About This Location
A cast-iron lighthouse constructed in 1878 at Fort Constitution, guiding ships through the Piscataqua River for nearly 150 years.
The Ghost Story
On July 4, 1809, disaster erupted at Fort Constitution adjacent to Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse when gunpowder reserved for a fireworks celebration accidentally detonated. The explosion killed fourteen people, most of them children who had gathered to watch the Independence Day display. The blast was so powerful that it hurled bodies across the grounds toward the lighthouse, and the spirits of those victims are said to have never left the shore.
The first lighthouse at this site was a wooden structure lit in 1771, making it one of the oldest light stations in America. The current cast-iron lighthouse was constructed in 1878 and stands forty-eight feet tall on the grounds of the former Fort William and Mary, later renamed Fort Constitution. But the keeper most associated with the lighthouse and its haunting is Joshua Card, who served an extraordinary thirty-five-year tenure from 1874 to 1909.
Card came to Portsmouth Harbor from a posting at Boon Island, one of the most desolate and brutal lighthouse assignments on the Atlantic coast, a barren rock nine miles offshore where keepers endured isolation, freezing conditions, and relentless storms. The transfer to Portsmouth Harbor was a welcome reprieve, and Card devoted the rest of his career to maintaining the light. He died in 1909, but according to numerous witnesses over the past century, he never truly departed.
Coast Guard personnel stationed at the adjacent building have reported seeing a shadowy figure roaming the lighthouse grounds at night, always near the tower or along the walkway. One woman visiting the lighthouse in broad daylight saw a figure standing on the wooden walkway at the front of the tower wearing an old-fashioned keeper's uniform. When she looked away and back, the figure had vanished. The description matched no living person on the grounds.
The lighthouse gained national attention when the television show Ghost Hunters featured it in Season 4 in 2008. During the investigation, two of the three teams heard unexplained sounds inside the lighthouse, including distinct footsteps ascending the spiral stairway while all team members were confirmed to be in the tower's upper level. Two female investigators attempted communication by knocking the familiar 'shave and a haircut' rhythm on the wall, and the entity responded with the correct answering knock pattern. The exchange was captured on audio equipment.
Additional phenomena reported over the years include doors that open and close on their own, cold spots that appear suddenly in the tower, and an oppressive feeling of being watched near the base of the lighthouse. Whether the activity stems from Joshua Card's dedicated spirit, the souls of the fourteen fireworks victims of 1809, or some combination of the site's layered history, Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse remains one of New England's most investigated haunted lighthouses. The lighthouse is open for seasonal tours, and the Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse host annual haunted lighthouse events each October that draw hundreds of visitors eager to encounter the keeper who still tends his light.
