I want to take you to a little island off the coast of Maine. It's called Wood Island.

And we're going to start with the legend of how Wood Island lost all of its wood.

In 1869, the legend starts. This is Richard Parsons. He's the author of Wood Island Lighthouse, stories from the edge of the sea.

The keeper on his day off went ashore to one of the local watering houses in Old Orchard Beach and was pickpocketed.

The Keeper, a man named Edwin Tarbox, rushed to the local police and sent them after the

robbers.

The police sprang into action.

They caught up with the pickpockets and gave Edwin his stuff back.

But then one of the pickpockets turned to Edwin.

He launched a curse and he, to you and yours, to all who ever occupy your a cursed island, there shall

come a blight. And so sure enough, Keeper Tar Box returned to the island and the next day there was this

terrible storm. And there were stories that waves were coming over the island, washing away the trees,

slamming rocks up against the trees, and after that the island was basically denuded.

But there's no doubt that by the late 19th century if you looked out there you wondered why it was ever called Wood Island. I'm Dylan Thurris and this is Atlas Obscira, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and

and wondrous places.

This episode was brought to you in partnership with the main office of tourism.

Main's coast is guarded by around 60 historic lighthouses.

Each one has its own colorful history of monstrous storms and

shipwrecks and intrepid lighthouse keepers. To give you a taste, we're going to take you to one in particular. The one on Wood Island, the tiny little island less than one square mile.

For over 200 years, this island has also been home to some hair raising weather, a

celebrity dog, a grisly murder case, and maybe some ghosts. We will row out there after this. In some ways, Wood Island and its lighthouse are very close to land.

Specifically, close to the nearest town on the mainland, which is called Bitteford.

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