HERE IS A LIST OF SOME OF THE LIGHTHOUSES ON THE COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA.
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
The Ocracoke Lighthouse
The Diamond Shoals Light Tower
The Cape Lookout Lighthouse
The Prices Creek Lighthouse
The Bald Head Island Lighthouse ("Old Baldy")
The Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower
THE CURRITUCK BEACH LIGHTHOUSE
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse is located in Currituck county. The bodies of water that it is near include the Atlantic Ocean and the Currituck Sound. The lighthouse was built in 1875 and is red. Its design is plain and it is 162 feet tall. The signal from its light can be 19 miles away. The signal pattern of the Currituck Lighthouse is three seconds on and 17 seconds off.
One of the three lighthouses modeled from the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse has never been painted. It hasn't been painted in order to distinguish it by daylight from Bodie, Lookout, and Hatteras lighthouses.
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse is simply known as the Currituck Lighthouse. It is located in the community of Corolla, 40 miles from Oregon Inlet. This lighthouse was first lit on December 1, 1895. It completed the chain of lights along the North Carolina coast by filling in a previously dark 80-mile gap. It is the most northern of all the North Carolina lighthouses. To distinguish the Currituck Beach Lighthouse from other regional lighthouses, its exterior was left unpainted and gives today's visitor a sense of the multitude of bricks used to form the structure.
The red brick, 162 foot structure, sits in a wooded area on sandy land. An underground structure of heavy timbers supports the tower in the sandy terrain and an interior steel staircase strengthens the building. The entrance to the lighthouse has served as a work area for the light keeper and as storage for whale oil to light the lamps.
The lighthouse has walls that are 5'8" thick at the base and 3' thick at the top. One and a half million bricks were used to build the tower.
THE CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE
Congress authorized the construction of a lighthouse at Cape Hatteras in 1794. The first lighthouse tower at Cape Hatteras was built on a stone foundation to a height of 95 feet above sea level in 1802. The tower was made of sandstone. Sailors complained that they could not see the light because it was just the height to be hidden by fog. In 1853, the government increased the height to 150 feet. This was done by adding sixty feet of brick on top of the sandstone. They also added a Fresnal lens to the tower. It was the first lighthouse to be fitted with a lens like that.
At the onset of the Civil War, Confederate troops disabled the lighthouse, but by June 1862, Union forces had placed the beacon back in service. At the end of the Civil War, the new Lighthouse Board found the existing structure to be beyond repair and asked for a new tower. In 1867, Congress appropriated the funds and construction was started in 1868. On September 17, 1870, the new light was displayed for the first time in the lantern room of the 198 foot conical-shaped the United States, and still is. In 1873, the lighthouse was painted with its distinctive black and white spiral stripes. The focal plane of the light is 193 feet above sea level showing a seven second white flash visible for up to 24 nautical miles at sea.
Cape Hatteras has been threatened by erosion almost from the beginning. In 1870, the water was some 1,300 feet from the tower base. By 1919, it was just 300 feet, and in 1935, the water was just 100 feet away.
In 1936, a metal tower was built about a mile away and the beacon moved, leaving the tower to the National Park Service. By 1950, the erosion was no longer a threat and the light was returned to the tower by the Coast Guard. It remains an important active aid to navigation today.
Cape Hatteras is one of the two best known lighthouses in the world. The other tower is Portland Head Light in Maine. The lighthouse is one of the most often photographed lighthouse in America. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was given designation of National Landmark in August 1998.
The physical moving of the lighthouse was completed on July 9, 1999. The last brick of the brick foundation was places on September 14 of the same year. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, closed since November 22, 1998, reopened its doors to the public on May 26, 2000. The lighthouse had been closed 550 days, during which time it was repaired for relocation, lifted, moved 2,900 feet, set down on a new foundation, and made ready for public visitation once again.
