History with ‘Hud’: Story behind Cape Fear’s two remaining lighthouses

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CAPE FEAR, NC (WWAY) — National Lighthouse Day is Monday, marking the day Congress approved an act for the establishment and support of lighthouses in 1789.

The Cape Fear holds the distinction of being home to both the oldest lighthouse and youngest lighthouse in North Carolina. The Bald Head Island Lighthouse has stood in its current spot since 1817, with the Oak Island Lighthouse being finished in 1958.

But neither beacon of light was the first established in the region.

The property for the original lighthouse on Bald Head Island was purchased by Benjamin Smith in the late 1780s, with the funds for a $4,000 lighthouse being approved by the Treasury Department, lead by Alexander Hamilton, in 1792. Construction on the lighthouse was finished in 1795, but the structure would barely make it past the turn of the century.

Erosion due to storms caused the lighthouse to begin to fall into the water by 1810. Locals salvaged 100,000s of bricks from that lighthouse to go with new bricks to build ‘Old Baldy’, as it’s affectionately known today. The new lighthouse was finalized in 1817 at a cost of $16,000.

The 110-foot octagonal lighthouse was built with 5-foot thick walls at the base, and was originally white from top to bottom. It housed 15 fixed-light lamps fueled by whale oil at the top. But in the decades to come, the light changed to flash red every 30 seconds by the mid-1800s and to a fourth-order fixed light in 1903.

But the Bald Island Lighthouse had a problem. Due to its location on the island and its relatively weak light system, sailors complained they couldn’t see the light until they were very close to shore. Funds to increase the height of the lighthouse or strengthen its light were never approved. So a 184-foot cast iron skeleton tower coined the Cape Fear Lighthouse was assembled on the opposite side of the island in 1903 to alleviate the issue.

The new iron structure helped for a while, but proved impractical. Fuel had to be brought over from Southport and hauled 3 miles by mules to the station. The light also had to be rotated by a hand crank. As a result, plans were set in motion by the 1950s to build a lighthouse to solve the issues once and for all.

The Oak Island Lighthouse was quickly constructed across the inlet on Caswell Beach, putting an end to the need for the Cape Fear Lighthouse, which was subsequently deactivated.

The newest lighthouse in the Cape Fear was built in 1958 at a cost of $110,000 on land owned by the U.S. Coast Guard since the 1930s. As such, it was subject to different standards than previous lighthouses had been.

Despite being built in just 7 days thanks to 24 hour a day concrete pouring, the new structure is designed to sway only a few inches in winds upwards of 100 miles per hour thanks to 24 pilings driven 67 feet into the ground.

The structure’s unique coloring is thanks to a well-thought-out process of concrete pouring. The fist 40 feet is natural gray cement. The next 50 feet is concrete mixed with white quartz, with the final 52 feet containing black coloring. This leaves a design that never has to be repainted.

The final 11 foot aluminum lantern housing was installed by Marine Corps helicopters to cap the structure.

Standing 153 feet tall with the brightest lights in the United States at the time of 70 million candle power, the lighthouse could be seen 15 to 20 miles off the coast. This made it much safer for mariners moving along the coast.

Unlike older lighthouses, there’s no spiral staircase to the top. Instead housing a series of ship ladders leading to multiple landings.

The lighthouse and property was deeded to the Town of Caswell Beach as part of the Federal Lands to Parks Program in 2004. While the Coast Guard still upkeeps the light due to its navigational purposes, maintenance cost falls on the town.

Some of that would take place two years later, with work being done to fix cracks in the sides of the lighthouse.

But despite the cracks, the structure would continue to shine. A new LED rotating fixture was installed in 2020, the first of its kind. The light can now be seen for 25 miles out to sea.

Although modern technology allows mariners to rely less on lighthouses, the two vertical fixtures serve as a historical reminder of the importance they’ve served for more than two centuries.