Sand Island Light

Infobox Lighthouse

---

caption = Sand Island lighthouse - 1962
location = Sand Island, Alabama
coordinates = coord|30.1966|N|88.0534|W
yearbuilt = 1838
yearlit = 1873
automated = 1921
yeardeactivated = 1933
foundation = Stone
construction = Brownstone
shape = Conical
height = 131 FT
lens = 1838: 14 lamps with 16-inch reflectors; 1859: First order Fresnel lens; 1862-63: Fourth order Fresnel lens; 1873: Second order Fresnel lens, now at at the Fort Morgan Museum.
range =
characteristic = Fixed white; Fog Signal: Bell struck by machinery every 20 seconds

Sand Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Alabama, United States, near Dauphin Island, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama. It is located roughly three miles offshore from the primary Mobile Bay entrance, bounded on the east by Mobile Point and on the west by Dauphin Island. cite web|title="Sand Island, AL"|work=LighhouseFriends.com|url=http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=649|accessdate=2007-04-22]

History

On May 23, 1828, Congress empowered the Secretary of the Treasury to place an “iron spindle” lighthouse on the outer bar of Mobile Bay. The tower, visible from a distance of six miles, was completed in 1830.

Mariners soon complained about the inadequacy of the lighthouse, and on March 3, 1837 Congress responded with an allotment of $10,000 for an improved lighthouse on Sand Island. The lighthouse was designed by Winslow Lewis and was completed in 1838. The tower rose to a height of fifty-five feet and was fitted with fourteen lamps backed by sixteen-inch reflectors. Lewis completed the project under budget, returning $1,101 to the government. John McCloud served as the first keeper of the lighthouse, which was outshone by the more powerful Mobile Point Lighthouse and was thus considered a second-class beacon. A coast survey in 1848 reported “Sand Island has lost a strip the whole length of the eastern shore from 66 to 100 yards in width”. Year after the year, the eastern end of the island was slowing being whittled away. By the early 1850s, it was apparent that a new lighthouse was needed for the island, and this time a first-class tower was built. Under the direction of Army Engineer Danville Leadbetter, a conical brick tower with a height of nearly 200 feet was constructed on the island in 1858. The lighthouse was the tallest to ever be built on the Gulf Coast and displayed a first-order Fresnel lens.

Sadly, this magnificent tower had a short life. The American Civil War broke out when the lighthouse had been in use for just over two years. The Confederates removed the nine-foot-tall lens and placed it in storage before Union forces gained control of the island. On December 20, 1862, Union blockaders installed a fourth-order lens in the tower, which also served as a lookout for spying on the Confederates. Irritated by the close proximity of the enemy, a band of Confederates led by John W. Glenn rowed from Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island out to Sand Island. Before being challenged by the guns of the USS Pembina, the intruders had torched several frame buildings near the lighthouse. Glenn swore that he would return to the island, and “tumble the Light House down in their teeth”. On the morning of February 23, 1863, roughly a month after his previous visit to the island, Glenn made good on his promise. After placing seventy pounds of gun powder under the tower, he lit a fuse and retreated amidst a downpour of bricks. Glenn’s report on the tower’s destruction was addressed to none other than Danville Leadbetter, the builder of the tower, who was now Brigadier General in the Confederate Army.

Following the destruction of the lighthouse, a temporary wooden tower was built, which displayed a fourth-order lens from a height of forty-eight feet. A request for a permanent structure was made after the war, but it would be nine years before a new brick tower was built. The tower was constructed using a popular plan of the 1870s that was also used for the Carolina lighthouses at Bodie Island, Currituck, and Charleston. The classical brick tower was built on a foundation of 171 pilings overlaid with twelve feet of cement. The lighthouse rose to a height of 132 feet and was constructed 670 feet northwest of the previous site. The new light was activated on September 1, 1873, and shortly thereafter, a substantial two-story keepers' house was added. Erosion continued unabated along the eastern shore of the island. By 1880, the foundation of the 1858 tower was awash. Jetties were extended from the island by the Lighthouse Board in an attempt to retard the erosion, but by 1888, only 10 feet of sand separated the lighthouse from the Gulf. Rather than abandon the majestic lighthouse, 1,600 tons of granite were placed around the tower in 1889. A decade later, 6,548 more tons were added. The lighthouse clung tenaciously to the eastern end of the island. Before the keepers' dwelling was lost to erosion, it was torn down in 1901 and replaced with a six-room dwelling. Then in 1906, a powerful hurricane struck the station. A lighthouse inspector sent the following terse telegram describing the da

