Lantern tour to explore life-saving service June 27

Delaware Seashore State Park will conduct a lantern tour at 8:30 p.m., Saturday, June 27, at the Indian River Life-Saving Station. More than 100 years ago, the surfmen of the U.S. Life-Saving Service patrolled the beaches of the Delaware coast every night, scanning the waters for signs of ships in distress.

The Indian River Life-Saving Station and Museum is offering a unique program that will allow participants to walk the surfmen’s beat, patrolling the same beaches and scanning the same waters the surfmen would have covered a century ago.

The crew at the Life-Saving Station will conduct an evening lantern tour of the museum that will be led by an interpreter dressed in the uniform of the turn-of-the-century Life-Saving Service patrol. Learn about shipwrecks, surfmen’s duties and the changing Delaware coast over time.

Afterward, the tour will head out to the beach with lanterns to patrol the Delaware coast.

Live the history of the U.S. Life-Saving Service while enjoying a stroll in the sand in Delaware Seashore State Park.

The Indian River Life-Saving Station and Museum is located on Route 1, south of Dewey Beach and 1.5 miles north of the Indian River Inlet. The program fee is $7.50 per person, and preregistration is required. Dress for the weather.

To register for this or other programs at the Life-Saving Station, call 302-227-6991.