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Location | Charleston County, US |
---|---|
Coordinates | 33°01′08″N79°22′25″W / 33.0189°N 79.3736°W |
1857 light | |
Constructed | 1857 |
Foundation | Timber pile |
Construction | brick |
Automated | 1937 |
Height | 46 m (151 ft) |
Shape | octagon |
Markings | Upper 2/3: alternating white and black; Lower 1/3: white |
Heritage | NRHP contributing property |
First lit | 1858 |
Deactivated | 1947 |
Focal height | 49 m (161 ft) |
Lens | 1st order Fresnel |
Range | 19 nmi (35 km; 22 mi) |
1827 light | |
Constructed | 1827 |
Construction | brick |
Height | 65 ft (20 m) |
Shape | conical |
Markings | red |
Heritage | NRHP contributing property |
Deactivated | 1858 |
Focal height | 87.5 ft (26.7 m) |
Lens | Winslow Lewis lamps and reflectors |
Cape Romain Lighthouses | |
Nearest city | McClellanville, South Carolina |
Coordinates | 33°1′7″N79°22′26″W / 33.01861°N 79.37389°W Coordinates: 33°1′7″N79°22′26″W / 33.01861°N 79.37389°W |
Area | 1.2 acres (0.49 ha) |
Built | 1857 |
Architect | Winslow Lewis |
NRHP reference No. | 81000563 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 12, 1981 |
The Cape Romain Lighthouses are a pair of brick lighthouses on Lighthouse Island southeast of McClellanville, South Carolina. [2] [3] The lighthouses are on the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge. The lighthouses were named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. [1]
During the times of Spanish exploration, Cape Romain was known as Cape Roman, and then briefly, Cape Carteret. The Cape's shoals were treacherous, extending seven to nine miles off the coast. In the days before lighthouses, many vessels and people died when ships ventured onto the shoals, and wind and waves claimed them for the sea.
When lighthouses were built to warn mariners away from the shoals, they saved many lives. The first lighthouse on Cape Romain was built by Winslow Lewis in 1827 on Northeast Raccoon Key. It cost $10,000 and the deal came with light keeper's quarters. The short, conical, brick lighthouse was 87 1⁄2 feet tall. Its red stationary light was fitted with 11 lamps and 21 inch reflectors. This lighthouse was a functional disappointment because the red, whale oil wick lamp could not be seen beyond 9–14 nautical miles. Today it is one of the few remaining lighthouses of its period in the U.S.
In 1853, $20,000 was appropriated to build a second lighthouse nearby, and to remove an old wind mill on Mill Island. A wick house, boat house, and two more dwellings were added nearby.
During construction, builders noticed that the new brick tower leaned toward the mainland. The lean has worsened over the years and today the tower is more than three feet off plumb.
Light keepers accessed the first order Fresnel lens after climbing 212 spiraling, cast-iron steps. The light was lit by oil lamp, with a revolving beam visible for 19 miles.
Just three years after the lighthouse was completed, the Civil War began, and lighthouses along the Atlantic Coast went dark. The light at Cape Romain was restored in 1866.
On August 31, 1886, “The keeper was in his house when the shock came. A gradually increasing rumbling ‘sounding something like a battery of artillery or a troop of cavalry crossing a long bridge,’ was heard before the shock. In less than a minute came the shocks, the first one lasting about two minutes, the next one as long and at about two minute intervals. The shocks did the tower no injury but its vibration was great. About a thousand “cranes” nest on the Key during the summer months, and these were flying about ‘making a fearful noise,’ during the shock, (“A Descriptive Narrative of the Earthquake of August 31, 1886, by Carlyle McKinley.)
Opportunities for socializing were rare. Located seven miles from the mainland, isolation impacted every aspect of life for lighthouse families. Children had to be sent away to attend school. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, McClellanville’s villagers began holding “Cape Parties” on Lighthouse Island. They played games, swam, caught fish, and collected crabs and oysters, then they roasted their tasty sea treats on the beach.
Assistant keeper Hepburn Morrison (1893–1896), told his granddaughter, Judy Fortner, that “the girls loved” his uniform. To entertain visitors, he would climb to the top and stand on his head, with his legs wrapped around the lightning rod tip!
In 1932 Lighthouse Island, Cape Island, Raccoon Key, and thousands of acres of salt marsh and tidal creeks were included in the new Cape Romain Migratory Bird Refuge. At that time it was managed by the U.S. Biological Survey, now known as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
For many years, refuge employees have sought resourceful solutions to protect the lighthouses from the damaging winds, storms, and salt air, but time has taken its toll. Because national wildlife refuges are established to care for animals and their habitats, the funding the refuge receives is for habitat and species management, rather than historic preservation. When refuge employees linked their efforts with partner and supporter Tommy Graham, disintegration of the old lights slowed.
Graham, a local historic restoration professional, worked with a team of refuge staff and volunteers to repair and repaint the lighthouses in 1983. Today he is working with Glenn Keyes, historic preservation architect, and John Moore, structural engineer, to design a solution for the rusted and unstable spiraling steps and to stabilize the structural instability of the lantern room. Four guided tours a year are offered by Cape Romain NWR, with transportation provided by Coastal Expeditions Ferry.
McClellanville is a small fishing town in rural Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,040 at the 2010 census. It is situated on the Atlantic coast, on land surrounded by Francis Marion National Forest, and has traditionally derived its livelihood from the Atlantic Ocean and coastal marshes by fishing, shrimping and oystering. McClellanville is part of the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville metropolitan area and the Charleston-North Charleston Urbanized Area.
