December 17 2014 The Amelia Island Lighthouse and tour Fernandina Beach, Florida

Picked up Audrey our neighbor at 0915, and headed into town to get our tickets for the tour, we were early, so we headed downtown and snagged a coffee.  We boarded the bus, paid our $5.00 fee, and headed up to the site.  There were 3 of us on the bus, we were missing 5 others, but it was 1005, so off we went.  

This was a triple hit, a lighthouse, it had a historical marker, and is also listed on the National Register of Historical places....  

A short ride to the site, then we went inside for a rather laborious lecture that lasted 45 minutes, as taught by the 80 plus something lady who's father and grandfather had been lighthouse keepers for 50 years between them.   

After 45 minutes of a bad sound system, her loosing her place in her notes, and forgetting her train of thought, we did a short tour of the light, which was closed for access.  

I did get a passport stamp for this location, but no pins postcards, or miniatures, there wasn't a shop.  

Inscription. Standing at the highest point on the island, the Amelia Island Lighthouse was built from bricks re-used from the Cumberland Island Lighthouse in 1839 on land purchased from Mary Fernandez. The 67 foot tall lighthouse has walls four feet thick at the base tapering to two feet at the top. It is the only dual-wall construction lighthouse remaining from Florida's territorial period. First lit by whale oil, the light is now a third order Fresnel Lens made in Paris and visible 15 miles. This lighthouse is the oldest, still operational lighthouse in Florida and is the westernmost lighthouse on the east coast of the United States. The first keeper, Amos Latham, was a Corporal in the 1st Connecticut Regiment in the Revolution

Amelia Island is the northernmost barrier island on Florida’s Atlantic coast. The St. Mary’s River slowly empties into the Atlantic between Amelia Island and Georgia’s Cumberland Island to the north and serves as the curvaceous portion of the border between the neighboring states. Fernandina Beach is Amelia Island’s largest town, and it still seems locked in the enchantment and charm of the Victorian era. The island’s acres of marshlands add to the tranquil setting, but if you ask around a little you can quickly learn about the island’s scandalous past and just perhaps the unique origin of Amelia Island Lighthouse.

According to local lore, since the arrival of the Europeans, eight flags have flown over Amelia Island, giving rise to the title “Isle of 8 Flags.” Three of these flags were from the brief reigns of the “Patriots of Amelia Island,” Sir Gregor MacGregor, and a pirate, but for the most part, the island’s history can be summarized as “the French visited, the Spanish developed, the English named and the Americans tamed.” The island was named in honor of Princess Amelia Hanover, daughter of England’s King George II.

In 1802, a resolution of the Georgia General Assembly ceded jurisdiction of six acres on the southern tip of Cumberland Island to the U.S. Government for lighthouse purposes. At that time, this parcel was the southernmost site on the U.S. Atlantic coast, as Florida was back under Spanish rule, after the British left. It took eighteen years before Winslow Lewis built a lighthouse on Cumberland Island in 1820. In the interim, Congress had outlawed the importation of slaves in 1808. Given the proximity of Amelia Island to the Southern States, it soon became a major black market dealing in slaves and was home to scores of smugglers, drunkards, and prostitutes. The United States eventually stepped in and took control of the island in 1819, and in 1821 Spain officially ceded Florida to the United States.

Perhaps if the U.S. had gained control of Florida before construction of Cumberland Lighthouse, the tower might have been placed on Amelia Island. Instead, the lighthouse stood across the border, guiding vessels into St. Mary’s River and along the Atlantic Coast. Changes in the channel made it so the light on Cumberland Island could no longer be seen when entering the river, and on July 7, 1838, Congress provided $7,500 for relocating the tower. Cumberland Lighthouse was accordingly dismantled brick by brick, shipped across the river, and reconstructed atop the highest spot on Amelia Island.

The light source for the tower consisted of a collection of fourteen lamps, backed by reflectors, which revolved to produce a flashing characteristic. Though the tower is just sixty-four feet tall, the light has a focal plane of 107 feet thanks to the prominence on which it stands. Amos Latham followed the lighthouse across the river and served as its first keeper at its new location. The lighthouse was upgraded in 1856 with a third-order Fresnel lens. In 1858, a beacon light was established five-eighths of a mile seaward of the tower near Fort Clinch to form, with the lighthouse, a pair of range lights indicating the best channel across the bar. The beacon light was mounted on a car that could be rolled along a 100-foot-long tramway to track the changing channel.

David Levy Yull, who became Florida’s first Senator in 1845, led a push to build a cross-state railroad spanning the 155 miles between Fernandina Beach on the Atlantic and Cedar Keys on the Gulf. Completed in 1861, the railroad took eight years to build and allowed goods to be shipped between New York and New Orleans without having to round the Florida Keys with their dangerous reefs and shoals. Before the railroad could have much impact on the local economy, both it and the lighthouse were taken out of service by the Civil War.

Spared from wartime damage, the tower quickly returned to service after the conflict. One of the keepers in the post-war era was Dewayne W. Suydam, one of about twenty head keepers who, over the years, were responsible for climbing the tower’s sixty-nine granite steps to tend the light. Each keeper recorded the weather and other observations of interest in the station’s logbook. Keeper Suydam wrote an entry the day he gave up tobacco, and when he retired in 1891 at the age of sixty-three, he penned: “20 years ago I commenced in the Light House Service; have been absent but one night during that time” – talk about having no vacation time.

In 1881, a new, modern iron lantern room was installed atop the tower to replace the old one that was too small for the third-order lens. A temporary structure was built near the lighthouse, and a fourth-order flashing light was displayed from it between April 15 and July 1 while the new lantern room was put in place. The station's nine-by-eleven-foot, brick oil house was built in 1890 and could hold 450 five-gallon oil cans. A new third-order lens, manufactured in Paris by Barbier & Benard, was installed in the lighthouse on October 24, 1902, changing the light's characteristic from a white flash every ninety seconds to a flash every ten seconds. A red sector was added to the light in 1917 to alert mariners of dangerous shoals south of the tower in Nassau Sound.

