
DATE: Sunday, August 17, 1997               TAG: 9708180256

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:   94 lines

REPAIRS COULD SEND VISITORS TO BODIE'S TOP

For the past three years, visitors have been able to enter the bottom of Bodie Island Lighthouse and look up toward the lens.

But that was as far as they could go into the black and white-striped brick beacon that stands near the north shore of Oregon Inlet.

Repairs under way now could pave the way for people to climb the tower's 214 spiral steps and enter the outdoor gallery.

``It's our aim to open that lighthouse - all the way to the top,'' Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Russ Berry said Friday from his Roanoke Island office.

``We're trying to see what it would take to get it fixed. I think $350,000 might do the job.

``If that money comes through, we could get the work done and open it in less than a year.''

Less famous - and far less popular - than its sister at Cape Hatteras, Bodie Island Lighthouse stands 156 feet tall and is 125 years old. Its beacon still blinks every 2.5 seconds. And ships can see its beams from 19 miles away.

Unlike Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which is owned by the National Park Service, the Bodie Island light is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard. The Park Service owns and operates the nearby keepers' quarters - which is now a museum and visitors' center. But the tower - and 100 feet of grass around it - belong to the Coast Guard.

Already this summer, more than 38,000 people have visited Bodie Island Lighthouse and browsed through the visitors' center.

The Coast Guard maintains the tower solely as a navigation aid. Last month, workers began a $131,000 project to keep the beacon from deteriorating. Five employees from Golden Eagle Contracting of Virginia Beach, Va., are fixing cracks in the bricks and mortar, replacing 14 steps, installing new windows and wooden window frames, shoring up iron railings around the outdoor balcony and reinforcing some of the interior metalwork around the large lantern.

This week, the crew will begin painting the outside of the lighthouse. Cables, ropes and pulleys already hang from the balcony, draping to the ground. Tarps, spools of cable and a generator flank the beacon's granite base.

``We're going to wash the exterior first with a high-powered pressure sprayer, using water and detergent,'' Project Manager Curt Merritt said from his Virginia Beach office. ``We'll slip a tarp around the entire thing to contain the flying paint chips - it'll look like a big black sock around the lighthouse. Then, we'll send the guys up on swing stages like they use to wash windows and they'll spray paint from the top down.''

Work is scheduled to be completed by Nov. 1.

The next step, Berry said, is to get the Coast Guard to transfer the tower to the Park Service so that other interior repairs can begin in preparation for opening Bodie Island Lighthouse to the public.

``We sent a letter to the Coast Guard this spring asking for ownership of the lighthouse,'' Berry said. ``No money would change hands. And they said they'd let us know sometime in early fall.

``Then we can begin the engineering studies to see what else it will take to open it.''

Last week, scores of vacationers walked around Bodie Island light, looking at its peeling paint and wondering what the work would bring.

Susan Kidd, 46, of Washington, D.C., said she'd love to go inside and climb the steep stairs.

``I'd like to take my children up there,'' she said, pointing to the black-railed balcony.

``I'd also love to see the view from up there,'' Kidd said. ``I bet it's spectacular - looking across Oregon Inlet and down over Hatteras Island or north to Nags Head.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Hank Edwards, right, and coworker Howard Green Jr. rig scaffolding

lines as they get ready to start the job of repainting Bodie Island

Lighthouse. The goal is to reopen the lighthouse so visitors can

climb to its balcony.

Graphic

BODIE ISLAND LIGHT

The first Bodie Island beacon was on the south side of Oregon

Inlet, lit in 1848, stood 56 feet tall and cost $12,000. The second

lighthouse was finished in 1859 - also on the south side of Oregon

Inlet - for a cost of $25,000. But Confederate forces blew up that

80-foot tower two years later, during the Civil War.