"I am drawn to lighthouses like a wave is to the shore."--A day at the St. Augustine Lighthouse

Turning off A1A and entering the parking area of the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, we were greeted by the sprawling tentacles of a thick stand of old oak trees. We entered the welcoming center and purchased our tickets. For the next hour or so, we toured the restored keeper's quarters and climbed the 219 cast iron steps with eight landings to the observation platform of the 165 foot tall lighthouse overlooking the oldest port in America. From there, we soaked in a breathtaking view of old St. Augustine's rich maritime landscape, converging waterways, and the far reaching temperamental Atlantic Ocean.

Discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon and established by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles in the 1500's, St. Augustine's treacherous port had its beginnings under Spanish control, but almost became a French interest in its early years. With an established settlement called Fort Caroline near what is Jacksonville today, Jean Ribault threatened to take the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine with a heavily armed fleet of seven ships carrying one thousand French colonists and troops. In a preemptive strike aimed at thwarting Menéndez' plans to found St. Augustine, Ribault sailed his fleet southwards. Advantage was reversed when the fleet was struck by a hurricane which scattered and wrecked his ships between Matanzas Inlet and Cape Canaveral. Instead, Fort Caroline was taken, Ribault and his men put to the sword, and Spain established a firm grip over the frontier lands of Florida.

The Spanish built the first of a series of watchtowers for the fledgling port in the late 1500's. These early towers likely held a flame, as is indicated on several archival maps and documents. In time, St. Augustine came under British control in 1764, was returned to Spain after the American Revolutionary War in 1784, and then was ceded to the United states in 1819. Outfitted with a fourth-order Fresnal lens, Florida's American territorial government officially lit the first St. Augustine light in an existing coquina structure in May of 1824. Coquina is a tan-colored sedimentary rock formed when seashells and coral are glued together with calcite. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Florida seceded the Union and joined the Confederacy, but St. Augustine was taken back by Northern troops in 1862 and the war finally ended in 1865.

With the coquina structure threatened by shoreline erosion, the US Congress appropriated $100K for a new tower. Construction began in 1871 and was completed in 1874. It was built with over a million Alabama bricks and Philadelphia iron works used to form the 219 stairs, 8 landings, observation decking and lens housing that crowned its top 165 feet above ground. A new hand-blown Fresnel lens, from Paris, France was installed and lit in October of 1874 by head keeper William Russell. The first-order Fresnel lens consists of 370 hand-cut glass prisms arranged in a beehive shape towering twelve feet tall and six feet in diameter. Today, the beacon is powered by a 1000 watt bulb and can be seen 19 to 25 miles out to sea. It remains one of only few such operating lenses in the United States.

The old tower succumbed to the sea during a storm in 1880. At this time retired Brev. Major William A. Harn of the United States Army was head keeper. Harn was at Fort Sumter when the first shelling began to open the Civil War and present at Appomattox when the Confederacy surrendered. He fought in most of the major battles of the Civil War including Gettysburg.

In 1876, a Victorian brick light keeper's house was added to the property, a triplex that held two families and a young, single, 2nd assistant keeper, most often of Menorcan descent. Brick summer kitchens were added in 1886. During World War II armed Coast guardsmen stood guard atop the tower, fixed jeeps in the 1836 garage and lived in a small barracks building. Light keepers' and their assistants lived and worked at the Light Station until the tower was automated in 1955.

The original light in 1874 was fueled by lard oil and then changed to kerosene in 1885. The kerosene was stored in four tanks with spigots in the oil room across from the keeper's office. To keep the light lit, the head keeper had to fill a five gallon bucket with the flammable liquid weighing about thirty pounds and carry it the grueling 219 steps to the lens room. A lighthouse operates like a clockworks keeping time as the lens turns around the light source. The keeper performed this strenuous task every 2 hours. Not only did he do this, but also his wife if he for some reason was not able.

As you climb the 219 cast iron stairs, there are 8 landings. Each landing features a wall history, recounting the stories of the Keeper's and their families. One amusing story you will discover on your ascent is about Cracker Daniels, the son of Light Keeper C.D. Daniels. Cracker Daniels "found out cat's can float when he attached a parachute to his sister's cat, Smokey and dropped him from the top the lighthouse. Smokey survived the descent, but the cat was very frightened and went missing for several weeks. Cracker's sister Wilma did not learn of this dastardly deed until 50 years later when he told her during a visit to the lighthouse."