THE OCRACOKE LIGHTHOUSE
The height of the of the Ocracoke Lighthouse is 76 feet tall and has a plain design. It was completed in 1823. It is the oldest lighthouse in North Carolina. The color of the tower is white. When its light shines you can see it 14 miles away. Its signal pattern is a fixed white light. It is operational and it can be found in Hyde County. The bodies of water that the Ocracoke Lighthouse is near include the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound.
In 1794 Congress authorized construction of a lighthouse at Ocracoke. The first Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in 1803 on Shell Castle Island inside the Ocracoke Inlet not far from Blackbeard's hideout. It was struck by lightning in 1818 and burned down so it was replaced by the current light in 1823 on the banks of the inlet near Ocracoke Village. Ocracoke Inlet was first put on the map when English explorers wrecked a sailing ship there in 1585. During the 1700s it became on of the busiest inlets on the East Coast. For many years it was the only navigable waterway for ships trying to get to inland ports including Elizabeth City, New Bern, and Edenton.
North Carolina authorized a lighthouse on one of the islands (then existing) on the south side of Ocracoke Inlet in 1789. But with the formation of a national government after independence had been declared from England, the new nation had its own Congress and ownership and responsibility for all lighthouses was transferred to the Department of the Treasury.
The 1823 lighthouse was controlled by both northern and southern troops during the Civil War. Confederate troops removed the lens from the lamp in the early years of the war, while Union troops replaced it in 1863. The fuel used to light the lanterns behind the lens was, first, whale oil, then kerosene, and finally electricity. The light now functions like a street lamp; it turns on at night and off in the morning.
THE DIAMOND SHOALS LIGHT TOWER
The Diamond Shoals Light Tower is in Dare County, though it is in the Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse was built in 1967 and is still operational. It is 175 feet tall and has a plain design. The color of the tower is silver. The lighthouse’s light can be seen 20 miles away.
The 1967-built Diamond Shoals Light Tower rises 75 feet above the Atlantic Ocean floor about 13 miles off Cape Hatteras in the area known as Diamond Shoals. The "Texas tower" framework is a steel Gulf Coast oil drilling platform atop four steel legs adapted for use as a lighthouse. It is equipped with a light, fog horn, a radio beacon, and a computer.
In 1979, the onboard crew was removed, and the lighthouse has operated as an automated tower since. If the light tower needs service, its computer sends a radio signal to the nearest Coast Guard station. This light tower is a more reliable beacon for sailors than its predecessors. In 1824, the first Diamond Shoals Lightship was anchored at the outer edge of the shoals. However three violent storms proved too much for the lightship to hold anchor and it crashed it onto Ocracoke Beach the final time.
The lightship was replaced first by a lighthouse that was anchored in the 25-foot deep water of the shoals, and later destroyed by a storm, and then by a new lightship which lasted 70 years. This lightship was sunk by a German submarine in 1918.
THE CAPE LOOKOUT LIGHTHOUSE
Congress authorized a lighthouse at Cape Lookout as early as 1804 but the tower was not completed until 1812. It was a brick inner tower with a wooden exterior and was painted around 1832 in red and white horizontal stripes. According to historian F. Ross Holland, the tower had a focal plane "approximately 96 feet above the ground and 104 feet above sea level.
Much like the first Cape Hatteras Lighthouse built in 1803, mariners complained of almost running aground looking for the light. Its light consisted of thirteen aground lamps, each with a twenty-one inch reflector intended to help throw the light further across the water. These lamps' wicks were difficult to keep trimmed and often smoked up the lantern room while burning, thus rendering the light dim. It took a dedicated keeper to keep the light as bright as it could be.
In 1856 a Fresnel lens was installed in the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. The Fresnel lens grouped hundreds of prisms that reflected and refracted the light into a more intense beam. Though the light was of greater intensity, the need for a taller tower remained.
