THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9506300245
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUXTON LENGTH: Long : 250 lines
FOR 125 YEARS, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has held its ground.
Hurricanes have devoured hundreds of homes and businesses near the spiral-striped tower. Waves have slashed rivers through this storm-battered beach town. Winds of more than 100 mph have felled forests of thick pine trees.
But throughout the tumultous tides and battering gales, the lighthouse has clung fast to shifting sands.
Its octagonal brick base has been submerged in surging saltwater dozens of times. Its shoreline has eroded from 2,000 feet to a skinny strip of land less than 150 feet wide. But the floating foundations set just beneath the water table have kept the 208-foot tower erect.
Despite federal geological predictions that the beacon should have tumbled into the ocean by now, the nation's tallest lighthouse still beams hope to mariners attempting to traverse the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
But officials say the next severe storm could topple the tower.
About 14.5 feet of sand wash away from around its base every year. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended that the lighthouse be moved a half-mile inland by 1994. National Park Service officials say there's no money for the $12 million project.
``We requested funds from our regional office. But it's not even currently under consideration at the congressional level,'' Cape Hatteras National Seashore assistant superintendent Mary Collier said last week. ``It is one of our primary concerns for the park.
``The lighthouse's tenuous situation was really underscored last fall when Hurricane Gordon carved a niche through the sandbags surrounding it,'' Collier said from her Roanoke Island office. ``We lost 30 feet of dune in one tide. Workers dumped truckloads of road rubble around the base. But all that was taken away during the next high tide.
``That storm caused the most critical erosion action around the lighthouse since the early '80s. If that hurricane had continued up the coast and come closer to us . . . who knows what might have happened to the lighthouse?''
The National Park Service, Collier said, is determined to move the lighthouse back from the beach to save it. Some historians balk at the plan, saying it would alter the tower's contextual significance. But Collier and hundreds of others believe the national monument is meaningful enough that it should be spared a watery grave.
``I've seen this light many, many times from sea. I was in the Merchant Marine during World War II. And this light marks a pathway around one of the roughest places in the world for ships,'' said Guy Carter, a 70-year-old retiree from Alabama who was visiting the Buxton beacon last week.
``Everyone who has traveled the Atlantic between the Panama Canal and Boston knows this light,'' Carter said, awed at seeing the structure up close for the first time. ``It's such a landmark. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been the salvation of many sailors this century.
``I think they should do all they can to save it.''
Although it was built almost a quarter-mile from the sea, powerful ocean currents and almost annual storms have eaten away the beach area around the lighthouse's wide base ever since its initial construction.
Waves washed around the tower by 1935, threatening to claim it with their tugging tides. The lighthouse keeper abandoned the beacon that year - replacing it with a skeleton steel structure a mile northwest. Dune construction work by the Civilian Conservation Corps and natural processes built the beach back up over the next decade.
On Jan. 23, 1950, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse again blinked its bright beam over the Atlantic.
Officials still struggled to keep the surrounding sand in place.
They pumped 312,000 cubic yards of sand from offshore onto the beach in 1966. Four years later, to stave off erosion, they built three sheetpile groins 650 feet apart in the ocean, stretching perpendicular to the shoreline around the lighthouse. Another 1.5 million cubic yards of sand - at a cost of almost $1 million - was added to the eroding beach by 1972.
Most of it washed away that same year.
``Without those groins,'' a 1992 federal study committee concluded, ``the site of the lighthouse today would be at least 150 feet SEAWARD of the present shoreline.''
Along with the added sand and offshore groins, thousands of sandbags were stacked along the lighthouse's base. Workers planted seagrass beneath the ocean, hoping it would hold some of the shoreline steady. But despite millions of tax dollars and dozens of individual projects, the beach continued to deteriorate.
During the early 1980s, erosion narrowed the shore east of the lighthouse so much that only 70 feet of sand remained between the tower and the tides. National Park Service officials and local historians began to worry about how long the black-and-white beacon could continue to cling to the changing coastline. They solicited ideas for long-term solutions to save the historic landmark.
``At that time, the preferred alternative was to build a seawall around the entire lighthouse,'' National Park Service Ranger Alex Fraser said last week, offering a sketch of a round, concrete wall obscuring the bottom third of the beacon and its base. ``They thought they could allow the beach to erode elsewhere but save the sand around the tower. Waves would just wash out around it.''
A 1982 National Park Service report said a seawall would have cost about $5.3 million at that time. ``The lighthouse can be preserved,'' the study said. ``But it could become an island in 50 to 100 years as beach erosion continues.''
The report also analyzed other options for saving the structure, from sinking ships offshore to slow wave action to installing additional breakwaters or groins. Offshore breakwaters would cost about $4.4 million, said the study. Beach nourishment - sand pumping - would total about $3 million initially, with an expense of $60 million for maintenance over the next 50 years.
Moving the lighthouse, the study said, would cost $5.9 million. The recommendation at the time was to slide it 3,000 feet inland on 9-foot-wide rails. That suggestion was not preferred, according to the study, because it would change the historic context of the lighthouse's location.
A separate report by the National Academy of Science, however, said that instead of trying to save the ever-eroding shoreline, the lighthouse should be moved.
The National Park Service has commissioned a new study by officials representing three universities and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The status report on threats to the lighthouse is due on Sept. 30, park service officials said.
In 1989, the National Park Service adopted the relocation proposal. Officials plan to lift the lighthouse on hydraulic jacks and place it on a rail system, similar to that used in transporting the NASA space shuttles. They want to slide the tower about a half-mile southwest, away from the ocean.
``The newer philosophy is to work with natural processes instead of against them,'' Fraser said. ``They decided to move the entire structure back instead of trying to hold back the tides.''
An estimated $1.4 million in federal funds to plan for moving the lighthouse, however, has not been found.