The world’s first restoration of a Fresnel lens was accomplished at the St. Augustine lighthouse. After 19 of the first-order Fresnel lens's original prisms including one of three bull’s-eye panels had become damaged by a ricocheting vandal's rifle bullet, the USCG considered replacing the rare artifact with a modern airport beacon, which would be a huge historical loss for the lighthouse. The Junior Service League (JSL) of St. Augustine in cooperation with Chief Boatswains Mate Joe Cocking and Machinist Nick Johnston of the United States Coast Guard successfully pulled off the daunting task of repairing the lens and recorded the remarkable achievement.

St. Augustine and Charleston have shared histories. Toward the end of the Revolutionary War, thousands of loyalists fled from Charleston and Savannah to British held St. Augustine for safe refuge. St. Augustine's treacherous inlet claimed many of these refugee ships, including sixteen from the final fleet to evacuate Charleston in December 1782. Today, the Keeper's House is filled with artifacts salvaged from one of these shipwrecks together with two colonnade cast-iron cannons and two military buttons, including one from the 71st Regiment of the British Army dating 1780. The name of the ship has not yet been verified. Also, on August 31, 1886, the Charleston earthquake caused the tower to "sway violently", according to the keeper's log, but there was no recorded damage.

In 1936, electric light was installed in the lighthouse and the clockwork mechanism was replaced by an electric motor. The light had a candlepower of 20,000. Interestingly, in 1962, the brightest light in the United States belonged to Charleston Lighthouse also known as the Sullivan's Island Lighthouse. The beam was produced by six separate lights mounted on an aluminum base weighing 1800 pounds, The six lights produced an astonishing 28 million candlepower, which could be seen 70 miles out to sea. Since, due to complaints, it was reduced to 1.5 million candlepower and is visible for 26 miles on a clear night.

The Museum opened to the public full time in May of 1994. In 1998, it separately incorporated from the JSL as a community based museum with a non-profit, educational mission and a vision to become a distinguished center of maritime discovery. The Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, Inc. (LAMP) was founded in 1999. LAMP archaeologists manage an active research program, surveying inland and offshore waters to discover new shipwrecks and other archaeological sites, and overseeing diving and excavation operations to investigate and monitor those already known. Many of the artifacts in the Keepers Quarters have been recovered by LAMP from the Storm Wreck project and it is ongoing.

Here are a couple of interesting events pulled from the lighthouse's time line. In 1861, the fourth-order lens in the coquina tower was darkened, removed, and buried in a secret location at the start of the Civil War to keep the Union from using it. The light was re-exhibited on June 1st, 1867. In 1874, flocks of ducks at night hit the new tower breaking window panes and chipping lens prisms. Netting was installed and keeper's feasted on duck.

I am drawn to lighthouses like a wave is to the shore. They are a fascinating part of an era that is long gone and only appreciated through what has been left for us to wonder and amaze. A time when the natural surroundings and civilization were one. Guardians of the coast, the Fresnel light beaming out from the lighthouse was a welcoming and lifesaving beacon to the stalwart mariner who had traveled long ocean distances from far away ports. Often built on some of the most foreboding landscapes and exposed to the harshest of seascape conditions, they were a symbol of solitary endurance as were the men and families who maintained their lights. The St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum is worth a visit.

Ticket prices for St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum Tour--Adults 12.95, Seniors 10.95, Children age 12 and under $10.95--Children MUST be 44 inches tall to climb the tower. Children under 44" tall receive free museum admission.

Tours--Sunset Moonrise Lighthouse Tour
Dark of the Moon Tour

Cape Romain Lighthouses Tour Hosted by Coastal Expeditions and the Sewee Center--Merging Historic Charisma with Beauty and Splendor

On Sunday, the adage "good things come to those who wait" was confirmed. For two years, I have been wanting to do the Cape Romain Lighthouses Tour, but for various reasons ranging from conflicting schedules to being sold out, the highly coveted opportunity had been as elusive as the red wolf. There are only four tours scheduled through the year and timing is everything. The next tour is scheduled for October. I almost did not make this one. It too was sold out. I had my name put on the waiting list in case there was a cancelation and as fate would have it, lightning struck. I am thinking the threat of thunderstorms forecasted for the day of the tour, which was July 16, may have presented me the necessary thunder. Thank you, Mother Nature.

