# 2973 - 1995 32c Great Lakes Lighthouses: Thirty Mile Point, Lake Ontario

U.S. #2973
1995 32¢ Thirty Mile Point, Lake Ontario
Great Lakes Lighthouses

• From the second set in the Lighthouses Series

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Series:  Lighthouses
Value:  32¢, rate for first-class mail
First Day of Issue:  June 17, 1995
First Day City:  Cheboygan, Michigan
Quantity Issued:  120,240,000
Printed by:  Stamp Venturers
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Booklet panes of five in sheets of 200
Perforations:  11.2 vertically

Why the stamp was issued:  To pay tribute to significant lighthouses along the Great Lakes.

About the stamp design:  Artist Howard Koslow, who had provided the artwork for the first set of Lighthouse stamps in 1990, painted the Great Lakes Lighthouses as well.  Having become a bit of a lighthouse expert while working on the first set, he researched and suggested 15 possible lighthouses for the 1995 stamps.  In the end, the lighthouses selected represented each of the Great Lakes.  The booklet cover pictures the top of the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse.  Beside that is a map of the Great Lakes with the locations of each of the five lighthouses marked by red dots.

Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse on Lake Ontario is pictured before a colorful sunset.  Koslow again hired Frank Sedlar to photograph the lighthouse to provide the source material for his painting.  He originally painted the windows dark, but was asked to lighten them, showing the blue sky behind the viewer. Some complained that the stamp pictured lighthouse in brown, when it’s actually gray.  The USPS responded that the color of the stones had been warmed up to reflect the rich sunrise behind it.

First Day City:  The Great Lakes Lighthouse stamps were released in a special ceremony aboard the US Coast Guard cutter Sundew in Cheboygan, Michigan.

About the Lighthouse Series:  Several lighthouses had been featured on stamps prior to 1990, but lighthouse enthusiasts were calling for more.  In 1987, James W. Hyland III, chairman of the Lighthouse Preservation Society, submitted a list of 10 lighthouses he thought should be honored on stamps to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee.  Initially, the committee supported his idea and proposed issuing 10 stamps in two panes honoring all of the lighthouses.  However, the USPS felt that would make for too many stamps, so they opted to just issue five, though a sixth would be pictured on the booklet cover.  Two of the six lighthouses had been on stamps before, Cape Hatteras and Sandy Hook.

The stamps were issued on April 26, 1990, to mark the 200^th anniversary of the creation of the Revenue Marine (later the Revenue Cutter Service).  Five years later, the USPS issued a second booklet featuring lighthouses from the Great Lakes.  Both of these sets proved quite popular, so the USPS continued issuing stamps honoring lighthouses from different areas of the country every few years, with the final issue coming in 2021.  You can read more about the series and find the individual sets here.

History the stamp represents:  Today’s ships are equipped with sophisticated guidance equipment, and there is less dependence on lighthouses. However, lighthouses are still very useful in some areas. As of 1990, all lighthouses still functioning as navigational beacons under Coast Guard control became completely automated.

The 30-Mile Point lighthouse was built in 1875, near the town of Somerset, N.Y. It warned vessels of a dangerous sandbar and shoals that extended far into Lake Ontario. Before its completion, five large commercial vessels were wrecked on this dangerous stretch of water. The tower, which is attached to the keeper’s house, stands 60 feet high and has a slate roof. It was equipped with a French-made Fresnel lens, which magnified the light from its brass kerosene lamp to 600,000 candlepower. The 30-Mile Point light could be seen 16 miles away. This lighthouse was deactivated December 17, 1958, when it was determined that erosion had removed the menacing sandbar.