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Oh,
Say Can You See?
Lighthouses
and Lookouts in VA
Lighthouses
and lookouts may serve different purposes in the
commonwealth, but they have one thing in common:
their numbers are shrinking. In the case of
lighthouses, several Virginia beacons have been
auctioned to private bidders on eBay when nonprofit
groups couldn’t come up with enough funds to
restore them.
Of
the 1,500 lighthouses left in the world, Virginia
claims 11 historic structures, nine of which still
operate. They include lighthouses on the Atlantic
coast, along the Chesapeake Bay and at the mouth of
the Potomac River.
One
of the oldest lighthouses in the country is the Old
Cape Henry Lighthouse, built in 1792. Its
90-foot-tall sandstone tower stands on the grounds
of Fort Story on Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach.
Its first keeper, Laban Goffigan, was appointed by
George Washington. He lit fish-oil burning lamps to
keep the Chesapeake Bay safe for seafarers. During
the Civil War, Confederate troops purposely damaged
the light to make navigation harder for Union
troops. By 1870 large cracks had appeared and a
new structure was deemed necessary. Today, the
original structure is maintained by the Association
for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. It’s
open to the public and every December the U.S. Army
decorates it like a large Christmas tree.
The
“new” Cape Henry
Lighthouse, built in 1881,
stands 357 feet away from its predecessor. At 164
feet, it is the tallest cast-iron lighthouse in the
United States. During World War II, the top was used
as a battery commander station and contained two
16-inch howitzers to ward off German attacks. It
remains active and is operated by the U.S. Coast
Guard. (Lighthouses in
Virginia.)
The
Assateague Lighthouse, first built in 1833 and
rebuilt in 1867, is also an active lighthouse. Since
2004, it has been owned by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, and wildlife refuge staff live in
the original two-story lighthouse keeper’s house.
Lighthouse
keepers have been essentially obsolete since the
beginning of the 20th century when a Swedish
inventor, Gustav Dahlén, invented automated
lighthouses. However, some keepers remain to serve
as rescue services.
The
Old Point Comfort Lighthouse, located at Fort Monroe
in Hampton, still houses a keeper. The 54-foot
structure, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, was
built in 1802 and is the second oldest on the
Chesapeake Bay. As with other lighthouses, it became
important during America’s various wars. It was
used as a watch tower in the War of 1812, and naval
guns riddled it with bullets during the Civil War.
The
New Point Comfort Lighthouse, built two years later,
is 63 feet tall. It also was disabled during the
Civil War by Confederate troops. It was then
repaired, but by 1919 had been partially automated
and there was no longer a need for a keeper. The
island on which it stands has been owned by the
Nature Conservancy since 1979.
Perhaps
the lighthouses with the most interesting fates are
those that were recently bought at auction. The
Smith Point Lighthouse, located in the Chesapeake
off the mouth of the Potomac, went for $170,000 on
eBay to Dave and Teri McNally of Winona, Minn.
McNally, who owns a construction business, plans to
remodel the lighthouse into a vacation home. (“The
Lure of a Lighthouse: Minnesota Couple Buy
Chesapeake Bay Landmark Tower in an Online
Auction,” The Washington Post, January 8,
2006.)
Robert Gonsoulin bought the
Newport News Middle
Ground Lighthouse at auction in October 2005 after
two nonprofit groups submitted applications to buy
it under the National Historic
Lighthouse Preservation Act but were turned down.
Gonsoulin, who plans to make the lighthouse a
retreat for his family, had spent $30,000 to restore
the structure by mid-2006. (Virginia
Lighthouses.)
Both the Smith Point and New News Middle Ground
lights are still active and operated by the U.S.
Coast Guard. Only the houses are in private
hands.
Lookouts, fire towers, watch towers – whatever you
might call them – are also a dying breed.
According to the Forest Fire Lookout
Association,
there are only 50 remaining fire towers in Virginia
out of 115 that existed at one time. For example,
only three of 24 fire towers remain in the George
Washington National Forest about 150 miles west of
Washington, D.C.
One of them is
Elliott Knob
Lookout, located on one of the highest points in
northern Virginia. The 30-foot tower sits
at an elevation of 4,421 feet. It’s a 14-foot by
14-foot live-in metal cab, built in 1948 to replace
one built in the 1920s. Another is High Knob
Lookout, which sits at 4,050 feet. It’s a 20-foot
stone tower with a wooden catwalk and cab. It was
built in 1939-1940 by World War I veterans and the
Civilian Conservation Corps.
Other towers are
operated by the Virginia Department of Forestry,
which oversees Virginia’s 17 state forests. The
Bull Mountain Lookout may be one of the only fire
towers in the country that honors a governor.
Located in Patrick County, it is dedicated to
Governor Gerald L. Baliles, who grew up near it and
is said to have “visited it often.”
While fire
towers may not have the same allure as their
lighthouse brethren and don’t show up at auction,
both are symbols of simpler times in the Old
Dominion.
NEXT: Mail Box Ballots:
Absentee Voting in Virginia.
--
November 20, 2006
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