Hatteras Beacon

Last updated
The Hatteras Beacon in 1893. HatterasBeacon.jpg
The Hatteras Beacon in 1893.

The Hatteras Beacon was a small lighthouse at Cape Point near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was attached to the Cape Hatteras Light Station.

History

The beacon was established in 1855, and was moved several times over the course of its career; due to its exposed position, it took the brunt of many storms that blew in from the Atlantic Ocean. It was a short, square tower constructed of wood. Little else is known about it, except that it was the responsibility of the Third Assistant Keeper at Cape Hatteras, working under the head keeper's supervision.

Tilman Smith, head keeper at Cape Hatteras from 1887 to 1897, is recorded as having lit the tower for the last time in November, 1898, after which it was shut and replaced by a small post light at the point. No trace of the lighthouse survives today.

Related Research Articles

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Lighthouse in North Carolina, United States

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.

Portland Head Light Historic lighthouse in the United States

Portland Head Light is a historic lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The light station sits on a head of land at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor, which is within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine. Completed in 1791, it is the oldest lighthouse in Maine. The light station is automated, and the tower, beacon, and foghorn are maintained by the United States Coast Guard, while the former lighthouse keepers' house is a maritime museum within Fort Williams Park.

Hereford Inlet Light Lighthouse

The Hereford Inlet Light is a historic lighthouse located in North Wildwood in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, situated on the southwestern shore of Hereford Inlet at the north end of Five Mile Beach. Its construction was completed and it became operational in 1874.

Bald Head Light Lighthouse in North Carolina, US

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 19th century to help guide ships past the dangerous shoals at the mouth of the Cape Fear river.

Cape Fear Light Lighthouse in North Carolina, US

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.

Nobska Light Lighthouse

Nobska Light, originally called Nobsque Light, also known as Nobska Point Light is a lighthouse located near the division between Buzzards Bay, Nantucket Sound, and Vineyard Sound in the settlement of Woods Hole, Massachusetts on the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It overlooks Martha's Vineyard and Nonamesset Island. The light station was established in 1826, with the tower protruding above the keeper's house, and was replaced in 1876 by the current 42 foot tall iron tower. The light station was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Nobska Point Light Station in 1987.

Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Lighthouse in Florida, US

The Ponce de Leon Inlet Light is a lighthouse and museum located at Ponce de León Inlet in Central Florida. At 175 feet (53 m) in height, it is the tallest lighthouse in the state and one of the tallest in the United States. It is located between St. Augustine Light and Cape Canaveral Light. Restored by the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association, the lighthouse became a National Historic Landmark in 1998.

Cape Lookout Lighthouse Lighthouse in North Carolina, US

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.

North Head Light

North Head Lighthouse is an active aid to navigation overlooking the Pacific Ocean from North Head, a rocky promontory located approximately two miles north of Cape Disappointment and the mouth of the Columbia River, near Ilwaco, Pacific County, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of Cape Disappointment State Park.

New Dungeness Light

The New Dungeness Lighthouse is a functioning aid to navigation on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, located on the Dungeness Spit in the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge near Sequim, Clallam County, in the U.S. state of Washington. It has been in continuous operation since 1857, although the current lighthouse tower is 26 feet (7.9 m) shorter than when first constructed.

Alcatraz Island Lighthouse Lighthouse in the San Francisco Bay, California

Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse—the first one built on the U.S. West Coast—located on Alcatraz Island in California's San Francisco Bay. It is located at the southern end of the island near the entrance to the prison. The first light house on the island was completed in 1854, and served the bay during its time as a Citadel and military prison. It was replaced by a taller concrete tower built in 1909 to the south of the original one which was demolished after it was damaged due to earthquake in 1906. The automation of the lighthouse with a modern beacon took place in 1963, the year Alcatraz closed as the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. It is the oldest light station on the island with a modern beacon and is part of the museum on the island. Although when viewed from afar it easily looks the tallest structure on Alcatraz, it is actually shorter than the Alcatraz Water Tower, but as it lies on higher ground it looks much taller.

Cape Henlopen Light

Cape Henlopen Light was a lighthouse near Lewes, in present-day Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware, United States. The lighthouse was on the north side of the Great Dune on Cape Henlopen, Delaware. It was the sixth lighthouse built in the colonies.

Race Point Light

Race Point Light is a historic lighthouse on Cape Cod, in Provincetown, Massachusetts; it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The original tower, first illuminated in 1816, was replaced in 1876 with the current 45-foot tall iron-plated tower and a new keeper's dwelling. The American Lighthouse Foundation operates the property and rents out two buildings for overnight stays. The actual light is maintained by the Coast Guard. The site is reached by walking about 45 minutes over sand; with a National Park Service Oversand Permit, a four-wheel-drive vehicle can be used.

Cape Charles Lighthouse Lighthouse in Virginia, United States

Cape Charles Lighthouse is an octagonal cast iron skeleton tower lighthouse at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on Smith Island which was officially removed from service in 2019. It is the tallest lighthouse in Virginia and the second tallest in the United States. This particular tower is the third lighthouse at this location. The first lighthouse at Cape Charles was a 55-foot (17 m) masonry tower completed in 1828. It was quickly deemed inadequate for its important seacoast location due to its low height and poor visibility at sea. It was soon threatened by erosion so in 1864 it was replaced by a 150-foot (46 m) masonry tower built further inland. Located a little more than a mile southwest of the old tower and 600 feet from the shoreline, the impressive 150-foot-tall conical brick tower was similar in appearance to the 1857 Cape May Lighthouse, painted white and topped with a dark brown lantern room. In 1892, a twenty-five-foot red band was painted around the white tower's midsection, about sixty feet up from the base, to make it more visible during the day. By the 1890s, it too was threatened by beach erosion which jetties built to protect it failed to halt, and with the lighthouse now only 300 feet from the ocean and the shoreline eroding at a rate of 37 feet per year it was decided that a third lighthouse needed to be built three quarters of a mile inland.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the headland of Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point on the mainland of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia.

Cape Capricorn Light Lighthouse

Cape Capricorn Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on Cape Capricorn, a coastal headland on the northeast point of Curtis Island, in Gladstone Region, Central Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse, constructed in 1964, is the third at this site, following a timber frame lighthouse constructed in 1875 and a concrete lighthouse constructed around 1937. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 August 2001.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse Historic lighthouse in California, United States

Pigeon Point Light Station or Pigeon Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse built in 1871 to guide ships on the Pacific coast of California. It is the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States. It is still an active Coast Guard aid to navigation. Pigeon Point Light Station is located on the coastal highway, 5 miles (8 km) south of Pescadero, California, between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. The 115-foot (35 m), white masonry tower, resembles the typical New England structure.

Cape Henlopen Beacon

The Cape Henlopen Beacon was a lighthouse built to mark the point of the cape, supplementing Cape Henlopen Light just to the south. It was decommissioned in 1884 and demolished.

Balache Point Lighthouse Lighthouse in Nova Scotia, Canada

Balache Point Lighthouse also known as Balache Point Range Rear Lighthouse is an active Canadian lighthouse located next to the Canso Canal, near Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia. The salt shaker style light, which sits on a small hillock on the Cape Breton side of the canal, is the second lighthouse to be built on the site.

Pass A LOutre Light Lighthouse in Louisiana, US

The Pass A L'Outre Light is a defunct lighthouse in the Birdfoot Delta in Louisiana, United States, located near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Erected to mark the then-active entrance to the river, it was abandoned as that channel silted up. It has been in the path of several noteworthy hurricanes, and was heavily damaged. It is on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List, and is critically in danger. The lighthouse is at the center of a nature preserve.