Instead, Congress continues to dole out millions of dollars for Band-Aid solutions. After Hurricane Gordon crumbled one concrete-and-steel groin, burst through a row of sandbags and dunes, and surrounded the beacon's base with a 15-foot-deep moat in November, crews laid 380 sandbags along the beach south and north of the lighthouse. The bags weigh three tons each and are piled more than 8 feet high in some places. The project cost $100,000.
A groin repair effort undertaken at the same time cost taxpayers $356,000. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to build a fourth groin south of the existing ones within the next year. Design and construction for the new temporary stop-gap measure are estimated at $1.5 million.
``To provide interim protection of the lighthouse until it can be moved, we're designing another 800-foot groin that will parallel the existing ones,'' Corps of Engineers spokesman Bill Dennis said from his Wilmington office last week. ``We hope to have the design finished by the end of summer, then begin construction within six months to a year. A fourth groin would trap sediment south of the lighthouse and help widen the beach there.
``It would buy us some time.''
Some local residents and hard-line historians say that since the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built to mark the coast, it should be allowed to face its fate with the rest of the sandy shoreline.
``I think they should just let it fall in,'' said 13-year-old Andy Scott, who toured the tower with his family from Conifer, Colo., last week. ``It was part of this beach, so they should keep it here. If the beach goes, it should go with it. If the lighthouse falls in, they could just build another one.''
The ``Save the Lighthouse'' committee advocates leaving the tower where it has stood for more than a century. A separate committee, ``Move the Lighthouse,'' wants to see the structure slide landward. In December, a third group, the ``Outer Banks Lighthouse Society,'' formed to address the issue.
``Our board has not voted or taken a consensus of opinion yet as to whether we want it moved. But from all the research, it looks like if we don't move it we're going to lose it,'' said Cheryl Roberts, who co-founded the 150-member Lighthouse Society with her husband. ``If it's going to be saved, it's going to have to be moved.
``We were on the fence for a long, long time. We know that once it's moved, its historical context will be lost,'' said Roberts, who operates the Lighthouse Gift Gallery in Nags Head. ``But that opinion is hard to validate when you know your only other option is to let it go entirely. The Hatteras light is such a universal symbol. It's cared for by people all over the world.''
Andy Scott's father, Gary, agreed. He told his son he'd hate to see the lighthouse go - regardless of where it has historically stood. He said Congress should fight to preserve the structure.
``That lighthouse has stood here for 125 years. They might as well save it,'' said Gary Scott, 42. ``You know, $12 million is nothing to the federal government these days.'' MEMO: Related story is on page 5.
THE CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE
Nation's tallest lighthouse, 208 feet tall
Built 1870 for $150,000
Has 268 spiraling stairs
Stands 150 feet from the Atlantic in Buxton, on the Outer Banks
Black and white spiral stripes are a daytime navigation aid
Two 1,000-watt lamps, visible 20 miles offshore, blink every 7 1/2
seconds
Each year, more than 150,000 people tour the tower
The beacon contains 1.25 million bricks
Its base is octagonal, set on two layers of 6-foot-by-12-foot yellow
pine timbers that were placed crossways below the water table
TOURING THE TOWER
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is open daily from 9:30 a.m to 4 p.m.
Free tours are offered by National Park Service volunteers. Donations
are welcome.
Surfing, swimming and windsurfing are permitted in the ocean near the
lighthouse. A museum and a bookstore are located at the nearby former
keeper's quarters. Free parking is available.
For more information, call 995-4474.
SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO?
Although the National Park Service and U.S. Congress have final say
over whether the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse should remain where it is,
facing its fate and the ever-encroaching tides, or be moved about a
half-mile inland before it tumbles into the ocean, several citizens'
groups have formed to influence the debate.
``Move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse'' committee members can be
contacted at P.O. Box 835, 109 Brady Court, Cary, N.C. 27511.
``Save the Lighthouse Committee'' members advocate leaving the tower
where it stands. That group can be contacted at P.O. Box 128, Linville,
N.C. 28646.
The ``Outer Banks Lighthouse Society'' covers all aspects of all
lighthouses on the Outer Banks. The 6-month-old group already boasts 150
members, but its board of directors has not yet voted on whether to move
or leave the lighthouse. Lighthouse Society officers can be contacted
through the Lighthouse Gallery, 210 Gallery Row, Nags Head, N.C. 27959
or by calling 441-4232.
OTHER LIGHTHOUSES
Use the map on Page 2 to locate these lighthouses and the Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse - Built in 1875, this red-brick lighthouse
rises 150 feet above the village of Corolla and is the most northern
lighthouse on the Outer Banks. One of two lighthouses open to the
public. Call for hours. Admission to lighthouse and grounds, $3 per
person. Corolla. 919-453-4939.
Bodie Island Lighthouse - Painted in horizontal black-and-white
bands, the light sits west of N.C. Route 12 north of Oregon Inlet. The
light was built in 1872 and stands at 150 feet. Visitor center open 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. through May 26; until 5 p.m. May 27 through Oct. 10.
Ocracoke Lighthouse - The second-oldest beacon in the United States,
the Oracoke light was built in 1823. Solid white and squat, the
lighthouse dominates Ocracoke village and overlooks placid Silver Lake.
The lighthouse is closed to the public, but the National Park Service
operates a visitor center next to the Swan Quarter Ferry terminal on
Silver Lake. Visitor Center open Memorial Day through Labor Day, 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. daily. 928-4531. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Drew C. Wilson
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse...
Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON
Wild surf from Hurricane Gordon in '94 erodes the beach at the Cape
Hatteras Lighthouse.
Staff graphic
Moving the Light
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
AT RIGHT: The top of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was disassembled
for a multi-million dollar renovation in 1991.
by CNB