Standing three miles out from the tip of Tilghman Island, the leaning lighthouse looks for all the world like a lonely sailboat in the mist.
Long ago, it stood proudly erect atop a rocky promontory. Then relentless erosion from the Chesapeake Bay waters undermined its foundation, causing it to sag —the Eastern Shore’s very own Leaning Tower.
Nobody cared. The United States Department of the Interior declared it unworthy of the $8,000 needed to preserve it. No longer lit because it was too dangerous for any inhabitant, the Little Leaning Lighthouse became a ghost, whispering to anyone who raised a curious pair of binoculars or, in my case, a telephoto lens.
On the day I shot it, haze and mist prevented my lens from capturing anything but this fittingly ghostly outline.
Twelve years ago, the Leaning Lighthouse was put out to auction —and purchased by a mysterious shell corporation for a shocking $50,000. Hopes were high the purchaser would restore the ghostly stalwart, but nothing has happened. Perhaps the new owner was ruined in the Crash of 2008?
Whatever, here it stands. What do YOU think should happen to it?