Cape Hatteras Light is a lighthouse located on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks in the town of Buxton, North Carolina and is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The lighthouse’s semi-unique pattern makes it easy to recognize and famous. It is often ranked high on lists of most beautiful, and famous lighthouses in the US.
The current Bodie Island Lighthouse is the third that has stood in this vicinity of Bodie Island on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and was built in 1872. It stands 156 feet (48 m) tall and is located on the Roanoke Sound side of a portion of a peninsula that is the first part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The lighthouse is just south of Nags Head, a few miles before Oregon Inlet. It was renovated from August 2009 to March 2013, and was made climbable by the public. There are 214 steps that spiral to the top. The 170-foot structure is one of only a dozen remaining tall, brick tower lighthouses in the United States — and one of the few with an original first-order Fresnel lens to cast its light.
The Hunting Island Light is located in Hunting Island State Park on Hunting Island near Beaufort, South Carolina. Although no longer used as a functioning lighthouse, the tower is a fixture at the state park and is open to visitors. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
Bald Head Lighthouse, known as Old Baldy, is the oldest lighthouse still standing in North Carolina. It is the second of three lighthouses that have been built on Bald Head Island since the 18th century to help guide ships past the dangerous shoals at the mouth of the Cape Fear river.
Cape Fear Lighthouse was a coastal beacon built in 1903, replacing the Bald Head Lighthouse as the main navigation aid for Cape Fear and the Frying Pan Shoals off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It stood near the cape on Bald Head Island. It was a steel octagonal pyramidal skeleton frame lighthouse, as opposed to the conical brick lighthouses usually associated with the state. It was painted red and white horizontal stripes: three white and two red and housed a first-order Fresnel lens produced by the Henry-LePaute Company in France.
The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles offshore of the Florida Keys. It was operated by staff, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978 by the U.S. Coast Guard to mark the Florida Channel, the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. They decommissioned it in 1990.
The Currituck Beach Light is a lighthouse located on the Outer Banks in Corolla, North Carolina. The Currituck Beach Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1973.
The Cape Canaveral Light is a historic lighthouse on the east coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The light was established in 1848 to warn ships of the dangerous shoals that lie off its coast. It is located inside the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and managed by the Space Launch Delta 45 of the U.S. Space Force with the assistance of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation. It is the only fully operational lighthouse owned by the United States Space Force.
The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is a 163-foot-high lighthouse located on the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina. It flashes every 15 seconds and is visible at least 12 miles out to sea and up to 19 miles. It is one of the very few lighthouses that operate during the day. It became fully automated in 1950. The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is the only such structure in the United States to bear the checkered daymark, intended not only for differentiation between similar light towers, but also to show direction. The center of the black diamonds points in a north-south direction, while the center of the white diamonds points east-west.
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The Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge is a 66,287 acre (267 km²) National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern South Carolina near Awendaw, South Carolina. The refuge lands and waters encompass water impoundments, creeks and bays, emergent salt marsh and barrier islands. 29,000 acres (120 km2) are designated as Class I Wilderness. Most of the refuge is only accessible by boat. The Intracoastal Waterwayway passes the Refuge. Mainland facilities include the refuge's headquarters and visitor center which are located on U.S. Highway 17 about 30 minutes by car from Charleston, South Carolina.
The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is a 14,000-acre (57 km2) wildlife preserve operated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It is primarily located on the Virginia half of Assateague Island with portions located on the Maryland side of the island, as well as Morris Island and Wildcat Marsh. The refuge contains a large variety of wildlife animals and birds, including the Chincoteague Pony. The purpose of the refuge is to maintain, regulate and preserve animal and plant species as well as their habitats for present and future generations.
The Rear Lighthouse of Hilton Head Range Light Station, which is also called Leamington Lighthouse is an inactive light station on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. In 1983, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Bloody Point Range Lights, which is known as the Bloody Point Lighthouse, were range lights on the southern end of Daufuskie Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. The Bloody Point Range Lights were built in 1883. Due to erosion, the front light was moved to the location of the former rear light and became the rear light. The lights were maintained as an official aid to navigation until 1922. The original Front Range Light house is currently a private home.
Monomoy Point Light is a historic light in Chatham, Massachusetts.
The Chandeleur Island Light was a lighthouse established in 1848 near the northern end of the Chandeleur Islands in the Gulf of Mexico, off the east coast of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the light in 2005.
Sandy Cape Light is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Sandy Cape, the most northern point on K'gari, Queensland, Australia. It stands about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the northeastern tip of the island. It is the tallest lighthouse in Queensland. Built in 1870, it is the second major lighthouse to be built in Queensland after its formation in 1859. It is one of the first lighthouses in Australia to be constructed using bolted prefabricated segments of cast iron, and one of only two such lighthouses in Queensland, the other being its sibling, Bustard Head Light.
Cape Moreton Light, also listed as North Point Range Rear Light, is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Cape Moreton, a rocky headland located at the north eastern tip of Moreton Island, a large sand island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay, on the coast of South East Queensland, Australia. It marks the northern entrance to Moreton Bay and Brisbane and also serves as the rear light for the North Point Range. With its two distinctive red bands, it also serves as a daymark. It is the oldest lighthouse in Queensland, and the only one to be built by the New South Wales Government before the separation of Queensland, which took place in 1859. It is also the only lighthouse in Queensland to be built of stone.
Have you seen the Lights? from "Life in the Wild", Volume 5, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, at Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge