BALD HEAD ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE-BALD HEAD ISLAND, NORTH CAROLINA

Bald Head Island is actually part of Smith Island, a collection of islands crisscrossed by creeks and inlets, and received its name from the denuded dunes on its south beach, which resemble a bald head. Extending twenty-eight miles from the southeast end of the island are Frying Pan Shoals, a collection of shifting sandbars, obscured by a thin covering of water. Early sailors dubbed the area Cape Fear, no doubt a reference to the feeling evoked when navigating near the hazardous shoals. A ten-acre site on the west side of Bald Head Island, along the banks of the Cape Fear River, was selected for North Carolina’s first lighthouse. The property was purchased from Benjamin Smith, who would later become the governor of North Carolina. In 1792, Congress appropriated $4,000 to complete the lighthouse that had been started by North Carolina before it became part of the United States. Work on the lighthouse was overseen by Abisha Woodward, who would later build two lighthouses in Connecticut: New London Harbor and Falkner's Island. Bald Head Island Lighthouse, which was first activated on December 23, 1794, directed traffic to the Cape Fear River and the growing port of Wilmington, located several miles upstream. Henry Long was hired as the first keeper of the lighthouse and served until October 1806, when he was killed by his son-in-law in a hunting accident. Twelve residents of the area signed the following petition that was sent to President Thomas Jefferson on December 31, 1806, recommending the appointment of Sedgwick Springs as keeper: We the subscribers resident Citizens in the District and town of Wilmington being informed that Sedgwick Springs wishes to become a Keeper of the Light House on Bald Head (provided it should be thought the widow of the late Henry Long, inadequate to the safe keeping thereof) beg leave Hereby to Recommend the said Sedgwick Springs as a fit and proper Person to take charge and keep up the said Light—He being an old Inhabitant of the town of Wilmington a Sober Industrious Citizen having been employed for these eight Years last past and now is an Inspector of the Revenue in which Office he has ever behaved himself as a dilligent and Carefull Officer and to our knowledge conducted himself as a truly honest man in all his dealings. Due to severe erosion along the river, the demolition of the original lighthouse was ordered in 1813, and by 1817, the replacement lighthouse, “Old Baldy,” was built farther inland and lit, for just under $16,000. A stone plaque above the entrance identifies the builder as Daniel S. Way, and the foundry for the lantern room as R. Cochran. Still the oldest in North Carolina, the octagonal brick and plaster tower stands ninety feet tall and was originally equipped with an array of lamps and reflectors. In 1849, a new lantern room was installed atop the tower and the old lighting apparatus, consisting of eighteen lamps and sixteen-inch reflectors, was replaced with fifteen brass lamps and twenty-one-inch reflectors. The lantern room is offset from the center of the tower, and as technology improved, it received a third-order Fresnel lens in 1855. At its base, the tower is thirty-six feet wide and at its top fourteen-and-a-half feet wide, while the walls are five feet thick at the base and taper to two-and-a-half feet at the top. The rectangular stairway leading up the inside of the tower is made of Carolina yellow pine. Some problems with Bald Head Lighthouse included its location and illumination. Positioned some four miles from the eastern end of the island and equipped with a minor light, the lighthouse was unsuccessful in guiding ships safely past Frying Pan Shoals. A lightship was therefore placed on the shoals and served from 1854 until 1964. Bald Head Light was discontinued in 1866 when the screwpile Federal Point Lighthouse was built eight miles upstream, near the present Fort Fisher ferry landing. After Federal Point Lighthouse was deactivated in 1879 upon the closure of New Inlet Channel by the Engineer Department, Old Baldy was returned to service along with a beacon on the nearby beach, which formed a range to help mariners safely enter the river. On March 3, 1883, the characteristic of Bald Head Lighthouse was changed from fixed white to a red flash every thirty seconds through the installation of a new fourth-order lens. Later that year, a 150-foot-long stone jetty was built to protect the tower from erosion, and this work likely saved the tower from being toppled by a hurricane that struck in September 1883. Keeper James H. Dosher reported that an earthquake shook the tower for ten seconds at 9:50 p.m. on August 31, 1886, breaking the glass chimney in the lamp. The shaking was accompanied by a hiss and and rumbling noise in the earth. On March 8, 1893, the characteristic of the light was changed from a red flash every thirty seconds to a white flash with the same period. In 1898, Congress authorized the construction of a 159-foot, skeleton tower, named Cape Fear Lighthouse, on the southeastern end of Bald Head Island, where it could mark Frying Pan Shoals. Cape Fear Lighthouse served from 1903 to 1958, when Oak Island Lighthouse, located on the mainland, became operational. After the completion of the new Cape Fear Lighthouse, Old Baldy was changed to a fourth-order fixed light and then decommissioned in 1935. Its Fresnel lens was removed from the tower, and from 1941 to 1958 the tower housed a radio beacon. The lighthouse was sold to a private owner in 1963. After another change of hands, the lighthouse was donated to the Old Baldy Foundation, organized to restore North Carolina’s eldest treasure. Restoration of Bald Head Lighthouse included placing a new cooper roof on the off-center lantern room and patching up the layer of stucco that covers the brick tower. Over the years, patchwork repairs have led to the unique mottled look of the lighthouse. Visitors can now scale the 112 restored wooden stairs to reach the top of the tower and take in the beautiful island setting. The lighthouse was relit as an unofficial aid in 1985. 

Bald Island lighthouse 1893