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.

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 shortly after the war, but the completion of the tower was delayed until 1875 due to an illness that affected the construction crew. Perhaps the Lighthouse Board knew that the new tower might eventually need to be moved as the construction plans called for a cast-iron tower to be assembled from several 1,200-pound sections bolted together. The metallic shell, manufactured by Phoenix Iron Works of Philadelphia, PA, was lined with bricks and capped with a second-order Fresnel lens.

Hunting Island Lighthouse with dwelling Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

A head keeper and two assistants were assigned to the station, and a large two-and-a-half story dwelling was built to house the whole lot. The dwelling measured sixty-three by thirty-eight feet, and had twelve rooms. By 1887, the ocean had crept to within sixty feet of the dwelling and 150 feet of the tower. Jetties and revetments were constructed to shore up the island, but by 1889, it was evident that the tower had to be moved. Over a period of four months, the lighthouse was dismantled and reassembled 1 1/4 mile farther inland. Using thirty-six steel anchor bolts, each six feet long, the tower was secured to an eight-foot-thick concrete foundation. The lighthouse was relit on October 1, 1889, and the dwelling joined the tower in its new surroundings later that year. The relocation cost $51,000, exactly half of the construction cost fourteen years earlier.

During the hurricane of 1893, the 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. Mother Nature had tested the lighthouse previously during the earthquake that devastated Charleston in 1886. At that time, the tower shook so violently that a water pail on its top landing lost most of its contents. The lighthouse definitely proved to be worth its metal.

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 the 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 island was acquired from Beaufort County by the state in 1938 and converted into a state park. During this period, 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, 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.

The Hunting Island Lighthouse is the only historic lighthouse in South Carolina that is officially opened 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 by 2010.

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References

1. Lighthouses of the Carolinas: A Short History and Guide, Terrance Zepke, 1998.
2. Southeastern Lighthouses - Outer Banks to Cape Florida, Ray Jones, 1998.