In this edition, you'll learn about the Cape Lookout National Seashore and find out the best ways to see this coastal National Park.

http://www.nps.gov/calo/home.htm

http://www.northcarolinaoutdoors.com/places/coast/capelookout.html

Location: Carteret County east of Morehead City and Beaufort. Access: Boat only. Take Highway 70 east from Morehead City and follow signs to Harkers Island and Cape Lookout National Seashore. To get to the Cape, just call 252.622.1068, and we can get your reservations on any of the several boats that ferry visitors to and from the Park.   Intrepid canoeists and kayakers can put in at the public park near the eastern tip of Harkers Island. Be aware that the water in Core and Back Sounds can get very rough!! Size: A 56 mile long section of the Outer Banks between Ocracoke Inlet on the northeast and Beaufort Inlet on the southwest. Average width is about 1/2 mile. Established: March 10, 1976. Included on the North Carolina Registry of Natural Heritage Areas May 23, 1986. Designated as a component in the Carolinian-South Atlantic Biosphere Reserve in 1986. Interesting Trivia: When he anchored off Core Banks in 1524, Italian explorer Verrazano thought the body of water on the west side of the dunes that we know as Pamlico Sound was the "oriental sea... which is the one... which goes about the extremity of India, China, and Cathay." For the next 150 years, many European explorers embarked on a fruitless search for "Verrazano's Sea." and a short route to the Far East.

Want to know what our coastal barrier islands looked like before postwar development got the best of them? Visit Cape Lookout. It is the closest thing to a seaside wilderness to be found south of Maine.

But dont let the pristine appearance of this national seashore's three islands - North Core Banks, South Core Banks, and Shackleford Banks deceive you. People have lived and worked in this difficult environment for a long time. Verrazano reported natives living on Core Banks during his 1524 voyage to the New World. Colonial sailors frequently used Lookout Bight as a safe harbor during storms and hurricanes. Pirates, such as Blackbeard, found its protected waters a convenient place to launch raids on merchant shipping. The wild ponies that live on Shackleford Banks today are believed to be descendants of feral ponies left behind by Spanish explorers.

Portsmouth, on North Core Banks, was established by North Carolina's colonial assembly in 1753 and settled shortly thereafter. At its peak in 1860, the village had 505 permanent residents, of which 117 were slaves.

While many of Portsmouth's buildings remain, the traces of other human habitations on the seashore have all but disapperared. Diamond City, at the eastern end of Shackleford Banks, was a thriving whaling and fishing village of 500 people in 1899. But a succession of hurricanes prompted residents to load their homes and belongings onto boats and move to the mainland. By 1903, Diamond City was a ghost town. No trace remains today except a few pieces of lumber and shards of pottery and glass.

The legacy of human habitation shapes this landscape today nonetheless. The feral horses on Shackleford Banks eat vegetation such as marsh grass and young trees, stunting plant succession and limiting the island's ecological diversity. The maritime forests that once covered much of the entire Seashore has been reduced to a small remnant near the western end of Shackleford Banks.

The most enduring and romantic legacy of human habitation on the seashore is the Cape Lookout lighthouse. Built in 1859 to replace a smaller one built in 1812, its height of 150 feet makes it one of the tallest on the East Coast.

In the early 1800s, Congress authorized construction of a lighthouse on Cape Lookout. Though it's not certain when construction began, the original Cape Lookout Lighthouse was completed and lighted in 1812. The 96-foot high brick tower was eventually painted with red and white horizontal stripes.

In time, it proved to be inadequate to protect passing ships from the Horrible Headland of Lookout Shoals. The tower was too short and its beacon too unreliable to sufficiently light this treacherous section of the coast. By the 1850s, it was apparent that the lighthouse was in serious disrepair as well as in danger from the encroaching sea.

The present lighthouse structure was completed in 1859. Its red brick tower was sturdier and taller than the original structure of 1812. The lantern contained a first-order Fresnel lens that displayed a fixed light that could be seen up to 18 miles offshore. Today, a pile of rubble is all that remains of the original lighthouse of 1812.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, the tower was vandalized by retreating Confederate troops and the Fresnel lens damaged, thus rendering the lighthouse useless to the Union ships after nightfall. In 1863, the tower was refitted with a third-order Fresnel lens. The original lens was repaired and reinstalled in 1867.

In 1873, the present Keeper's Quarters was constructed and the lighthouse received its distinctive diamond-shaped, black-and-white pattern which helped to distinguish it from the other North Carolina lighthouses. Today, even though sophisticated navigational systems are used by ships, the lighthouse is a reminder of the dangerous shoals. The tower is equipped with a radio beacon and has been unmanned and automated since 1950.

Will the tower give way to weather and sea? It has survived many hurricanes and war, but today its battle is with the wind and sea. Between 1940 and 1979, 1,000 feet of land between the lighthouse and sound have eroded away.

