The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels, MD is now accepting reservations for its fall Lighthouse Overnight Adventures program. Under the guidance of a museum educator, youth groups participating in the program experience the rustic life of a lighthouse keeper while spending the night in the historic 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse, located on the museum’s 18-acre campus along the St. Michaels Harbor.
The program is offered Fridays and Saturdays in September and October, and again in the spring, with advanced reservations needed. Twelve to fifteen children and their chaperones can participate in the adventure program.
Kids ages 8-12 travel back through time to explore the adventurous, exciting, and sometimes dangerous life of a late 19th-century lighthouse keeper. Through educator-led activities, participants try their hand at the keeper’s traditional duties, listen to stories, and discover facts and clues about living in a lighthouse, navigation, and Bay history through games and puzzles.
Built in 1879, the screwpile, cottage-style lighthouse once lit the way past Hooper Strait, nearly 39 miles south of St. Michaels. The lighthouse was slated for demolition in 1966, when the museum purchased the lighthouse and moved it to its current location. The Hooper Strait Lighthouse is one of only three of its kind still in existence on the Chesapeake.
The program fee is $40 per person, with a 12-person minimum, 18-person maximum. The fee includes one overnight stay in the lighthouse, a dedicated museum facilitator, program activities, two days admission to the museum, and a souvenir patch.
Space is limited, with early registration needed by contacting CBMM’s Director of Education Kate Livie at [email protected] or at 410-745-4947.
