriorating rather quickly.
If this area is preserved, it can easily be a great place to visit to take in a bit of history. I was really disappointed and hope that action is taken soon.

Restless
sisters
The concept of having multiple lighthouses in the same location is an old one. Before the technology to rotate the beacons developed to flash the lights it was easy to mistake one lighthouse and position for another, often with disastrous consequences.
Since Cape Cod had the huge single light up at Truro and the double lights down at Chatham people figured that a triple light right in the middle would make sense. So in 1837 three 15 foot high stone towers were built on the cliffs of Eastham.
This actually worked pretty well until the relentless sea and wind kept eroding the cliffs until the cute little lights were in danger of falling into the ocean. Since people didn’t know have to move things like lighthouse back then, the simplest thing to do was to simply build three new ones and the old ones were left to fall into the sea.
So in 1892 the three new 22 foot high wooden lights were constructed. But by 1911 the sea once again was creeping up on the lights until they were only 8 feet away from the abyss. Technology had improved and the idea of multiple lights had gone, so one light was moved to another location and two were sold for the grand sum of three and one half dollars and made into summer cottages.
Finally in 1983 the three sisters were once again united when the folks decided lighthouses were indeed an important part of the town’s history and all three were gathered up and placed in a little park only a short distance from their original location.
Nobody is sure where the name Three Sisters came from, some say it’s because the first keeper of the lights had three daughters, other people say it’s because the white lights with the black tops look like girls with skirts and bonnets and other people say it’s just because the name sounds cool.
Whatever the reason for the name, the Three Sisters are together again. Two are missing the tops and the last time I was there one looked like it could use a good power washing but it’s cool to see the lights in their original configuration near their original location. Certainly not the most impressive lighthouses but definitely three of the most interesting.