Wood Island Lighthouse, Biddeford: Tours and Access

The tour, and its narrow window

The Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, run the visits. The shape of the thing:

• Season: July and August only, several mornings a week. That is the whole year. A September trip to Biddeford Pool will not get you onto the island.
• Reservations: required in advance. The boat carries about thirteen passengers, so trips are small and fill.
• Departure: Vines Landing in Biddeford Pool. You sign in before boarding and acknowledge the tower rules and a waiver, so arrive with time to spare.
• Crossing: about fifteen minutes across Winter Harbor to the island's boat ramp.
• Duration: two and a half to three hours door to door.

On the island a raised wooden boardwalk runs roughly half a mile from the landing to the light station. It is flat but elevated in places and has no handrails, which is the single most useful thing to know if anyone in your group is unsteady on their feet. No pets, service animals excepted.

Climbing the tower

This is the part most Maine lighthouses cannot offer. Visitors ten and older may climb the 60 stairs to the lantern room, in groups of no more than six, with a host. The view from the top takes in Saco Bay, the mouth of the river and the mainland shore.

The tour also gets you inside the keeper's house, the base of the tower and the covered walkway that connects them — the whole arrangement of a working nineteenth-century light station, which is rarer to see intact than the towers themselves. Google reviewers have the light at 4.6 from 55 reviews, a small count that reflects how few people get out there rather than any weakness in the experience.

Seeing it without a boat

If you miss the season, the island is still visible from the end of the Biddeford Pool peninsula.

• East Point Audubon Sanctuary (4.8 from 257 reviews) on L.B. Orcutt Boulevard is the best land view — a short loop out to open ledge at the tip of the point, with Wood Island offshore and Saco Bay opening north. It is also one of the better birding spots in southern Maine.
• Fortunes Rocks Beach (4.6 from 108 reviews) gives you the long southern view along a two-mile stretch of sand. Our Fortunes Rocks guide covers the parking situation, which is the hard part.
• Boat tours from elsewhere. Operators along this coast run lighthouse cruises that pass Wood Island without landing. Broad Reach Adventures, sailing from 5 Bay Avenue in Saco, holds a 5.0 rating from 377 reviews and is the highest-rated boat operation in the area.

A warning worth taking seriously: Biddeford Pool is a small village on a narrow neck of land with very little public parking, most of it restricted in season. Do not plan on finding a space casually on an August afternoon, and do not park where signs tell you not to.

Two centuries of it

Congress appropriated money for a light on Wood Island in 1806 and the station was finished in 1807, which makes it one of the oldest on the Maine coast — older than the state of Maine, which did not exist until 1820. It marks the approach to the Saco River, a working entrance since the colonial period and a shallow, awkward one.

The island is about 35 acres and sits less than a mile off the village. That closeness matters to the station's most famous story.

The 1896 shootings

On June 1, 1896, a fisherman named Howard Hobbs, living in a shack at the far end of the island, shot and fatally wounded Frederick Milliken, his neighbor and landlord, over unpaid rent. Hobbs had been drinking on the mainland earlier that day. He then walked to the lighthouse and told the keeper what he had done, returned to his shack, wrote a letter and shot himself.

That single afternoon has generated most of the ghost stories attached to Wood Island, and there are many. The Friends organization tells the history straight on its own site, which is more interesting than the legends built on top of it.

What else is out this way

Biddeford Pool is a twenty-minute drive from downtown Biddeford, which has changed more than any other small city in Maine over the last decade — the old textile mills now hold restaurants and studios.

• Palace Diner (4.7 from 1,196 reviews) at 18 Franklin Street is a fourteen-seat railcar diner and the most-loved breakfast in the area. Expect to wait.
• Fish & Whistle (4.8 from 318 reviews) and Magnus on Water (4.8 from 189 reviews) are the two highest-rated dinners in the mill district.
• Timber Point Trail (4.6 from 123 reviews) on Granite Point Road is a Rachel Carson refuge walk to a point that connects to an island at low tide — check the tide before you commit to the crossing.
• Ferry Beach State Park (4.7 from 757 reviews) in Saco has the tupelo swamp trails behind the dunes. See our Ferry Beach guide.
• Rapid Ray's (4.6 from 1,035 reviews) in Saco is the counter-service institution, and Sea Salt Lobster (4.3 from 2,225 reviews) on Main Street is the busiest seafood room in town.

For the wider picture, the Maine lighthouses guide covers the coast, and the lighthouse tour guide sequences the ones you can actually get inside.

FAQ

Can you tour Wood Island Lighthouse?

Yes, in July and August only. The Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse run reserved boat tours from Vines Landing in Biddeford Pool, several mornings a week, lasting about two and a half to three hours. The boat holds around thirteen people, so book ahead. There are no tours outside those two months.

Can you climb the tower at Wood Island Lighthouse?

Yes, if you are ten or older. It is 60 stairs to the lantern room, climbed in groups of no more than six with a host. The tour also takes you through the keeper's house, the base of the tower and the connecting walkway.

Where can you see Wood Island Lighthouse from land?

East Point Audubon Sanctuary at the tip of the Biddeford Pool peninsula is the closest and best land view, with Fortunes Rocks Beach giving a longer view from the south. Parking in Biddeford Pool village is limited and restricted in season, so arrive early.

How old is Wood Island Lighthouse?

Congress funded it in 1806 and the station was completed in 1807, making it one of the oldest light stations in Maine — established thirteen years before Maine became a state. It marks the approach to the Saco River from a 35-acre island less than a mile off Biddeford Pool.