Windmill Point, Vermont
Harbour Lights #358

Windmill Point, present-day Alburg, Vermont, is approximately two miles south of the Canadian border on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. Windmill Point took its name from an impressive stone windmill built by early French settlers, who arrived in the 1740’s.

Windmill Point played a role in the American Revolutionary War. Benedict Arnold anchored his fleet at the point prior to the historic Battle of Valcour. In 1777, the British radeau Thunderer, carrying the sick and wounded from the Battle of Saratoga, was sunk off Windmill Point.

Lake Champlain was the site for more than 10 lighthouses built in the course of the nineteenth century. The original Windmill Point Light, established in 1830, was a private station with a windmill and a makeshift lantern.

In 1858, the United States Government took charge and built a 44’ octagonal tower with a connecting keeper’s dwelling constructed of blue limestone quarried from Ira Hill on Isle La Motte. A Sixth Order Fresnel lens was installed with a fixed white light, which was visible for thirteen miles.

Windmill Point Light was replaced by a steel tower in 1931 with an acetylene light relocated from Crown Point, New York.

In 1963, Lockwood “Lucky” Clark and his bride-to-be were walking by the lighthouse, when its owner approached him and asked if he would be interested in purchasing the property. “Lucky”, whose father, Robert, had purchased Isle La Motte Lighthouse in 1949, jumped at the opportunity.

While there had been discussions back and forth between the Clark family and the United States Coast Guard about returning the light to the tower, nothing came of it.

In 2001, restoring the light became a reality! The motivation was more than nostalgia and history. The skeletal steel tower at Crown Point needed to be replaced at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Conversely, restoring and returning the light at Windmill Point would be just several thousand dollars and the cost of maintaining the tower would be the responsibility of the Clarks.

Rob and “Lucky” Clark estimated they spent less than $500 but more than 400 hours preparing for the relighting. After more than three-quarters of a century, Lake Champlain had a working lighthouse! On August 7, 2002, National Lighthouse Day, at 8:33 p.m., to a cheering crowd, Windmill Point Lighthouse was relit!