Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1958-08-27
Six Lighthouses Overlook
Tar Heel Coastal Fairgrounds

visitors by day.
One of the lighthouses Is the
tallest in Amtrica. Another has
been in continuous service for
l35 years.
And one is a newcomer flash
ing the brightest Light of them
all.
North to south, the lighthouses
are Currituck Beach, Bodie Is
land, Capt Hatteras, Ocracokc,
Cake Lookout and Oak Island.
The land-going lighthouse wat
cher can follow paved roads to
Bodie, Hatteras and Ocracoke
in the Cape Hatteras
National Seashore on the Outer
Banks island, and to the new
Oak Island Lighthouse on Cas-
well 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 tall
est lighthouse but one Of the
most visited and most photo
graphed. Through cooperative
arrangement between tht Nation
al Park Service and the U. S.
Coast Guard (Which operates all
the lighthouses) it is open daily
SO visitors can climb the 268
steps to its lamp. The view
makes the climb well worth
while.
A brick tower built i'll 1S69-70,
Hatteras Lighthouse itself had
to be rescued from 1.-THE Grave
yard of the Atlantic" after IS
years of warning ships off the
dread Diamond Shoals. When
completed to replace an earlier
lighthouse which was a Civil
War casualty, the present light
house stood $500 feet back from
the sea. By 1885 the beach had
become so eroded that the light
house was abandoned and a steel
skeleton tower further inshore
took over its duties. But Gov
eminent erosion control begun in
1896 was so successful that in
1850, with the encroaching surf
pushed back some 600 yaroS by
new sand dunes, the lighthouse
went back into service. It's rotat-
ing bacon produces a beam Of
100000 candlepower, normally
visible in clear weather for a.
bout 20 miles.
Oak Island Lighthouse, COM
pleted this year, had already
made history when its beacon
was turned on the night of May
Is, 1858. The first lighthouse
built in the 5th Coast Guard Dis
trict since 1903, the year POM
cred flight was invented by the
Wright Brothers, it is believed
to be the first lighthouse ever
constructed with aircraft assist
anCe. Its beacon flashed from a
lamp house installed on the 1855
foot high concrete tower by Mar
inc Corps helicopter. The light
house is only 10 miles off U. S.
II by paved highway.
South Of Hatteras and newly
accessible by toll-free automo-
bile ferry and paved road, Ger
acoke Island is the home OF the
oldest North Carolina lighthouse
still in use. Built in 1923, Ocra-
coke Lighthouse is 70 feet nigh,
painted white, and shows a fix
ed white light for Il miles.
Bodie Island Lighthouse, which
began operation in 1872, stands
we'll back from the ocean near
the entrance to the Cape Halter
as National Seashort. Like Hat
teraS Lighthouse, it is accessible
by a new paved Park road loop
ing off the State highway which
Extends to the southern tips OF
Bodie, Hatteras and Ocracoke Is
land and crosses Oeegon and
iHatteras Inlets on free automo-
bile ferries. Bodie Island Light
house is l6O feet tall, out looks
shorter because of its alternate
stripes of black and white.
Cape Lookout Lighthouse or
the Core Banks, off the central
North Carolina mainland, is a
l60-foot high round brick tower
.Smartly painted with diamond
shaped black and white mark
ings. 1t is approaching its Tooth
birthday. Only wild ponies ano
a few Coast Guardsmen and
summer cottagers inhabit the
long, narrow island on which