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Buzzards Bay Entrance Light

lighthouse in Massachusetts, United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2025
Entity authorityQ5003577 ↗
Source-derived summary

Buzzards Bay Entrance Light is a lighthouse located in open water at the entrance to Buzzards Bay, about four nautical miles west southwest of Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. The light has a racon showing the letter "B".

In 1996 the present structure replaced a Texas Tower built in 1961, which in turn had replaced the lightships Hens & Chickens (LV-5) and Vineyard Sound (LV-10). Since it sits in water 50 ft (15m) deep, a conventional lighthouse would have been difficult, forcing the choice of structure.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Buzzards Bay Entrance Light” is lighthouse in Massachusetts, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Buzzards, Entrance and Light, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1996, 1961—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Buzzards, Entrance and Light is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “lighthouse in Massachusetts, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5003577. Authority coordinates are 41.397, -71.035. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996 and 1961.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Buzzards Bay Entrance Light”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Buzzards Bay Entrance Light primary sources, Buzzards Bay Entrance Light archive and Buzzards research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Buzzards Bay Entrance Light”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Buzzards Bay Entrance Light” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.