By 1908, the tower stood on a manmade mountain of rip-rap, separated from the retreating island by a quarter of a mile. During the early 1900s, several more tons of rip-rap were placed around the lighthouse. On January 17, 1919, reports were made that the Sand Island Lighthouse had not been lit the previous night. An investigation team was dispatched to the island, where they read in the station's log book that the two keepers had gone ashore to pick up a second assistant keeper. It was concluded that the keepers must have been swamped in breakers or blown out to sea, as they never reached shore. In 1921, the lighthouse was automated, and the light was deactivated eleven years later. Since that time, the pile of granite blocks has managed to provide a secure footing for the lighthouse without further aid from man. The second-order Fresnel lens was removed from the tower in 1971, and then placed on exhibit at the Fort Morgan museum the following year. In 1973, the 1925 keeper’s dwelling, which stood on iron pilings next to the tower, burned down. Before restoration work could begin on the lighthouse, it had to be transferred from the federal government. In 2001, the Alabama Historical Commission rejected an offer of the lighthouse, reasoning that it would cost too much to save. Fortunately, Dauphin Island stepped forward and obtained ownership of the lighthouse from the federal government in 2003. In 2006, a Safety Trip was made to the lighthouse to devise a safe manner for landing at the lighthouse and for climbing the tower in preparation for a planned engineering study of the lighthouse. Options for the lighthouse include moving it to nearby Dauphin Island or attempting to replenish tiny Sand Island and restore the lighthouse in situ.

The plight of the Sand Island Lighthouse is similar to its sister light, the Morris Island Light, near Charleston, South Carolina. Both lighthouses were built on sandy islands that have since eroded away leaving the towers surrounded by water. Save The Light, Inc. is making great strides in promoting the preservation of the Morris Island Lighthouse, and hopefully the Alabama Lighthouse Foundation will be able to match their success.

Fresnel Lens

The Fresnel Lens was named for Augustin Jean Fresnel, a French physicist who, in 1828, demonstrated wave theory of light and changed the entire world's lighthouse illumination to the Fresnel System. The Fresnel lens collected the light radiated at random from a small light source and directed the rays to the horizon. cite web|title="The Fresnel Lens"|work=BrownMarine.com|url=http://www.brownmarine.com/mobilebay.htm|accessdate=2007-04-23]

Whale oil was the first fuel used and the lighthouse tenders worked in shifts making sure that the lamps did not go out and smoke the lens. In later years kerosene was used and eventually they were converted to electricity.

The Fresnel Lens in the Sand Island Lighthouse magnified a 1,000 watt bulb so that the ten-second flash could be seen 17.5 miles away. The lens in the Mobile Point Lighthouse was visible 10 miles away.

Historical information from Coast Guard web site

*In 1837 the building of Sand Island Light was approved and $10,000 was authorized for the building of Alabama's only seacoast light. The tower was designed by Winslow Lewis and was completed in 1838. Construction came in under budget costing $8,899.00. The lens consisted of 14 lamps with 16-inch reflectors. John McCloud was installed as the first Keeper.
*First tower was replaced in 1859 under supervision of Danville Ledbetter an Army Engineer. This was then the tallest lighthouse built on the Gulf Coast. A first order Fresnel lens was installed.
*The lighthouse was intentionally destroyed in 1863 by Confederate soldiers when it was discovered that Union soldiers were using the tower as a lookout to spy on Fort Morgan.
*From 1864 to 1873 a temporary wooden structure was used which displayed a fourth order lens.
*Current tower was completed and lit in 1873. The same plans used in the Currituck Lighthouse were also used for construction of this one. A second order Fresnel lens was installed.
*In 1889 1,600 tons of granite was placed around the tower as rip rap to fight erosion that was washing away the Island.
*In the 1903 Light List, the "Description of Station" reads: "Black conical tower; white dwelling with green blinds, on pile foundation 768 feet N. by WE. 3/4 W. from tower. Square, white, pyramidal fog-bell tower about 470 feet N. by W. 1/4 W. from the light-tower. Rear light on the middle of the ridge of the roof of the keepers' dwelling." At this time the station was a range, with the tall tower being the front range light and the rear beacon was a 35 foot tower that was 768 feet North by West 3/4 West in the rear. Ships approaching the area noted "The rear light should be kept open just to the westward of the light tower."
*In September 1906 a hurricane struck. The tower withstood the hurricane but Assistant Keeper Andrew Hansen, his wife and another Keeper's wife were killed. The surviving Keeper had gone ashore a few days prior to the storm. The storm destroyed the two story keeper's house.
*A second hurricane struck in 1919. None of the Keepers survived this second storm. The log indicated they had gone to pick up a second assistant Keeper and it was thought they must all have been caught in the storm.
*The light was automated in 1921.
*Deactivated in 1933.
*In 1971 the second order Fresnel lens was removed from the lighthouse by the United States Coast Guard and placed on placed in the Fort Morgan Museum. This transfer was done without proper authorization from the Bureau of Land Management who owned the Sand Island Lighthouse at the time.This transfer of the Sand Island Fresnel lens was deemed to be a temporary emergency measure for the safe keeping of the lens and the Fresnel lens actually belongs to the Town Of Dauphin Island who are the legal and proper owners of the Sand Island Lighthouse and its Fresnel lens. The lens is being cared for and for the time being is on display at the Fort Morgan Museum for the benefit of the public. When Sand Island Lighthouse is restored and opened to the public the original lens will be transported back to its original location on its pedestal at the top of Sand Island Lighthouse and illuminate as a private aid to navigation.
*In 1973 the Keeper's house rebuilt in 1925 burned down.
*In November 1975 the light was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
*Lighthouse is owned by the town of Dauphin Island. Efforts have begun to preserve the structure

ee also

*Middle Bay Lighthouse
*Mobile Point Range Lights

References

External links

* http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=649