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Bodie Island Lighthouse
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BODIE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
Third Time's A Charm
Throughout history, the watery perils that exist off North Carolina's coast have endangered mariners. Hundreds of ships have fallen prey to these formidable currents, fierce  storms, and shifting shoals. . .the infamous Graveyard of the Atlantic. The Outer Banks were an area crucial for the construction of lighthouses. Like so many other features here, the Bodie Island Lighthouse owes its very existence to these menacing waters.
In 1837, the federal government sent Lieutenant Napoleon L. Coste of the revenue cutter Campbell to examine the coastline for potential lighthouse sites that would supplement the existing one at Cape Hatteras. Coste determined that south-bound ships were in great need of a beacon on or near Bodie Island, by which they could fix their position for navigating the dangerous Cape. He punctuated his recommendation with the statement that “more vessels are lost there than on any other part of our coast.”
Congress responded with an appropriation for a lighthouse that same year, but complications over purchasing the necessary land delayed construction until 1847. This was but the first of many problems. Though the skillful Francis Gibbons was contracted as engineer, the project's overseer was a former Customs official named Thomas Blount, who unfortunately had no lighthouse experience at all. This proved disasterous when Blount ordered an unsupported brick foundation laid, despite Gibbons' recommendations to the contrary. As a result, the 54-foot tower began to lean within two years after completion. Numerous expensive repairs failed to rectify the problem, and the lighthouse had to be abandoned in 1859.
The second lighthouse fared little better than its wobbly predecessor. Though funded, contracted, and completed in prompt fashion at a nearby site in 1859, it soon succumbed to an unforeseen danger: the Civil War. Fearing that the 80-foot tower would be used by Union forces as an observation post, retreating Confederate troops blew it up in 1861. After the war, the coast near Bodie Island remained dark for several years while a replacement tower was considered by the Lighthouse Board. Though the Board was disposed against the idea, numerous petitions came in from concerned ship captains, and finally it decided in favor of a third Bodie Island Lighthouse. Still, 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 new 15-acre site, purchased by the government for $150.00 from John Etheridge, was north of the inlet. Work crews, equipment, and materials from the recent lighthouse project at Cape Hatteras were used to build necessary loading docks, dwellings, and facilities. Government contracts brought bricks and stone from Baltimore firms, and ironwork from a New York foundry. Construction of the tower proceedly smoothly, and it first exhibited its light, magnified by a powerful First Order Fresnel Lens, on October 1, 1872. The Keeper's Quarters duplex was completed soon thereafter.
Early problems with flocks of geese crashing into the lens and improper grounding for electrical storms were quickly  rectified with screening for the lantern and a lightning rod for the tower. There have been few other difficulties with the lighthouse itself since its completion. From the keeper's 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 only by boat). This meant that the keeper's wife and children lived away from the lighthouse except during the summer months, making for a lonely and trying family life 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, which ended the need for an on-site keeper. Finally, all of the light station's property except the tower itself were transferred to the National Park Service in 1953. The Keeper's duplex has since undergone two historic restorations, the last having been completed in May 1992. The building now serves as a ranger office and visitor center for Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Still a functioning U.S. Coast Guard navigational aid, the tower remains closed to the public.
Bodie Island Lighthouse Facts:
Height: 156 feet
Height of Stripes: 22 feet
Stairs: 214
Light Pattern: 2.5 seconds on, 2.5 off,
2.5 on, 22.5 off
Beam Range: 19 miles
Ownership: transferred from US Coast Guard to the National Park Service in 2000
BODIE ISLAND LIGHT
Location: 4 MILES NORTH OF OREGON INLET
Station Established: 1847; 1859 & 1871 (restored)
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1872
Operational? YES
Automated? YES 1954
Deactivated: n/a
Foundation Materials: TIMBER/GRANITE/RUBBLE
Construction Materials: BRICK/CAST IRON/STONE
Tower Shape: CONICAL
Height: 165-feet originally, 156-feet (existing third lighthouse)
Markings/Pattern: WHITE & BLACK BANDS W/BLACK LANTERN
Characteristics: White 2.5 seconds on, 2.5 seconds off, 2.5 seconds on, and 22.5 seconds eclipse with 2 cycles each minute.
Relationship to Other Structure: SEPARATE
Original Lens: FIRST ORDER, FRESNEL 1872
Foghorn: None
Historical Information:
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1847: The contractor on the first project was Mr. Francis Gibbons, of Baltimore, who would later become a prominent lighthouse builder on the West Coast. Cost was $5,000.00 but problems with location and design of the tower caused a ten-year delay in construction. The tower was highly unstable and soon after it was completed, it began to lean toward the sea.
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1859: By 1859, the Bodie Island Lighthouse was deteriorated and the Lighthouse Board secured a $25,000. Appropriation from Congress to erect a new tower. This new tower was 80 ft and its lantern was a third-order Fresnel lens.
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1861: In the fall of 1861, Confederate troops stacked explosives inside the tower and blew it apart.
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1871: A third Lighthouse was completed in 1871 with material left over from construction of a new tower at Cape Hatteras. Tower was 156 ft with a first-order Fresnel lens that made its light visible from 19 miles at sea. The Bodie tower is painted with white and black horizontal bands.
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