The first dwelling for the keeper at Amelia Island Lighthouse was a very small brick house. This was replaced by a two-story residence that stood northwest of the tower. A third dwelling, a square, one story structure with a hipped roof, was built southeast of the lighthouse in 1886, but unfortunately none of these historic structures remain. In the early 1960s, the Coast Guard tore down the latest incarnation of the keeper's dwelling and replaced it with the present structure that is completely devoid of the charm possessed by the earlier dwellings.

Thomas P. O'Hagan retired as keeper of Amelia Island Lighthouse on June 30, 1925 at the age of sixty-six. He started his lighthouse career at Fort Ripley Shoal Lighthouse in Charleston, South Carolina, and later served at Georgetown Lighthouse and Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse, before arriving at Amelia Island in 1905. Upon his retirement, the Lighthouse Service noted that he was “held in esteem by the officers in charge of the district.”

Electricity reached the tower in the 1930s, which allowed the station to be automated in 1970 and its final Coast Guard keeper, Otho. O Brown, to be reassigned. Following automation, the Coast Guard Auxiliary was responsible for the lighthouse and held CPR and boating safety classes at the station.

Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, Amelia Island Lighthouse was declared surplus and offered to Fernandina Beach. In a ceremony held on March 28, 2001, the lighthouse was officially handed over to the city. In 2002, the city received a $350,000 grant from the Florida Division of Historical Resources, enabling Worth Contracting, Inc. to complete restoration work on the tower in 2004. During the project, the iron walkway around the lantern room was replaced along with at least one of the supporting brackets. At the time of my visit, the replaced pieces were being stored in the oil house, which has since be restored.

As the property is bordered by private homes, providing public access to the lighthouse is problematic. After weighing various options, the town decided to offer two “fee-based” public tours each month, wherein the participants will be bused to the site. The Coast Guard Auxiliary still maintains the lighthouse, which is the oldest standing lighthouse in Florida.

Head Keepers: Amos Latham (1838 – 1842), Capt. E. Richardson (1842 – 1848), George W. Walton (1848 – 1854), Horace Vaughan (1854 – 1857), James W. Woodland (1857 – 1859), Christopher C. Moore (1859), George Lightner (1859 – 1864), James Parker (1864 – 1868), Joseph H. Donnelly (1868 – 1873), Henry Swan (1873 – 1874), Henry Gage (1874 – 1878), Samuel Petty (1878 – 1879), Joseph S. Howell (1879 – 1880), Dewayne W. Suydam (1880 – 1891), Charles W. Grimm (1891 – 1905), Thomas Patrick O’Hagan (1905 – 1925), Thomas John O’Hagan (1925 – 1954).

Revisit to St Simons Lighthouse, St Simons Island, Georgia

Didn't have the stamp for this location, so went back and got it today.....


Also picked up several historical markers around the area. 

The beautiful two-story, brick keepers' dwelling and the white, 104-foot tower on St. Simons Island today seem like the idyllic light station, but such was not always the case. The station was considered isolated before being linked to the mainland, and one of the head keepers was murdered on the lighthouse grounds. In addition, stagnant ponds on the island provided the perfect breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes, which led to the death of two men overseeing construction of the lighthouse.

Congress appropriated $7,000 on March 16, 1804 for a lighthouse on Saint Simons Island, and John Couper, owner of a plantation on the southern end of the island, sold four acres of his land to the government later that year for a token sum of one dollar. Couper was anxious that a lighthouse be built on the island to aid commerce in the Brunswick area.

The original appropriation reverted to the treasury in 1806, but Congress provided the much larger sum of $19,000 on March 3, 1807 for the project. In April of 1807, Couper's plan of getting a lighthouse on his property seemed to have worked as a notice appeared in the Savannah Advertiser soliciting a builder with sufficient skills to erect a lighthouse on the southern end of St. Simons Island. The plans called for a lighthouse constructed of brick in the form of an octagon, supported by a stone foundation and secured by a substantial panel door with iron hinges.

James Gould, newly arrived from New England, answered the ad and suggested that the tower be constructed of tabby, a local building material made from a mixture of lime, water, sand and oyster shells, and that some other minor alterations to the design be made. Gould's suggestions were accepted, and he was awarded the contract.

Gould used the ruins of Fort Frederica, which was built on the island in 1736, as a source for the tabby, and completed the seventy-five-foot tower in late 1810 at a cost of $13,775. Oil lamps suspended on chains served as the original light source.

With St. Simons Lighthouse finished, Gould was now out of work, but the following excerpt from a letter exchanged between two of his sisters reveals his time at the lighthouse was not yet done.

James has been officially appointed Keeper of the Light by President Madison, at a salary of $400 a year. The appointment came 4 May and he was, in spite of the small pay, plainly pleased to be trusted with the keeping of his beloved lighthouse. He appears also proud of the tower, so far, but what he insists is my discontent, I feel is somehow his own. I simply try to make him laugh and attempt to understand what it is he really wants to do with his life once the lighthouse is completed and he has been its keeper long enough to be satisfied that the lantern and all else is in order.

Apparently Gould was not too discontented with his life at the lighthouse as he served as keeper for twenty-seven years.

A residence was evidently not built with the lighthouse as James Gould was paid $1,700 in 1830 to build a keeper's dwelling. In 1838, it was noted that the tower's eight-inch reflectors were too small. This problem was corrected in 1847 when nine lamps with fourteen-inch reflectors were installed in the lantern room. In 1856, the lighthouse was outfitted with a third-order Fresnel lens.

When Confederate troops abandoned the island in 1862, they dynamited the tower and keeper's cottage, so they would not benefit Union forces.