In 1857 the government ordered a new, taller tower be built and it was completed in 1859. At an impressive 150 feet tall, it would become the prototype for the tall, conical brick coastal lights to be built all along the southeastern coast to the accolades of mariners. The present Cape Lookout Lighthouse has guarded ships from the dangerous Cape Lookout Shoals since 1859. Its companion, the red and white banded 1812 tower remained its companion as a distinct day mark for nearly ten more years.
During the Civil War there was damage to the Fresnel lens by Confederate soldiers, as there was to nearly every southern light along the Virginia and North Carolina to Florida coasts. Repairs were accomplished and the light burned for all but a short time, being relighted in 1863 with an interim third-order Fresnel lens. The Lighthouse Service appropriated money for a new keeper's dwelling in 1872.
The "new" tower received its distinguished black and white checkers in 1873, the same year the 1870 Cape Hatteras tower received its black and white stripes and the brand new Bodie Island received its black and white bands. These lighthouses would be recorded in history as the nation's leading examples of maritime daymarks as well as coastal lights.
THE PRICE'S CREEK LIGHTHOUSE
The Price's Creek Lighthouse has a plain design and is only 20 feet tall. The body of water that it is near is the Cape Fear River. It is in Brunswick County and was built in 1848. The color of the Prices Creek Lighthouse is brick red and it is not open to the public.
The brick shell, known as Price's Creek Lighthouse, is the only one of eight lighthouses along the Cape Fear River, which were authorized by Congress in 1848, that is still standing. The lights were needed to illuminate the 25-mile stretch of the Cape Fear River between Oak Island and Wilmington.
Price's Creek Lighthouse, only 20 feet tall, was the smaller of the two lights at Price's Creek. Two others were built on Oak Island, two at Upper Jetty, and the remaining two at Orton's Point and at Campbell's Island. A lightboat was placed at Horseshoe Shoal, between Price's Creek Lighthouse and Federal Point Lighthouse.
During the Civil War, Price's Creek Lighthouse served as a Confederate signal station, aiding blockade runners in navigating the river and being identified to the shore batteries. All these river lights were destroyed by the Confederates as they lost control of the Cape Fear River. By destroying the lights, they hoped to prevent or impede navigation along the river by Union troops.
By the late 1880s, all of the river lights had been replaced by unattended beacons. Price's Creek Lighthouse sits on private property, not accessible to the public. The property owner has repaired the Civil War cannon damage and structural decay, but the lighthouse is still missing its glass and iron lamp top. However, it is visible (about 200 yards away) from the ferry between Fort Fisher and Southport as the ferry approaches the Southport landing.
THE BALD HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
Bald Head Island is the site of the first lighthouse in North Carolina. It was completed in 1795. It was built on a mound of sand near the point where the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean meet. The "Bald Head" comes from the mound of sand.
Sailors complained that the lighthouse did not adequately warn them about the shoals. Within 15 years, a new channel from the ocean to the river opened to the north of the lighthouse. This new channel, called New Inlet, became the preferred entrance to the Cape Fear River. A new lighthouse was built at Federal Point to light New Inlet.
By the time the Federal Point Lighthouse was completed, Bald Head Lighthouse was in danger of falling into the ocean. Therefore, a second Bald Head Lighthouse was built. It was 90 feet tall and made of brick plastered with cement. The lighthouse, nicknamed "Old Baldy", was completed in 1818.
Because complaints of inadequate warnings continued, a new lighthouse, called the Cape Fear Lighthouse, was built on Smith Island in 1903 and Old Baldy was downgraded to a low intensity non-blinking light. The lighthouse was discontinued in 1935. From 1941 to 1958, Old Baldy housed a radio beacon to guide ships in low visibility.
When the Oak Island Lighthouse was completed in 1958, the radio beacon was removed from Old Baldy and the Cape Fear Lighthouse was dismantled. Old Baldy is now a historical site.
This information was collected from various web pages that I found on the internet.
Kerensa Helle January 2001