ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Official: Tallest lighthouse in New England sells for $78,000

YORK, Maine

New England’s tallest lighthouse has been sold for $78,000.

A federal government spokeswoman says the General Services Administration has accepted a bid for the Boon Island Light Station off York, Maine. The winning bidder is Portland, Maine, resident Art Girard.

The Administration closed out an auction of the 133-foot-tall lighthouse tower Aug. 17. More than a dozen bidders vied for it. The government had to approve Girard’s bid, which was the highest of the bunch.

The lighthouse was built in 1855 and is located on a tiny rocky island 6 miles off the Maine coast. It’s still active as a navigational aid.

It is one of 57 active lighthouses in Maine and is the tallest in New England, though not the highest above sea level.

UMass starts semester with giant, 3,000-dinner clambake

AMHERST, Mass.

The new school year at the University of Massachusetts has started with a record-setting feast.

More than 3,000 traditional New England clambake dinners were served on the Amherst campus recently.

Chefs prepared more than 3,000 lobsters, 6,000 little-neck clams, 3,000 steamers, more than 6,000 ears of corn and 1,500 pounds of potatoes for students and staff.

There was no previous record for largest New England clambake, but Guinness World Record officials had set a minimum bar at 1,500 meals in eight hours. UMass reached that mark in about an hour.

Ken Toong, executive director of auxiliary services, says most of the food was locally sourced, and all waste, including plates and flatware, will be composted.

The $70,000 cost of the clambake was covered entirely by donations and sponsorships.

Rare calico lobster turns up

BETHEL, Maine

The owner of a Maine bait and tackle shop says she found a rare calico-colored lobster that was caught off the state’s coast.

Sarah Lane says the crustacean, covered in orange blotches, appeared in a crate of lobsters brought from the Pemaquid Lobster Co-op in Bristol recently. The University of Maine says the odds of finding one are about one in 30 million.

Lane named the lobster “Freckles.”

Lane owns Bethel Bait Tackle & More in western Maine, 14 miles from the New Hampshire border. She says the lobster will be donated to the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor.

Maine lobstermen appeared to catch a pair of even more uncommon albino lobsters last week. A lobster expert later said the lobsters are actually very light blue.

Associated Press