Wood Island Lighthouse

Biddeford's active Wood Island Lighthouse is located on the eastern edge of Wood Island in Saco Bay. It first opened in 1808 and stands at 46 feet high on Maine's southern coast. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 and is Maine's second oldest lighthouse. Many believe that its hauntings may be attributed to the murder-suicide that took place there in the 1890s. A lobsterman and local squatter were living on the island's west end, and the squatter had been in an altercation earlier on the mainland and had been approached by a sheriff's deputy in his shack on the island. The squatter murdered the sheriff's deputy and after realizing what he had done, he attempted to turn himself in to Thomas Orcutt, a lighthouse keeper. Orcutt was afraid and turned him away and the squatter went back to his shack and killed himself. Legend is that the ghost of the murdered deputy still haunts the island and the lighthouse.