Following the Civil War, noted Georgia architect Charles B. Cluskey drew up plans for a new lighthouse and dwelling on the island for which Congress had appropriated $45,000 on March 2, 1867. In the fall of 1869, a contract for the project was awarded to the lowest bidder with a completion date around the middle of the following year. Difficulties in procuring materials and landing them at the site resulted in the completion date being pushed back to November 1, 1870, but even this date would prove too ambitious. During the summer months, there was a great deal of sickness at the site, and the contractor fell ill and died. One of the contractor's bondsmen stepped in to complete the work, but he also passed away at the lighthouse.

The surviving bondsman stepped in in November 1871, when the lighthouse stood at fifty-one feet, and over the next several months managed to complete the impressive Victorian duplex and 104-foot tower. The light from a third-order, L. Sautter Fresnel lens was first shown on September 1, 1872. The lens is a fixed lens, meaning it does not contain any flash panels and thus produces a steady light, however, there are four flash panels that revolve around the outside of the lens producing a bright flash once per minute. Originally, the panels produced alternating red and white flashes, with intervals of one minute.

The keepers at the new lighthouse repeatedly complained about the unhealthy living conditions on the island. The Lighthouse Board finally took action in 1875 and drained the ponds near the lighthouse. Seeds of the Eucalyptus globulus tree were also planted at the station, as the trees were believed to neutralize the noxious gases that caused malaria. Only later was it learned that the trees helped prevent malaria by consuming large quantities of water, thus helping to drain the swampy areas where mosquitoes bred.

On a Sunday morning in March of 1880, Keeper Frederick Osborne and his assistant had an altercation on the lighthouse grounds, wherein the assistant shot Osborne dead. The assistant was later acquitted of murder charges, which may have prevented a peaceful rest for the departed Osborne, whose service was cut short. During Carl Svendsen's service as keeper, which lasted from 1907 to 1935, he and his wife repeatedly heard mysterious footfalls, which would send their dog Jink into a frenzy. To this day, people claim to hear inexplicable footsteps in the tower.

A speaking tube was installed in 1876 to connect the watchroom atop the tower with the dwelling so the relief keeper could be summoned. Keeper Isaac Peckham was lying down in the watchroom on the evening of August 31, 1886 when at 9:30 p.m. the Charleston earthquake shook the station. Keeper Peckhman reported that the accompanying noise "was like that made by a horse running over a hard road" and that one of the red flash panels broke. In May 1887, mother nature took another swipe at the station when lightning struck the dwelling. This prompted the addition of two new lightning conductors, with improved ground connections, to the dwelling.

The erection of a light to range with St. Simons Lighthouse and guide mariners safely into the harbor was proposed as early as 1837, but Congress didn't provide funds for it until 1893. The selected site for the beacon had to be obtained through condemnation proceedings, which delayed the establishment of the range light until May 1895. A triangular, skeletal tower, made of iron, was used to display a locomotive light at a focal plane of thirty-seven feet. This structure was destroyed by a hurricane on September 29, 1896 but was replaced the following month.

In 1890, a brick oil house was constructed on the lighthouse grounds to store the volatile kerosene, which replaced the increasingly expensive whale oil as the lamp fuel. The nine-by-eleven building could hold 450 five-gallon oil cans. Kerosene was in turn replaced by electricity in 1934, and the station was automated sixteen years later in 1950. Shortly after automation, the passageway connecting the tower to the dwelling was removed.

The keepers' dwelling was vacant for several years until it was leased to Glynn County in 1972 for use as a museum and visitors' center. After three years of restorative work overseen by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, the museum opened to the public. The tower was opened in 1984 to climbers willing to brave the 129-step spiral staircase. Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, ownership of St. Simons Lighthouse was officially transferred to the Coastal Georgia Historical Society on May 26, 2004.

Head Keepers: James Gould (1811 – 1837), Lachlan McIntosh (1837 – 1852), Alexander D. McIntosh (1852 – 1855), John F. Carmon (1855 – 1861), Bradford B. Brunt (1872 – 1874), Frederick Osborne (1874 – 1880), George W. Ashbell (1880 – 1883), Isaac L. Peckham (1883 – 1892), Joseph Champagne (1892 – 1907), Carl O. Svendsen (1907 – 1935), Arthur F. Hodge (1936 – 1945), David O’Hagan (1945 - 1953).

There were several historical markers around the lighthouse grounds which helped to tell the story of this beautiful structure:  

There were several markers around the lighthouse grounds....All help tell the futher story of this beautiful light:  

In 1804, John Couper of

Cannon's Point Plantation sold 4

acres of land, known as Couper's

Point, to the U.S. Government

for the sum of $1.00. This is

the site where the first St.

Simons Lighthouse, built by

James Gould, was located.

The present lighthouse was commissioned by the U.S. Government in 1867 to be built adjacent to the site of the 1810 tower. The 104' tower and keeper's dwelling were designed by the noted architect Charles Clusky. Clusky and several of his crew members died of malaria during construction. The light and dwelling were completed in 1872.

The Lighthouse and Keeper's Dwelling Today
The lighthouse tower is of brick construction. Cylindrical in shape, it has a 129-step cast-iron spiral staircase. The foundation is 8' below ground, 30' in diameter, and 3' thick. In 1890, the fireproof oil house was constructed. The oil house was designed to hold 450 5-gallon containers of kerosene to light the lamp in the lantern room. Later, large oil drums were installed in the oil house to contain the fuel.

The Keepers Life
Several lighthouse keepers, such as C.O. Svendsen ( to your left), and their assistants did duty at this station. Often, the keeper's wife served as his assistant keeper. The lighthouse was completely automated in 1953.  The early lives' of the keepers were lonely and monotonous. The Keeper's main task was to keep the light burning from sunset to sunrise. In addition, he was responsible for routine maintenance of the lens, buildings such as barns, boat houses, residence, and grounds.
The pay was $400 to $600 per year in the 19th Century. The highly prized position required the Keeper to be able to read and write, and sons often followed fathers and grandfathers footsteps into the United States Lighthouse Service

Surely the most important aspect of the lighthouse to the mariner is the light that emanates from the tower. The tall, white beacon also serves as a day-mark. The light, a 1,000 watt electric bulb, is reflected by a fixed 3rd Order Fresnel Lens manufactured by L. Sautier of Paris. Four flash panels, mounted around a fixed lens, revolve around the bulb flashing one beam per minute. The beam projects out 23 miles, limited by the curvature of the earth.
Today, our lighthouse is under the jurisdiction and care of the United States Coast Guard, Aids to Navigation, Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The preservation of the historic structure on this site is the responsibility of the Coastal Georgia Historical Society.

