ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603220013
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: G-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB WILLIS
Towering over the shores, these sentinels have for centuries beamed reassurance to puny human beings in the swing of the sea.
The oceans might rage and winds bluster, the rocks might lurk deadly beneath the swells; but the distant lighthouse offered a guide to wary mariners and a sign of concern for their safety.
Modern navigation methods have dimmed the importance of the lighthouse; not its symbolism or historic appeal. Millions of Americans revere these structures, flock to see them and climb their twisting stairs, and fight for their preservation.
North Carolina's Outer Banks, a strip of barrier islands more than 200 miles long, has five beautiful lighthouses. On a recent vacation, my wife and I visited four.
The best-known, one of the most familiar landmarks in the United States, is Cape Hatteras Lighthouse at Buxton, tallest such structure (208 feet) in the country. It is also one of the most endangered.
This 126-year-old tower warns ships of the approach to the legendary Graveyard of the Atlantic. Once, it stood 2,000 feet inland; now, a strip of sand only 150 feet wide separates it from the ocean, and nearly 15 feet more wash away yearly. It has withstood scores of storms, including some that buried its base in water. But the ocean has gradually overcome many previous efforts to save the lighthouse, and engineers say the next severe storm might spell its end.
Typically when a historic treasure is imperiled, opinion is sharply split over what course to follow.
The Army Corps of Engineers recommends moving the lighthouse off its base to a new site about a half-mile from the ocean. Its report said that should be done by 1994; but the estimated $12 million for the move still is not available. Some, like entrepreneur and publicist Hugh Morton, resist the idea anyway because it would change the lighthouse's historical context.
An alternative is to build a groin, or wall, extending into the ocean to stave off erosion for a while. Bruce Roberts, a founder of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, sees that as an imperative. Build the groin, a $3 million project, and decide later whether to move the lighthouse.
You can debate that for years,'' says Roberts. But if you don't build the groin, a lighthouse won't be there to save.''
Six months overdue, the National Park Service has just come up with its own plan, in three parts: Starting in mid-May, place 300 huge sandbags to the north and south beach areas to stop immediate erosion; ) build another groin; move the lighthouse about 2,500 feet inland.
Roberts, a former newspaper photographer, with wife, Cheryl Shelton-Roberts, runs the Lighthouse Gift Gallery at 210 Gallery Row in Nags Head. He is a trove of information about his favorite subject. At their store you can buy all kinds of lighthouse collectibles, including books, photographs and models.
Hatteras Lighthouse is 20 stories tall and its walls, 13 feet thick at the base, are made from 1.2 million bricks. Not something easily moved. Yet this would not be quite the daunting task it seems. Some early lighthouses, in fact, were built to be portable.
The Hatteras light need not be dismantled or uprooted. It is set on a foundation of thick yellow-pine timbers placed crosswise in the sandy soil, which a few feet below the surface is quite firm. If the ultimate decision is to move the lighthouse, the plan is to lay a 9-foot-wide railroad leading inland, jack up the structure very gradually onto the rails and shift it, rather like moving a space rocket.
Hurricane season's not until late summer, so the lighthouse likely will be there for its more than 150,000 visitors this year. Walk through the museum and hear an informative lecture by a Park Service ranger. Photograph the distinctive black-and-white spiral of the tower; climb its 268 steps to the top and snap a picture of the encroaching seas and some of the 380 sandbags, each weighing three tons, placed more than a year ago as a temporary barrier.
Hatteras, at about the geographic midpoint of the Outer Banks, is a must-see for the lighthouse aficionado. But others are well worth a trip too.
Forty miles north of Buxton is the Bodie Lighthouse. It's on Bodie Island, which is not really an island. Just one of the peculiarities of Outer Banks terrain; over the years, storms and tides have changed the shape and location of
many of its features.
The Bodie Light is the third to bear the name: The first, built on an unsupported brick foundation, developed a tilt and had to be abandoned in 1859; the second was blown up by retreating Confederate troops lest the Union use the 80-foot tower for observation.
The present 156-foot structure went into service in 1872. Electrified in 1932, it is still a Coast Guard navigation aid, but its tower is closed to visitors.
However, they can walk into the base of the tower and also stop at the nearby keeper's house, a museum. Besides artifacts such as a clockwork mechanism and a burned-out 1,000 watt bulb from the lighthouse, there are displays giving a history of lighthouses and telling how early lighthouse keepers lived and worked. Theirs could be a lonely life:
The Bodie light, like Hatteras', is painted in alternating black and white stripes, but horizontal. For navigational help in daylight, each tower has a different color scheme. Ocracoke's, on Ocracoke Island, is white, and the 75-foot tower has a squat appearance. This lighthouse, second oldest in operation in America (since 1823), is not open for climbing.
We passed up a visit to the Banks' southernmost lighthouse, at Cape Lookout: It would require yet another ferry trip and, because of schedules, an overnight stay. (Those ferries, by the way, are far from free.)
Farthest north on the Outer Banks is the Currituck Lighthouse at Corolla, a fast-growing and prosperous area. This 158-foot tower is unpainted, but its red brick lends a distinctive color. Completed in 1875, it was the last to be built on North Carolina's coast. You can climb its 214 steps to the top and also admire the exterior restoration of the keepers' house, not yet open to the public.
The lighthouses' grounds are always open for strollers. But the museums, and the towers that are safe enough for use of the stairs, don't open to visitors until Easter weekend. Things get into full swing after Memorial Day, and the visiting season lasts into early autumn.
The lighthouses are all government-owned and -operated, but funds for preservation and upkeep are limited. A number of organizations ask small donations from visitors to help in those tasks. After you've seen one or more of these structures and, perhaps, sensed their mystique, you may also feel that such contributions are well-spent.
Bob Willis is former associate editor of The Roanoke Times editorial page.
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Currituck Lighthouse. 2. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. 3.by CNBBodie Lighthouse. 4. Ocracoke Lighthouse. color.