The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-09-26
SIX LIGHTHOUSES OVERLOOK
STATES COASTAL RESORTS

SIX LIGHTHOUSES OVERLOOk
STATES COASTAL RESORTS
Along North Cardinals long At
lantic Ocean coast, six lighthouses
beam warnings to ocean going yes
sells by night and charm visitors
by day.
One of the lighthouses is the
tallest in America. Another has
been in continuous service for 1876
years.
And one is a newcomer flashing
the brightest light of them all.
North to south, the lighthouses
are Currituck Beach, Bodie Island,
Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke, Cape
Lookout and Oak Island.
The land-going lighthouse watch
er can follow paved roads to Bodie,
Hatteras and Ocracoke lighthouses
in the Cape Hatteras National
Seashore on the Outer Banks is
lands, and to the new Oak Island
Lighthouse on Caswell Beach near
Southport.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 208
feet high from foundation base to
roof peak and painted with barber
pole stripping of black and white,
is not only Americas tallest light
house but one of the most visited
and most photographed. Through
cooperative arrangement between
the National Park Service and the
U. S. Coast Guard (Which oper-
ates all the Hghthouses) it is open
daily so visitors can climb the 268
steps to its lamp. The view makes
the climb we'll worthwhile.
A brick tower built in 1869-70,
Hatteras Lighthouse itself had to
be rescued from "The Graveyard
of the Atlantic" after Go years of
warning ships off the dread Dia-
mond Shoals. When completed to
replace an earlier lighthouse
which was Civil War casualty,
the present lighthouse stood 1900
feet back from the sea. By 1885
the beach had become so eroded
that the lighthouse was abandoned
and steel skeleton tower further
inshore took over it's duties. But
Government erosion control begun
in 1886 was so successful that in
4 1850, with the encroaching surf
pushed back some 600 yards by
new sand dunes, the lighthouse
went back into service. Its rotating
beacon produces beam of 100000
candlepower, normally visible in
clear weather for about 20 miles.
Oak Island Lighthouse, complet-
ed this year, had already made
history when its beacon was turn
ed on the night of May Is, 1868.
The first lighthouse built in the
9Th Coast Guard District since
1908, the year powered flight was
invented by the Wright Brothers,
it is believed to be the first light
house ever constructed with air.
craft assistance. Its beacon flash
Jed from "a lamp house installed on
the 165-foot high concrete tower
] by Marine Corps helicopter. The
lighthouse is only 10 miles off
| U. S. II by paved highway.
South of Hatteras and newly
accessible by toll-free automobile
ferry and paved road, Ocracoke
Island is the home of the oldest
North Carolina lighthouse still in
use. Built in 1923, Ocracoke Light
house is 76 feet high, painted
white, and shows fixed white
light for IA miles.
i Bodie Island Lighthouse, which
began operation in 1872, stands
well back from the ocean near the
entrance to the Cape Hatteras Ma
tional Seashore. Like Hatteras
Lighthouse, it is accessible by a
new paved Park road looping off
the State highway which extends
: to the southern tips of Bodie, Hat
teras and Ocracoke Island and
crosses Oregon and Hatteras In
lets on free automobile ferries.
Bodie Island Lighthouse is 100
tall, but looks shorter because of
its alternate stripes of black and
white.
| Cape Lookout Lighthouse on the
Core Banks, off the central North
Carolina mainland, is a 160-foot
high round brick tower smartly
painted with diamond-shaped black
and white markings. 1t is APP
preaching its Tooth birthday. Only
wild ponies and a few Coast
4 Guardsmen and summer cottagers
inhabit the long, narrow island on
which the lighthouse stands. Visit
ors reach the lighthouse by hiring