In 1804, Scottish-born plantation owner John Couper sold four acres of land for $1 to the new United States government to build the first St. Simons Light Station.James Gould was hired to design and build the lighthouse and keeper's dwelling in 1807. It was constructed of tabby - a mixture of oyster shells, lime, sand, and water. It was first lit in 1811.
The first lighthouse was 75' tall, octagonal, 25' at the base and tapered to 10' at the top. The 10' iron lantern room had oil lamps suspended by chains as the illuminant. James Gould was also appointed head lighthouse keeper from 1811-1837.
In the summer of 1861, 1500 Confederate troops were stationed on this site at Fort Brown. In 1862, Confederate troops destroyed the first lighthouse before evacuating the island so that Federal Forces could not use it as a navigational aid. The occupying troops were the African American Union soldiers known as the 1st South Carolina Volunteers.
The Plantation Era 
The Plantation Era began in the late 1700's and thrived on the growing of long staple cotton, known as "sea island cotton" and other crops such as indigo and rice. Cotton grew bigger and more plentifully here on the Georgia sea islands, and soon plantations were located from one

tip of St. Simons to the other. Although slavery was outlawed in early Colonial days, it became legal by 1757 in Georgia.
There is a strong connection between the Coastal sea islands and the Windward Coast of West Africa due to the slave trade that played such an important role in the success of area plantations. Slaves from West Africa were highly prized for their ability to cultivate rice, and then cotton. The War Between the States brought on the virtual demise of this era. The loss of slave labor made cotton growing and harvesting unproductive and not profitable. What remains is a cultural linkage between the "Gullah/Geechee" descendants of slaves of the sea islands and the countries of their ancestors.
A few tabby ruins remain of this era at Hampton Point, Cannon's Point and Retreat Plantation. Most of the old plantation lands have been covered by growth or converted to residential or commercial properties.

October 24th Hunting Island Lighthouse- Hunting Island State Park Beaufort County SC.

Got out to the Lighthouse at Hunting Island this morning, it had really changed since the days we used to head out there in '64.  