Lighthouse Island is located in Cape Romain, a National Wilderness Area. Coastal Expeditions suggests participants wear appropriate footwear for water and pluff mud, preferably something waterproof and attached to your feet. Anyone experienced with stepping into the dark-brown viscous material knows losing your footwear is always a possibility. Since I do not own boots, and highly unlikely to wear them if they were available, my choice was between flip flops and tennis shoes. So, I put on the latter option, grabbed my camera and a banana for a snack, hopped into my truck and headed to the Sewee Center on Highway 17 in Awendaw for a pre-tour presentation.

Upon arrival, I checked in along with about forty other people for the hour-long slide presentation outlining the history of the two lighthouses on the island. It was delivered by Tom Graham, a College of Charleston grad with a degree in Biology. He has dedicated his time and energy for the past 20 years to the preservation and restoration of the lighthouses. The shorter conical lighthouse, standing 65 feet, was built in 1847 and the octagonal lighthouse, standing at 150 feet, was built in 1857. At the age of three, Tom was present when the 1857 light was taken out of service in 1947. The two lighthouses are the only structures left on the island, the light keeper's residences are just a pile of bricks and rubble.

From the Sewee Center, we headed for McClellanville and its boat landing on Pinckney Street where Coastal Expedition's Caretta Ferry awaited. Storm clouds were looming in the near distance to the south as forecasted.

Lighthouse Island is approximately a winding six-mile trip through the Cape Romain estuary from the boat landing. A smiling Captain William Christenson welcomed us aboard, gave us some necessary safety reminders, and the location of the life preservers. Then, he delivered his first of many humorous witticisms, "If you should happen to fall off the ferry, we will toss you the life ring, but truthfully, all you need to do is stand up. The water in the estuary is only about 3 to 5 feet deep at the most." For the next hour, Captain William talked about life in the estuary. He instructed, "Take a deep breath," paused and then added, "You are breathing the cleanest air in the world."

Cape Romain Refuge is a Class 1 Wilderness Area. It is a place where humans haven't developed roads, pipelines, or other industrial infrastructures. What we see today is pretty much what the Indians saw hundreds of years ago as they canoed through its winding waters. Besides supporting the cleanest air, it is home of the cleanest water in the world, and that is the result of the estuary's four necessary components: water, spartina grass, pluff mud, and oysters. Spartina grass is the only plant that can grow in the estuary's salty water due to its ability to filter the salt out of the water and secret the excess out through special glands.

The most thought-provoking part of Captain Will's narrative was when he talked about the estuary's most distinguished amphibious sojourner, the loggerhead turtle. Born on the sandy beaches of the estuary's barrier islands, the tiny hatchlings who survive their demanding and dangerous scamper to the water enter the ocean and spend the next thirty years in the Atlantic currents swimming the Gulf Stream to the North Atlantic Drift to the Canary Current to the North Equatorial Current and back to the Gulf Stream. Reaching maturity at age thirty, it returns to the beach it was born on and lays its eggs to continue the cycle of life and then returns to the currents. The odds of reaching maturity are 1 in 1000.

At the start, just a small silhouette in the distance, the white and black octagonal lighthouse was now a colossus rising high above the island's trees. The captain eased the Caretta into the spartina grass and the ramp was deployed. We waded through the ankle-deep water and traversed the bush-lined path to the lighthouses. For the next 45 minutes, I took pictures and walked among the brick strewn ruins of the keeper's houses. I touched one of the huge iron treads of the circular staircase now callous from rust and imagined ascending the 150 feet to the light room at the top--a task the light keeper performed daily. At present, imagine is all you can do, the light room at the top where the Fresnel lens was housed is off limits to the public for safety reasons. Possibly, within two years, you will be able enjoy a 360-degree panorama of the stunning surrounding vistas.

Lighthouses of old are remarkable relics of ingenuity and for many of us today, fascinating pieces of history and highly sought after subjects of photography. They were outwardly, geometrically simple in design, inwardly, an amalgamation of ingenuity all wrapped in a mystique as beguiling as an old grandfather clock. The Cape Romain Lighthouses Tour by Charleston Expeditions merges that historic charisma with the beauty and splendor of the Cape Romain estuary. The tour is both informative and entertaining thanks to the knowledgeable hosts. If you like boat rides, water, wildlife, and lighthouses, I highly recommend the Cape Romain Lighthouses Tour.

Departure Points:
Sewee Center
5821 Highway 17 North
Awendaw, SC

McClellanville Boat Landing (Boat)
Pinckney Street
McClellanville, SC