By Kristin Wilinkiewicz | Co-Editor-in-Chief
Cross the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, and it’s in plain view—a small white lighthouse on the edge of an island in the bay. It’s seen by hundreds of pairs of eyes a day, but very few know about what happens on the island. The Rose Island Lighthouse is a “living museum”; meaning that by day, tourists can tour the lighthouse, and by night, the rooms are rented out, allowing people to experience what it’s like to be a lighthouse keeper first-hand. After 4 p.m., the island is closed to tourists, and the grounds beg to be explored. Scattered around the island are dilapidated structures left to be overtaken by nature from wars past, and ghosts of a rich history of use. There’s a mystery to the island, considering its uses have ranged from a torpedo storage unit to a cholera quarantine site.
But if there’s one person who’s unshrouded at least some of Rose Island’s history, it’s Christopher Papp. As island manager, Papp is like a walking record of the stories, people and history of the 18.5 acre stretch of land. He is both captain of the island’s ferry and oversees the island and its well-being, often sitting by a fire to talk to the lighthouse’s keepers of the night. He’s the one that watches after the lighthouse when no one is renting it out for the night. If there’s a true “keeper” of the lighthouse, he’s it.
When someone asks you “Tell me what about yourself,” what do you say?
Uh… Underachiever. I went to a high school where all the other graduates—literally—are doctors and lawyers. Recently I had a group of like seven kids who went to my high school come visit, and I met up with them at a bar and turns out—literally all seven of them are lawyers—they’re all miserable.
What did they have to say to you about that?
“You don’t hate your job?” (laughs)
How did you find this job?
I had friends here that had places during the summer, so I decided to try it out; living here. I started a little kayak rental business on the beach—right downtown behind the Amory on Thames Street—and that’s how I met the folks that used to run the lighthouse. Our boat docks right there. So I did some volunteer work for them that summer, then that fall they hired me just doing maintenance. Then about 5 years ago, the previous property manager retired so I took over doing his job as well… And for the last few years I’ve been driving the boat.
Have you spent a lot of your life on boats?
No, I had kayaked once before I started my kayak business. I had kayaked from one of the rental places around here, and I found that little beach and I thought, “wow this is a perfect spot to rent kayaks!” so I started renting kayaks.
Really? You just started your own business? Just like that?
Yeah, it wasn’t very legit. (laughs) I just bought some kayaks and started renting them on this beach, basically. It’s weird, looking back. Like, I can’t believe I did that. But I did that for seven seasons.
Have you met anyone famous while working on the island?
Out here? There was one time… Joe, the guy I took over for, he was at the boat and we were docked in town and I came along to come out to work and he had been down there for 45 minutes and he was chatting with this guy for like half an hour. This guy really liked the boat and was interested in buying a similar one. Anyway, they chatted for a while and the guy left before I arrived and Joe, he’s telling me about this guy and he’s like “Yeah…” and he pulls out his business card—“Nicolas Cage?” Joe didn’t have a clue.
So what does being a lighthouse keeper entail?
Vacationing keepers they do little chores, so they raise the flag, they check the chlorine in the water, they check the water level in the cistern, they check to make sure things are left clean like bathrooms and things. I mean little stuff. Then they kinda keep an eye on if someone comes up after hours, they’ll y’know, tell them the lighthouse is closed for the day. We’ve had at least a few groups here who have been here at least 10 years for a week every year.
What do you think is the most interesting fact about the Island?
Just a few weeks ago, or maybe last week, we had an old keeper come out to visit. He’s 92 and he was a keeper here in ’49 or ’51 and he was pretty interesting. There’s this little cross in the rock down at the end of this beach here. It’s in this little crevice, and there’s this cross cemented into the rock—just one like you’d wear around your neck—and I don’t know how it was ever found to begin with, but not a lot of people knew about it. You’d never find it if you were just walking around. But this old man—he was very old, we practically had to carry him around and stuff—was leaving and I heard him say something about a cross on the rock, and no one knew what he was talking about. And I was like “Wait? A cross on the rock?” and he was like “How’d you know about it?” But just a couple weeks ago, I noticed that it was gone. The cement is still there, the indentation of where it was but I guess it corroded away or whatever. It’s out, it’s gone… but you can still see where it used to be. But it turned out he put it there, this keeper.
Do you know why?
No. He’s coming back next month, so I’m going to talk to him.
