Etc.

Oh, so that's where it got to!

If you haven't heard, researchers finally have found a lighthouse that had been missing for 83 years. Yes, a lighthouse. Now, how could a structure, which in this case stands 30 feet high, disappear? It's not as though it could be hidden by overgrown shrubbery. Records show that this particular beacon used to overlook Wellfleet Harbor on Cape Cod, Mass. But it ceased to operate around 1925 and was believed to have been razed several years later. Since it was built of cast iron, the pieces would have been fairly easy to stash in – say – a Coast Guard surplus yard somewhere.

That's not where the lighthouse turned up, however. Instead, enthusiasts archiving historical photographs found one dated 1928 with the notation, "This tower formerly used at Mayo Beach." Mayo Beach – or, more correctly, Mayo's Beach – is in Wellfleet, Mass. Where was the photo taken? In Yerba Buena, Calif., on San Francisco Bay, 3,193 miles away. And that wasn't even the final destination; the beacon now stands at Point Montara, even farther west on the Pacific Ocean. It since has been painted and serves as a youth hostel but is still used as a navigational aid. There's apparently no documentation on how or why it was moved such a distance. If there were, it probably would qualify for a Guinness Book of World Records listing on farthest distance a lighthouse was moved.

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