	Hunting Island, SC

Description: In 1853, various merchants, planters, and owners of vessels in South Carolina petitioned the federal government for new aids to navigation and alterations in existing ones. One of their requests was the establishment of a "light-house and corresponding beacon-light in the stead of the St. Helena light-ship, on the northern end of Hunting island, to range for the Swash channel." Congress appropriated $30,000 for the lighthouse and beacon light on August 3, 1854. This sum was expended in 1856 and 1857, but it wasn't until March 8, 1859 that the following official Notice To Mariners was published by the Lighthouse Board: Notice is hereby given that at sundown on Friday, the 1st day of July next, the new light-house and beacon on the north point of Hunting island, S.C., will be lighted, and will be kept burning during that night and every night thereafter from sunset to sunrise. The main light-house is a conical tower built of reddish gray brick, the upper 25 feet of which will be colored white. The tower is surmounted by a brass lantern. The illuminating apparatus is a lens of the second order of the system of Fresnel, showing a revolving light of the natural color, the interval between the flashes of which is 30 seconds. The tower is 95 feet high, and the focal plane is 108 feet above the level of the sea. The light should be visible in clear weather a distance of 17 nautical miles. The beacon light is an open-work wooden frame, painted white, 32 feet high. The focal plan is 39 feet above the level of the sea. The illuminating apparatus is a lens of the sixth order of Fresnel; showing a fixed light of natural color. Hunting Island Lighthouse was activated on the prescribed date, with Anton Johnson serving as the first keeper. The latitude and longitude given as part of the notice place the lighthouse nearly two miles off the northern end of Hunting Island, given its shoreline in 2000. Obviously, the original Hunting Island Lighthouse is no longer standing, but its demise was not due to the advancing ocean but rather to a retreating army. Confederate forces blew up the lighthouse in 1861 to hinder the approach of the Union fleet before the Battle of Port Royal. Plans for a new tower were made a few years after the war, and Congress awarded $30,000 on June 10, 1872 to start its construction with the stipulation that it be on land owned by the government. A survey of the northern end of Hunting Island made in 1872 by the district engineer found that about a half mile of shoreline had been lost during the previous three years. This rapid rate of erosion prompted the Lighthouse Board to request an additional $50,000 so an iron lighthouse, capable of being relocated, could be built. Congress appropriated this additional amount on March 3, 1873, and a construction crew was dispatched to the island shortly thereafter to construct a temporary wharf and quarters for the workmen. Due to the "unhealthiness of the climate," the work had to be suspended during the warm summer months and did not resume until the spring of 1874, when an eight-foot-thick concrete foundation was laid and the first three courses of the iron tower were bolted in place. Worked stopped at the end of June and did not resume until November. The 121-foot-high lighthouse was finished in early June of the following year, and the light's characteristic white flash every thirty seconds was exhibited for the first time on July 1, 1875. The metallic shell, manufactured by Phoenix Iron Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was lined with bricks and capped with a second-order Fresnel lens. On March 3, 1875, $10,000 was provided for building a keeper's dwelling and protecting the site. During the construction of the lighthouse, over 400 feet had been lost from the tip of the island, but it was thought that the tower, located nearly a mile to the south, would be safe indefinitely if a couple of log jettees were put in place. A head keeper and two assistants were assigned to the station, and the spacious two-and-a-half story dwelling was completed on May 1, 1876 to house the whole lot. The dwelling measured sixty-three by thirty-eight feet, and had twelve rooms. Cisterns with a capacity of $7,000 gallons were built to store water for the station. At 9:50 p.m. on August 31, 1886, the effects of the Charleston earthquake were felt at the station. It was easy to note the exact time, as the clock in the lighthouse was stopped by the tremor. The first shock was so strong that a bucket that was half full of water on the top landing in the tower was nearly drained. The two assistants atop the tower couldn't stand up with holding onto something. One assistant was outside on the gallery and was thrown back on forth between the railing and the tower. The station's chickens were shaken form their perches and ran out of the coop in seemingly great terror. In 1886, a stone jetty was constructed on the beach near the station using a $5,000 made by Congress the previous year. The jetty worked well until a storm in August 1887 brought the ocean to within sixty feet of the dwelling and 152 feet of the tower. The Lighthouse Board urgently requested $51,000 to purchase a new site and move the station's structures, and Congress responded with the desired sum in April 1888. A heavy sheet-pile revetment, 200 feet long and with retreating wings at each end, was built along the beach to secure the old site until the move could be made. A temporary tower topped by a fourth-order light was put into operation on February 1, 1889 to serve mariners while the second-order light was out of commission. Over a period of six months, lasting from March 18 until September 13, the lighthouse was dismantled, transported along a tramway, and then reassembled 1 1/4 mile farther inland. During the summer months, the workers were suffering from malarial fever but still prosecuted the work with vigor. The lighthouse was relit on October 1, 1889, and the temporary light discontinued. The exhausted workers were taken to Charleston in September to recover but returned in November to rebuild the keepers' dwelling, whose pieces they had already moved to the new site, and erect a new oil house. The station was once again whole on March 22, 1890. The relocation cost $51,000, exactly half of the construction cost fourteen years earlier. During the hurricane of 1893, the 272-foot steamship City of Savannah I was grounded on shoals off Hunting Island. Men on board lashed themselves to the masts, while a dozen women and children were placed in two lifeboats and rowed ashore through the heavy surf. After the terrifying ride to the island, they waded through waist-deep water to reach the protective confines of the lighthouse where they safely waited out the storm. After thirty-six hours lashed to the rigging with nothing to drink and just raw turnips for food, the men were finally rescued by the steamship City of Birmingham. Hunting Island received its name because it was once used for hunting deer, raccoon and waterfowl. The keepers and their families likely enjoyed the abundance of wild game, but they also raised hogs, chickens, and turkeys and tended a garden as well. Oil and supplies were brought to the island by boat, off-loaded at a wharf on Johnson's Creek, and then transported along a 3,000-foot tramway to the station. The oil was stored in the fireproof oil house, while other items were placed in two outbuildings near the dwelling. Each of the outbuildings had a small attached room that served as an outhouse. For drinking water, a gutter system collected rain from the roof of the dwelling and transported it to a cistern for storage. In 1933, a lighted whistle buoy was placed offshore, and the tower was deactivated. The U.S. Senate passed a bill in August 1937 transferring the lighthouse reservation to Beaufort County for use as a park or game preserve, and the following year South Carolina acquired the island from Beaufort County and converted into a state park. At this time, the keepers dwelling was used to house workers from the corps of engineers, who were tasked with building a bridge to the island and making other improvements. Reportedly, a lantern was knocked over during a card game being held by the workers on June 9, 1938, and the keepers dwelling burned to the ground. The foundation of the dwelling was uncovered in 1995 and then capped with modern red bricks so visitors can see its outline. That same year, the tower was activated as a private aid to navigation. Hunting Island Lighthouse is the only historic lighthouse in South Carolina that is officially opened to the public for climbing. However, this changed in 2003, when cracks were discovered in several steps of the tower's circular stairway. The cracks were repaired in 2004, and metal braces were placed beneath each tread. The steel gray braces were left unpainted so they can readily be identified as additions to the black, cast-iron stairs. On February 18, 2005, visitors were once again allowed to climb to the top of the tower and enjoy the glorious view of the wooded island and expansive ocean. The Atlantic continues to claim several feet of the sandy shore each year. Currently, the tower stands 400 feet from the shoreline at high tide. If erosion continues at its present rate, the lighthouse might need to be moved yet again.

There were several markers at the light-  

Revisit to Cockspur Island Light House Fort Pulaski National Monument Georgia

Got to this light house today for a revisit-   Got the stamp and a couple of markers as well.  

 Inscription for this marker:

The Cockspur Island Lighthouse, located in front of you was built in 1856. Six years later it was a silent witness to the Battle of Fort Pulaski. On April 10-11, 1862, the lighthouse was located midway between Union forces here on Tybee Island and Confederate forces inside Fort Pulaski. During the long-range bombardment, more than 5,000 shells passed over the light. The Cockspur Light survived the battle, and remains today as only one of five lighthouses in Georgia.

The 46-foot-tall beacon marks the South Channel of the Savannah River. The light is surrounded by water at high tide, and can only be reached by boat. To get a closer look, the Light Overlook Trail is available near Fort Pulaski.

Imagine standing here during the battle. The view has changed since then. In 1862, there were no trees hiding the fort. Look to the left of the lighthouse . Can you pick out the fort's flagpole? The sighting tube at left should help. The distance is about 1,600 yards. At the time of the battle, the Union Navy was blockading the entrance to the Savannah River in the distance to your right

At Fort Pulaski, there is this marker:

Designed and built in 1848 by renowned architect, John Norris to mark the entrance to the South Channel of the Savannah River, the Cockspur Island Lighthouse was destroyed by a hurricane in 1854. A larger replacement was built on the same foundation in 1855. During the American Civil War, the light was temporarily extinguished. The lighthouse survived the 30 hour Union bombardment of Confederate-held Fort Pulaski in 1862 and hurricanes in 1881 and 1893. By the late 1800s, shipping had moved to the North Channel of the Savannah River. The lighthouse was no longer needed and was deactivated in 1909. In 1958, the U.S. Coast Guard transferred control of the Cockspur Island Lighthouse to the National Park Service.

