Bodie Island Light Station – Cape Hatteras National Seashore (U.S. National Park Service)

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Bodie Island Lighthouse

Celebrating 150 years ! The Bodie Island Lighthouse was first fall on October 1st, 1872. For extra information regarding the 150th particular climbing temper, follow the link under Tours below.

Visiting the Light Station

The Bodie Island Light Station is located at the northern end of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The street address is

8210 Bodie Island Lighthouse Road
Nags Head, North Carolina 27959

decimal Degrees : 35.818118, -75.564222
Degrees Minutes Seconds : 35° 56 ‘ 12.9978 ”, 75° 42 ‘ 32.256 ”

Visiting the beach comes with potential hazards. Visiting the beach comes with electric potential hazards. Learn the elementary steps you can take to improve your safety.

Inscription inside the lighthouse

Tours

Climbing the Bodie Island Lighthouse is available in the summer months. Climbing the Bodie Island Lighthouse is available in the summer months. Tickets must be purshased on-line, and certain condom restrictions apply.

Fresnel lens atop the Bodie Island Lighthouse

History

In 1837, the federal politics sent Lieutenant Napoleon L. Coste of the gross cutter Campbell to examine the coastline for potential beacon sites that would supplement the existing one at Cape Hatteras. Coste determined that southbound ships were in capital want of a beacon on or near Bodie Island by which they could fix their place for navigating the dangerous cape. He punctuated his recommendation with the argument that “ more vessels are lost there than on any early part of our coast. ”
Congress responded with an appropriation for a beacon that lapp year, but complications over purchasing the necessary land delayed structure until 1847. This was but the first of many problems. Though the adept Francis Gibbons was contracted as engineer, the project ‘s overseer was a former Customs official named Thomas Blount, who unfortunately, had no beacon experience at all. This proved black when Blount ordered an unsupported brick foundation put, despite Gibbons ‘ recommendations to the contrary. As a resultant role, the 54-foot tugboat began to lean within two years after completion. numerous expensive repairs failed to rectify the problem and the beacon had to be abandoned in 1859 .
The second beacon fared small better than its rickety harbinger. Though funded, contracted, and completed in prompt fashion at a nearby locate in 1859, it soon succumbed to an unanticipated danger – the Civil War. Fearing that the 80-foot column would be used by Union forces, retreating Confederate troops blew it up in 1861 .

The Bodie Island Lighthouse and Double Keepers’ Quarters National Park Service
After the war, the coast near Bodie Island remained dark for several years while a substitution tugboat was considered by the Lighthouse Board. Though the Board was disposed against the theme, numerous petitions came in from concerned ship captains and, ultimately, it decided in favor of a third Bodie Island Lighthouse. hush, it was not until 1871 that construction began. The first two Bodie Island Lights had been located south of Oregon Inlet, actually on Pea Island .
The raw 15-acre locate, purchased by the politics for $ 150.00 from John Etheridge, was north of the inlet. Work crew, equipment, and materials from the holocene beacon undertaking at Cape Hatteras were used to build necessity cargo docks, dwellings, and facilities. Government contracts brought bricks and rock from Baltimore firms and ironwork from a New York foundry. construction of the loom proceeded smoothly and it first exhibited its light, magnified by a herculean first-order Fresnel lens, on October 1, 1872. The keepers ‘ quarters duplex was completed soon thereafter.

early problems with flocks of goose crashing into the lens and improper ground for electrical storms were quickly rectified with screening for the lantern and a lightning perch for the loom. There have been few other difficulties with the beacon itself since its completion. From the keeper ’ randomness perspective, however, there remained the problem of isolation. Bodie Island was completely undeveloped and the closest school was in Manteo on neighboring Roanoke Island ( accessible lone by boat ). This mean that the keeper ’ s wife and children lived away from the beacon except during the summer months, which made for a lonely and trying family liveliness most of the year. such situations, of course, were quite common in the Lighthouse Service. Eventually, progress enabled school buses to reach the island and the families were able to live with the keepers .
The light was electrified in 1932, phasing out the want for on-site keepers. finally, all of the light station ’ mho property, except the column, was transferred to the National Park Service in 1953. The keepers ‘ duplex has since undergone two historic restorations, the last having been completed in May 1992. The build now serves as a commando agency and visitor center for Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The most recent restitution of the beacon itself was completed in 2013. still a function navigational help, the tugboat is open seasonally for public tours .
Tucked away between improbable pine trees and fresh water marsh, the Bodie Island Light presents anything but a typical beacon setting. Though not equally well-known as its neighbors, it remains an significant part of local history and a darling spot for visitors. And still every even, amidst the water towers and blinking radio receiver antenna of modern development, its herculean light beams out across the darken waves, keeping silent watch over the punic waters known as the “ Graveyard of the Atlantic. ”