Hunting Island, SC
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Description: In 1853, various merchants, planters, and owners of
vessels in South Carolina petitioned the federal government for new aids to
navigation and alterations in existing ones. One of their requests was the
establishment of a "light-house and corresponding beacon-light in the
stead of the St. Helena light-ship, on the northern end of Hunting island, to
range for the Swash channel."
Congress appropriated $30,000 for
the lighthouse and beacon light on August 3, 1854. This sum was expended in
1856 and 1857, but it wasn't until March 8, 1859 that the following official Notice
To Mariners was published by the Lighthouse Board:
Notice is hereby given that at
sundown on Friday, the 1st day of July next, the new light-house and beacon
on the north point of Hunting island, S.C., will be lighted, and will be kept
burning during that night and every night thereafter from sunset to sunrise.
The main light-house is a conical
tower built of reddish gray brick, the upper 25 feet of which will be colored
white. The tower is surmounted by a brass lantern.
The illuminating apparatus is a
lens of the second order of the system of Fresnel, showing a revolving light
of the natural color, the interval between the flashes of which is 30
seconds. The tower is 95 feet high, and the focal plane is 108 feet above the
level of the sea. The light should be visible in clear weather a distance of
17 nautical miles.
The beacon light is an open-work
wooden frame, painted white, 32 feet high. The focal plan is 39 feet above
the level of the sea. The illuminating apparatus is a lens of the sixth order
of Fresnel; showing a fixed light of natural color.
Hunting Island Lighthouse was
activated on the prescribed date, with Anton Johnson serving as the first
keeper. The latitude and longitude given as part of the notice place the
lighthouse nearly two miles off the northern end of Hunting Island, given its
shoreline in 2000.
Obviously, the original Hunting
Island Lighthouse is no longer standing, but its demise was not due to the
advancing ocean but rather to a retreating army. Confederate forces blew up
the lighthouse in 1861 to hinder the approach of the Union fleet before the
Battle of Port Royal.
Plans for a new tower were made a
few years after the war, and Congress awarded $30,000 on June 10, 1872 to
start its construction with the stipulation that it be on land owned by the
government. A survey of the northern end of Hunting Island made in 1872 by
the district engineer found that about a half mile of shoreline had been lost
during the previous three years. This rapid rate of erosion prompted the
Lighthouse Board to request an additional $50,000 so an iron lighthouse, capable
of being relocated, could be built. Congress appropriated this additional
amount on March 3, 1873, and a construction crew was dispatched to the island
shortly thereafter to construct a temporary wharf and quarters for the
workmen.
Due to the "unhealthiness of
the climate," the work had to be suspended during the warm summer months
and did not resume until the spring of 1874, when an eight-foot-thick
concrete foundation was laid and the first three courses of the iron tower
were bolted in place. Worked stopped at the end of June and did not resume
until November. The 121-foot-high lighthouse was finished in early June of
the following year, and the light's characteristic white flash every thirty
seconds was exhibited for the first time on July 1, 1875. The metallic shell,
manufactured by Phoenix Iron Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was lined
with bricks and capped with a second-order Fresnel lens.
On March 3, 1875, $10,000 was
provided for building a keeper's dwelling and protecting the site. During the
construction of the lighthouse, over 400 feet had been lost from the tip of
the island, but it was thought that the tower, located nearly a mile to the
south, would be safe indefinitely if a couple of log jettees were put in
place. A head keeper and two assistants were assigned to the station, and the
spacious two-and-a-half story dwelling was completed on May 1, 1876 to house
the whole lot. The dwelling measured sixty-three by thirty-eight feet, and
had twelve rooms. Cisterns with a capacity of $7,000 gallons were built to
store water for the station.
At 9:50 p.m. on August 31, 1886,
the effects of the Charleston earthquake were felt at the station. It was
easy to note the exact time, as the clock in the lighthouse was stopped by
the tremor. The first shock was so strong that a bucket that was half full of
water on the top landing in the tower was nearly drained. The two assistants
atop the tower couldn't stand up with holding onto something. One assistant
was outside on the gallery and was thrown back on forth between the railing
and the tower. The station's chickens were shaken form their perches and ran
out of the coop in seemingly great terror.
