Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Newspaper Articles

Reprinted by permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina

February 15, 1998

The News & Observer

Our time is running out

By Cheryl Shelton-Roberts

Page: A23

Foremost, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse must be saved.

It is the most-recognized, photographed, painted and visited lighthouse in North America. It is the signature of our maritime history and the Outer Banks' heritage. It is a symbol of the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the hundreds of men and women who made this dangerous coastline safer for mariners. It is the signpost of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. It is the heritage of our state.

When construction on the lighthouse was completed in 1870, the lighthouse stood more than 1,600 feet from the ocean. Dexter Stetson, who designed the foundation for the 208-foot-tall tower, used the unique nature of the Outer Banks when he placed sturdy pine timbers well below the freshwater aquifer that lies at the center of the barrier islands. The fresh water acts as the preservative for the grid of yellow pine timbers upon which the massive tower was built.

This foundation is now threatened by saltwater leeching into the subterranean area of the base. Salt water brings marine organisms that will make short work of the lighthouse's wooden underpinning.

In its present location, the lighthouse not only is threatened by storms, wind and wave-driven erosion, but its own foundation will bring it down in time.

Forecasters now say the lighthouse stands an 80 percent chance of being toppled by a direct hit from a strong hurricane. If saltwater seeps around the base, the risk further increases.

Accordingly, the National Park Service is moving ahead with plans to relocate the light to a new site, placing it once again 1,600 feet from the ocean.

The esteemed National Academy of Sciences advised the park service to move the lighthouse in 1988, and the relocation plan was again endorsed by leading scientists and engineers from N.C. State University last year.

Their message was clear: "To save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, move it away from the advancing sea." Moving it will bring it life for at least another 100 years and will preserve it for our children, and our children's children.

Opponents of the relocation advocate everything from constructing more hardened structures around the lighthouse's base to letting the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, topple into the sea as nature takes its course.

Some opponents to the move want to build a fourth groin, a steel wall perpendicular to the beach that attempts to reduce the erosional effects at the pounding surf. But the N.C. Division of Coastal Management already has denied a new groin.

North Carolina has taken the hard-line stance against hardened structures on the coast, a decision applauded by environmentalists. Furthermore, virtually all of the state's environmental groups have threatened to block construction of a groin.

Those advocating a new groin say it is necessary to buy time until planners decide how to save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. But the lighthouse doesn't have time for another study to return the same results.

In order to save the historic Cape Hatteras, it must be moved. Its time is about to run out.

The U.S. Lighthouse Service had a policy of moving its lighthouses out of harm's way. In fact, it moved 19 away from similarly eroding shorelines in its ownership of America's lighthouses between 1789 and 1939. And the trend has continued.

In 1997, the Truro (Highlands) Lighthouse, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, was moved back from the sea. The same thing happened at Nauset Lighthouse in Massachusetts and at Rhode Island's Southeast Block Light.

The Truro Light, a brick lighthouse, was moved with no problems. Since it was moved for its safety, it retains its honored position on the National Registry of Historic Places. Moreover, in each case, the move caused an increase in tourism when people came to see the lighthouse that was moved.

For a nation that safely landed a man on the moon in this century, moving a lighthouse is a believable, achievable goal.

A few miles down the road is a site where two brothers from Ohio who ran a bicycle shop were told "if man were meant to fly, God would have given him wings."

Rather we follow their example and believe we have been empowered with the ability to dream, use reason and strive to attain reachable goals. And for a nation that has lost much of its history in the name of economy, and one in need of tradition and confidence that things of worth are saved for future generations, relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is a viable choice.

With time the critical element, relocation now is the only choice. If we do not move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse now, but rather continue the debate endlessly, we are certain to lose this national treasure.

Section: Question
Edition: Final
Estimated Printed Pages: 3

Index Terms:
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
NC
coast
environment

Caption:
c photo; file

Copyright 1998 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.

Record Number: 1998045137