There is also a part of a crown next to the visitors center, with this marker:

Tybee Island Lighthouse, Georgia

Got to two lighthouses today, Tybee Island Lighthouse at Tybee Island, Georgia, and also Cockspur Island light which is part of Fort Pulaski National Monument.  


First Tybee-  Had visited there once before, but didn't have any stamp nor pin-  got the stamp,and a pin, and a couple of postcards for my nephews.  

The St John's Lighthouse St John's River, Jacksonville, Florida

Got this one today, August 27th when we visited the Mayport Naval Station to see some of the new ships.  

Description: Naval Station Mayport covers 3,409 acres and is home to an aircraft carrier, twenty-one other naval ships, several helicopter squadrons, and two lighthouses. The oldest of the two lighthouses, St. Johns River Lighthouse, was active between 1859 and 1930 and is tucked away in the northwest corner of the station, 1.8 miles from the coast. The station’s second lighthouse, St. Johns Lighthouse, is located right on the coast, about a mile south of the mouth of St. Johns River. St. Johns River Lighthouse was replaced by St. Johns Lightship, anchored seven miles offshore. The lightship served for over two decades, but the expense of staffing and maintaining the floating light, led the Coast Guard to build the modern St. Johns Lighthouse, which replaced the lightship on October 1, 1954.

h courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

A square, sixty-four foot tower with beveled corners, St. Johns Lighthouse is an art deco tower constructed of concrete blocks and has never had a lantern room. Originally, the lens was shielded by a Plexiglas dome, but today the solar-powered beacon sits fully exposed atop the flat-topped tower. A unique feature designed into the lighthouse was a system of pulleys and wires used to lower the former optic into the tower, where it could be cleaned or repaired, and then raise it back atop the tower.
The lighthouse was automated in 1967, and the dwellings that used to house the coast guardsmen were turned over to the Navy. The two attached, one-story wings, which extend south and west from the base of the tower, are still used by the Coast Guard.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 are one of the few instances where America has been attacked on her home soil. Another such attack,  also planned by foreign infiltrators, was attempted during World War II. On June 17, 1942, four German saboteurs, carried across the Atlantic by a U-boat, came ashore just a couple miles south of St. Johns Lighthouse with a supply of explosives, primers, and incendiaries to be used in a two-year assault on American defense-related targets. The men buried their boxes of supplies in the sand, and then headed north to start planning the attacks.
Four days earlier, another team of four had landed on Long Island, New York. Fortunately, one of these men had second thoughts and traveled to Washington D.C., where he turned himself over to authorities on June 19. Information gathered from his interrogation resulted in the arrest of the three remaining members of the Long Island group the following day in New York City. Two members of the Florida group were captured in New York City on June 23, and the remaining two men who landed in Florida were arrested in Chicago on June 27. No attacks were carried out before the arrests were made.
A trial, held during the following month, found all eight men guilty and sentenced them to death. The informant had his sentence reduced to thirty years in jail, and another defendant’s sentence was commuted to life in prison. The remaining six were executed on August 8, 1942.

The presence of St. Johns Lighthouse and the large naval force at Mayport will hopefully keep that section of the coast safe for mariners and safe from any future attacks from the sea.

Sullivan's Island Light Mt. Pleasant SC

Date of visit:  Thursday April 24, 2014

 The modern monolithic Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse, the last major lighthouse built by the federal government, resembles an air traffic control tower more than a traditional lighthouse. The tower's unique triangular shape, with one point directed towards the ocean, allows it to withstand winds of up to 125 miles per hour.
When erosion threatened Morris Island Lighthouse, located south of Charleston Harbor, the decision was made to construct a replacement beacon on Sullivan’s Island, north of the harbor’s entrance. Although the triangular tower, built of concrete and steel and clad in a skin of aluminum, doesn't have much Southern charm, it does have some redeeming qualities. Inside the tower, the keepers of the light are treated to air conditioning and an elevator that offers a leisurely, seventy-four-second trip skyward. After the elevator ride, it is still necessary to scale a twenty-five-foot vertical ladder to reach the lantern room, where a powerful light source is housed.

Charleston Lighthouse in 1962 Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

When first activated on June 15, 1962, the lighthouse featured an amazing twenty-eight million candlepower light, produced by carbon arc lamps costing $900 apiece, that was the second brightest in the western hemisphere. This powerful beam proved dangerous to its keepers and bothersome to its neighbors. In order to access the lantern room when the powerful lamps were lit, keepers were required to don an asbestos welding suit. To pacify neighbors, plate steel was installed in the landward side of the lantern room. The beacon was downgraded a decade later to a light of just over a million candlepower. Visible from twenty-six miles, the light now has a unique flashing characteristic consisting of a 0.2-second flash, a 4.8-second eclipse, another 0.2-second flash, and a 24.8-second eclipse.
Charleston Lighthouse was originally painted white and red-orange, but the coloring proved so unpopular that the tower's daymark was soon changed to the current black-top, white-bottom paint scheme.
The high-tech Charleston Lighthouse overlooks one of the South’s oldest and most historic cities. Just down the street from the lighthouse is Fort Moultrie, named after William Moultrie a Revolutionary hero responsible for building an earlier fort on the same site. Moultrie and his men repelled a British armada on June 28, 1776, supplying momentum to the quest for independence that would be officially declared just six days later. Fort Sumter is located just offshore from Fort Moultrie. In April of 1860, Confederate forces in Fort Moultrie fired on the Federal soldiers in Fort Sumter, marking the beginning of the Civil War.
The 163-foot-tall triangular lighthouse is not the first to be built on Sullivan’s Island. Records indicate that two "pole-beacon lights" were placed near the southern end of the island near Fort Moultrie in 1848 to guide mariners over Charleston Bar. The range lights were destroyed during the Civil War, but after the surrender of Charleston in the spring of 1865, a temporary, open-framework tower was placed atop a private residence. Formal range lights were established in 1872 with the front beacon being displayed from a wooden tower on the fort's parapet and the rear beacon from a square, open-framework tower. The front range light was moved from the parapet to a point east of the fort in 1878, and the following year, the wooden tower was placed atop a brick basement that functioned as an oil room. The front tower was painted red in 1883.
In 1898, a lifesaving station was built on Sullivan’s Island. The station’s dwelling and boathouse still survive next to Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse, and were used by the coastguardsmen manning the light.
Mike Sejman served at the lighthouse in the 1970s, when the station was staffed by a 1st class petty officer serving as the Commanding Officer, a 2nd class petty officer, and two non-rated crew members. Speaking to a reporter from the The Charleston Observer in 1976, Sejman mused, "It's a little sad sometimes to think that pretty soon they are going to automate the light here and they won't need us any more. I guess all the romance is about gone out of lighthouse keeping. I'm sorry too. I like it."

