Today is National Lighthouse Day – what better time for our next installment of A Maritime Minute, sharing Maryland’s unique maritime history with blogs you can get through in under a minute!

The Choptank River Lighthouse brings us to Dorchester County. Originally constructed in 1870, the screw pile lighthouse was built by Francis A. Gibbons but sadly destroyed in the winter of 1918 by ice that was said to have reached up to 30 feet, knocking it off its pilings. What you see in its place is a replica of the original beacon. With watermen still needing a guide, Virginia’s decommissioned Cherrystone Bar cottage was moved to the location and became the second Choptank River Lighthouse.

The replica standing in Cambridge today was completed in 2012.