View of Stage Island and navigation marker, Biddeford Pool, 1917. Stage Island was named from the stages on which the early fishermen dried their fish in colonial times. The stone tower is a navigation marker which was built by order of the United States government in 1825. It is 60 feet high and three workmen were killed when it collapsed while being built. Robert H. Gay was a talented and prolific photographer of the Biddeford area, and sold his images as postcards.