In 1886, a stone jetty was
constructed on the beach near the station using a $5,000 made by Congress the
previous year. The jetty worked well until a storm in August 1887 brought the
ocean to within sixty feet of the dwelling and 152 feet of the tower. The Lighthouse
Board urgently requested $51,000 to purchase a new site and move the
station's structures, and Congress responded with the desired sum in April
1888. A heavy sheet-pile revetment, 200 feet long and with retreating wings
at each end, was built along the beach to secure the old site until the move
could be made. A temporary tower topped by a fourth-order light was put into
operation on February 1, 1889 to serve mariners while the second-order light
was out of commission.
Over a period of six months,
lasting from March 18 until September 13, the lighthouse was dismantled,
transported along a tramway, and then reassembled 1 1/4 mile farther inland.
During the summer months, the workers were suffering from malarial fever but
still prosecuted the work with vigor. The lighthouse was relit on October 1,
1889, and the temporary light discontinued. The exhausted workers were taken
to Charleston in September to recover but returned in November to rebuild the
keepers' dwelling, whose pieces they had already moved to the new site, and
erect a new oil
house. The station was once again whole
on March 22, 1890. The relocation cost $51,000, exactly half of the
construction cost fourteen years earlier.
During the hurricane of 1893, the
272-foot steamship City of Savannah I was grounded on shoals off
Hunting Island. Men on board lashed themselves to the masts, while a dozen
women and children were placed in two lifeboats and rowed ashore through the
heavy surf. After the terrifying ride to the island, they waded through
waist-deep water to reach the protective confines of the lighthouse where
they safely waited out the storm. After thirty-six hours lashed to the
rigging with nothing to drink and just raw turnips for food, the men were
finally rescued by the steamship City of Birmingham.
Hunting Island received its name
because it was once used for hunting deer, raccoon and waterfowl. The keepers
and their families likely enjoyed the abundance of wild game, but they also
raised hogs, chickens, and turkeys and tended a garden as well. Oil and
supplies were brought to the island by boat, off-loaded at a wharf on
Johnson's Creek, and then transported along a 3,000-foot tramway to the station.
The oil was stored in the fireproof oil house, while other items were placed
in two outbuildings near the dwelling. Each of the outbuildings had a small
attached room that served as an outhouse. For drinking water, a gutter system
collected rain from the roof of the dwelling and transported it to a cistern for storage.
In 1933, a lighted whistle buoy was
placed offshore, and the tower was deactivated. The U.S. Senate passed a bill
in August 1937 transferring the lighthouse reservation to Beaufort County for
use as a park or game preserve, and the following year South Carolina
acquired the island from Beaufort County and converted into a state park. At
this time, the keepers dwelling was used to house workers from the corps of
engineers, who were tasked with building a bridge to the island and making
other improvements. Reportedly, a lantern was knocked over during a card game
being held by the workers on June 9, 1938, and the keepers dwelling burned to
the ground. The foundation of the dwelling was uncovered in 1995 and then
capped with modern red bricks so visitors can see its outline. That same
year, the tower was activated as a private aid to navigation.
Hunting Island Lighthouse is the
only historic lighthouse in South Carolina that is officially opened to the
public for climbing. However, this changed in 2003, when cracks were
discovered in several steps of the tower's circular stairway. The cracks were
repaired in 2004, and metal
braces were placed beneath each tread.
The steel gray braces were left unpainted so they can readily be identified
as additions to the black, cast-iron stairs. On February 18, 2005, visitors
were once again allowed to climb to the top of the tower and enjoy the
glorious view of the wooded island and expansive ocean.
The Atlantic continues to claim several
feet of the sandy shore each year. Currently, the tower stands 400 feet from
the shoreline at high tide. If erosion continues at its present rate, the
lighthouse might need to be moved yet again.
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There were several markers at the light-
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