History of the Lighthouse

1804

United States Congress authorizes the construction of the first lighthouse "...on or near the pitch of Cape Lookout". A four-acre site at the cape is deeded to the government the following year by Joseph Fulford and Elijah Pigott, though construction would not begin for several years.

1810

The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States instructs the Collector of Customs in Beaufort to advertise bids for a lighthouse on Cape Lookout in local newspapers.

1811

The contract for the Cape Lookout lighthouse is awarded to Benjamin Beal, Jr., Duncan Thanter and James Stephenson of Boston.

1812

The first Cape Lookout Lighthouse is completed on the four-acre Fulford-Pigott tract at a cost of $20,678.54. It is a brick tower inside a wood frame building. The boarded exterior is shingled and painted with red and white horizontal stripes. Its mechanism consists of thirteen 21-inch parabolic reflectors. The focal plane of the light is 96 feet above ground and 104 feet above sea level. President James Madison appoints James Fulford as the first keeper at a salary of $300 a year.

1851

The lighthouse is again in serious need of repair. The paint is nearly gone and shingles are missing. The interior of the keeper's dwelling also needs repair, and the keeper is constantly moving sand that has built up along the side of his quarters. The ocean is coming dangerously close. Complaints from seafarers are making it evident that a taller and more stable lighthouse is needed. Though attempts are made to renovate the first Cape Lookout Lighthouse, eventually the decision would be made to replace the outmoded structure.

1852

The U.S. Lighthouse Board is created and assumes control of all aids to navigation.

1856

Over the years, the effectiveness of the lamp and parabolic reflector system is questioned. The Lighthouse Board finally gets around to install a first-order Fresnel lens in the lighthouse. And it isn't until this year that the Board takes action to rebuild the tower

1859

The new Cape Lookout Lighthouse is completed and lighted on November 1. It is a red brick tower, 163 ft high; a wooden stairway winds to the top. The first-order Fresnel lens displays a fixed light that can be seen 18 miles in good weather. This tower was to become the prototype of all lighthouses to be erected on the Outer Banks. The old tower of 1812 was left standing until as late as 1868.

1861

Abraham Lincoln is elected President and the Confederacy is formed. North Carolina joins the Confederacy on May 20.

1862

Retreating Confederate troops attempt unsuccessfully to blow up the Cape Lookout tower. The Fresnel lens is damaged and the light is rendered useless.

1863

A third-order Fresnel lens temporarily replaces the original lens while it is being repaired. Whale oil, which is used as fuel for the light, climbs to $2.43 per gallon and the Lighthouse Board searches for a cheaper substitute fuel.

1867

The wooden stairs are replaced with cast iron stairs. The original first-order Fresnel lens is repaired and reinstalled.

1871

The Lighthouse Board turns its attention to the keeper's dwelling. The building is too old for further repair and Congress appropriates $5,000 for a new keeper's dwelling.

1873

The new keeper's quarters is completed. It houses two assistant keepers and their families. (This is the present keeper's quarters.) The lighthouse is painted with its distinctive diagonal black-and-white checkers to distinguish it as a day marker. Mineral oil (kerosene) becomes the fuel used to ignite the lamp.

1892

Lack of confidence in shorebased lighthouses raises the recommendation for a lightship at the southern extremity of Cape Lookout Shoals. This would protect the mariner in hazy weather when a vessel might be on the shoals before seeing the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Congress takes no action at this time.

1907

A third keeper's quarters (a wood structure) is built at a cost of $4,479.13.

1910

The Lighthouse Board is dissolved, and replaced by the Bureau of Lighthouses.

1914

The Cape Lookout beacon is changed from a fixed white light to flashing, with two, ten-second eclipses.

1933

This is the last year a lightship is stationed off the Cape Lookout Shoals until WWII. The radio beacon and electric lightning equipment is salvaged from the lightship and installed in the lighthouse. A 75-millimeter incandescent oil vapor lamp increases the light from 77,000 to 160,000 candlepower and is now visible for 19 miles. The worst hurricane in local history occurs in this year.

1939

The Bureau of the Lighthouses is incorporated into the U.S. Coast Guard.

1950

The Cape Lookout Lighthouse becomes completely automated.

General Statistics

Present lighthouse was built in 1859

Height above sea level ......... 169 ft

Height above ground level .... 163 ft

Focal plane of the lantern ..... 150 ft above mean high water

Brick and cement construction. In 1873 the tower was painted with its present black-and-white diamond stripes.

 

There are ten windows and two doors in the tower; 201 iron steps spiral past seven wall landings to the top.

 

Two airport beacons, each powered with two, 1000-watt bulbs produce the light. Each beacon completely rotates in 30 seconds, giving a flash every 15 seconds.

 

The present Keeper's Quarters was built in 1873.

The keeper's dwelling built in 1907 was declared surplus and moved to its present site on the Cape in 1960. It is currently known as the Barden House.

Both keepers houses had a summer kitchen and woodshed. Brick and cement cisterns were placed at each end of the dwellings with a total capacity of 4,600 gallons.