Sullivan's Island Range in 1885 Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Sejman enjoyed showing the public around the lighthouse, which was open to visitors for a few hours on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. Due to the inherent danger involved in negotiating the vertical ladder that led to the lantern room, guests were required to sign a release relieving the Coast Guard of any liability in case of an accident. In November of 1976, responsibility for servicing the now-automated lighthouse was transferred to the Coast Guard Station in Charleston.
In 1986, the National Park Service took over the lifesaving station property, excluding the lighthouse, and started to use the historic buildings as offices, maintenance shops, and housing for seasonal rangers.
On May 29, 2008, Charleston Lighthouse was also transferred from the Coast Guard to the National Park Service, which is committed to protecting the historic nature of the property and to prevent commercial development on the site. The Coast Guard will continue to maintain the light, but the Park Service will be responsible for the upkeep of the tower.
On the official transfer day for the lighthouse, Bob Dodson, superintendent of Fort Sumter National Monument, met with Chief Boatswain's Mate Andrew White, the Coast Guard's local officer in charge of aids to navigation, to obtain the keys and security code for the tower and to discuss maintenance and access issues. "You are relieving me of a big burden by taking over the lighthouse," White said, noting that his crew of ten were responsible for monitoring and maintaining about 600 navigational aids along the South Carolina coast. Due to the difficulty of accessing its lantern room and viewing platform, Charleston Lighthouse will not be open to the public on a regular basis, but the Park Service has not ruled out an annual or semi-annual open house.
A celebration for the earlier transfer was held at the lighthouse on November 9, 2008. At that time, the grounds, lifesaving quarters, boathouse, and the base of the tower were open to the public. A symbolic key transfer was held, with local officials participating.

On January 7, 2009, Jack Graham, accompanied by his wife Martha, stopped by Sullivan's Island Lighthouse. Making it to the top of the tower that her husband designed was on Martha's "bucket list." Jack Graham completed his architectural training at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957 under the tutelage of Louis Kahn, who was obsessed with triangles. A year after graduating, Graham learned he would be drafted, so he signed up with the Coast Guard and was stationed at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1959, he was asked to come up with a design for a lighthouse, and given his background, he based it on a triangle, the strongest structural shape. Graham also persuaded the Coast Guard to install the elevator in the lighthouse because of the numerous reported accidents that occurred on lighthouse steps.

Old Cape Henry Lighthouse Cape Henry Virginia

A 2Fer at Cape Henry...

The old masonry light at Cape Henry was a long time coming. For seventy years, the Colonial Assembly of Virginia heed and hawed, passing resolutions and attempting to convince reluctant authorities in Maryland and Great Britain to assist in the construction of a beacon at this vital cape. Standing at the juncture of Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Henry is the entry point to the ports of Norfolk, Newport News, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
For many years preceding the birth of our nation, pirates were far more appreciative of the importance of Cape Henry than was the Virginia House of Burgesses. With the cape lacking a proper light, beacon fires were used as a makeshift navigational aid, and unscrupulous men would capture those in charge of the fires and move the light southward to lure ships aground. As the wreckage continued to mount, men like Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood petitioned the Assembly to take action. In 1720 this body resolved to construct the light, “Provided the Province of Maryland will contribute...”
Receiving little but passive cooperation from their neighbors, the Virginia Assembly was further hampered by the reluctance of the British Board of Trade to grants its permission to proceed. Since the lighthouse was to be financed in part by shipping duties, the consent of this august body was required. Governor Spotswood argued a strong case, describing the plight of merchants too frightened to venture into the Chesapeake during foul weather. He reasoned: “If such a lighthouse were built ships might then boldly venture, there being water enough and a good channell within little more than a musquett shote of the place where this lighthouse may be placed.” Yet it was only in 1758, and at the behest of concerned tobacco merchants, that the Board threw their weight behind the project.

New and Old Cape Henry Lighthouses in 1905 Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

In 1772, the Maryland assembly got on board as well, and the project was underway. Workers’ quarters and stables were built and over 4,000 tons of stone were delivered to Cape Henry. In the summer of 1775, however, the initial allotment of funds was nearly depleted and an additional 5,000 pounds was requested. At this point, the Revolutionary War intervened, and the valuable stones lay forgotten and buried in drifts of sand while more pressing matters were attended to.
In many respects, Old Cape Henry lighthouse is inextricably linked with the birth of our nation. The Aquia sandstone for its base was gathered from the same Virginia quarries that provided material for Mount Vernon, the U.S. Capitol Building, and the White House. At the first session of the first Congress in 1789, an act was passed which placed the lighthouse service under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Treasury. Included in this act was the provision for the construction of Cape Henry Lighthouse, giving it the distinction of being the first lighthouse ordered and financed by the federal government. The Virginia Assembly, mindful of its own difficulties in building the lighthouse, moved rapidly and ceded two acres in the County of Princess Anne to the United States. President Washington himself took an interest in the construction, noting in a 1790 diary entry that he had spoken with Alexander Hamilton (the Secretary of the Treasury), “respecting the appointment of Superintendents of the Light House, Buoys, etc, and for building one at Cape Henry.”
Secretary Hamilton contracted with a New York bricklayer named John McComb, Jr. to undertake the project at a cost of $15,200. The contract called for McComb, with “all convenient speed, (to) build and finish in a good workman like manner a Light House of Stone, Faced with hewn or hammer dressed Stone...from the bottom of the Water Table up to the top of the Stone Work.” The contract also specified a two-story frame house of twenty feet square, for the keeper, as well as a buried vault for the storage of lamp oil.
The construction proved to be a difficult task, though Hamilton’s representative on the scene describes a highly motivated and uncomplaining John McComb: “He is persevering and merits much for his industry, the drifting of the sand is truly vexatious, for in an instant there came down fifty cart loads at least, in the foundation after it was cleaned for laying the stone, which he bore with great patience and immediately set to work and removed it without a murmur as to the payment for the additional work...” The builder did have to be compensated an additional $2,500, however, as the foundation had to be laid at a depth of twenty feet rather than the planned thirteen, owing to the sandy condition of the ground. McComb estimated that he would finish the lighthouse by October 1792, and this is indeed when it was first lighted.
Lemuel Cornick, who had overseen the construction of the lighthouse, applied to be its first keeper, but President George Washington awarded this honor to William Lewis, who had been one of his loyal troops during the Revolutionary War. Keeper Lewis died just a month after his appointment, and Lemuel Cornick got his chance to run the light. Though he had desired the position, Cornick abandoned the job less than a year later, and Laban Goffigan was made the light’s third keeper.

Old Cape Henry decorated for the holidays Photograph courtesy Stuart Nesbit

Engineer Benjamin Latrobe visited Cape Henry in 1798 and provided detailed descriptions and sketches of the light in operation. One of his drawings shows Old Cape Henry complete with the weather vane, ventilator, and lightning rods called for in the contract with McComb. Latrobe described the lighthouse as “an octangular truncated pyramid of eight sides, rising 90 feet to the light...and six or seven hundred yards from the beach...” This design is basically the same as that of the Cape Henlopen, Delaware tower constructed in 1767. The tower is twenty-six feet in diameter at its base, and the walls there are six feet thick. At its summit, it shrinks to a diameter of sixteen feet. The tower is composed of attractive rosy Rappahannock sandstone which caught Latrobe’s fancy, although he did find fault with the structure on two key points. First he decried “the unpardonable fault of a wooden staircase, which being necessarily soaked with oil exposes the light to the perpetual risk of destruction of fire.” He also sympathized with the plight of the keeper, noticing that the lighthouse, which sits at the summit of a fifty-six-foot-high sandy dune, creates a whirlwind about it which “licks up the sand...and heaps it around in the form of a basin. The sandy rim, while it protects the keeper from the storms, renders his habitation one of the dreariest abodes imaginable.”
Like most of its comrades, the light at Cape Henry underwent numerous repairs and technological upgrades in the ensuing years. In 1835, a new house was built for the keeper, and in 1841, the lantern was completely redone by Winslow Lewis with eighteen new lamps with brass burners and eighteen reflectors. This work was performed at a cost of $4,000 and included replacement of the wooden deck near the summit with a soapstone deck laid over a brick arch. In 1844, a fifteen-foot-high wall was built around the tower’s base and that area was paved over. In 1855, a fog bell tower was added, and in 1857, the tower was lined with brick and a second-order Fresnel lens replaced the array of lamps and reflectors. Other innovations included the types of oil used in the lantern; these varied from whale oil to cabbage, lard, and kerosene oil, which was adopted near the turn of the century.
The Civil War temporarily put Cape Henry out of commission. In April 1861, men from Princes Anne County seized the tower and destroyed the lamps and lens. It is likely that the Confederate states (including Virginia) feared the formidable sea power of the Union and sought to make it difficult for them to enter the vital Chesapeake. A lightship was anchored off the cape to serve Union forces until 1863, when Cape Henry Lighthouse was repaired, put back in operation, and placed under military guard.
In 1864, an inspector finally corroborated Latrobe’s observation, remarking that Cape Henry was endangered by its oil soaked wooden staircase, which was at this point “greatly decayed and insecure.” The inspector recommended a cast-iron spiral staircase, and this was subsequently installed. The tower remained strong for eight more years, but in 1872 the district engineer noticed large cracks “extending from the base upward” on six of the eight masonry walls comprising the octagonal structure. The inspector concluded that some of these cracks were inconsequential, but those on the north and south faces were compounded by the presence of windows. The inspector concluded that the tower was unsafe and “in danger of being thrown down by some heavy gale.” The construction of a new first-order lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling was recommended, but it took six years for the necessary $75,000 to be appropriated. In 1881, Keeper Jay Edwards transferred his attentions to the new cast-iron structure. Standing 350 feet southeast from the old tower, it was first lighted on December 15, 1881.
Somewhat surprisingly, Old Cape Henry lighthouse has neither crumbled nor been swept away in a storm. Today it stands in silent idleness, next to and somewhat higher than its replacement, owing to its location on the summit of the dune. It remains an indelible landmark, and in 1896 was graced with the presence of the members of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA). They placed upon the old light a plaque commemorating it as the site of the first landing in 1607 of English colonists on Virginia soil. It thereby became the predecessor of the Cape Henry Memorial, to which its shadow reaches on a late summer afternoon. On June 18, 1930, the U.S. Congress ceded the light and land to the APVA, to be preserved in perpetuity as an historic landmark.

In 1939, Old Cape Henry Lighthouse was selected as the site to celebrate 150 years of the Lighthouse Service, and it was this same year that lighthouse maintenance was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Coast Guard. Today, the lighthouse grounds are encompassed by Fort Story Military Reservation and are a noteworthy destination for visitors to the nearby Colonial National Historic Park. Old Cape Henry is the fourth oldest lighthouse still standing in the United States. The lighthouse was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2002.