After this Gulf Coast region became part of the United States, Congress appropriated funds in 1831 for the construction of a lighthouse near Pascagoula, and the Treasury Department selected Round Island as the most appropriate site. Noah Porter submitted the lowest bid for the project and was awarded the contract for the lighthouse. However, Porter opted to accept a more lucrative contract elsewhere, and a second contract was drawn up and awarded to Marshall Lincoln of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The contractual difficulties delayed the work on the round tower and brick dwelling nearly a year. By February of 1833, the lighthouse, costing $5,895, was complete, and Curtis Lewis took up residence as the first keeper.

Over sixteen years later, when keeper Samuel Childress and his two sons were returning to their residence at the lighthouse, they were intercepted by the U.S. Navy. During the summer of 1849, a few hundred men led by George White had established a camp on the island. Many of the men had fought in the recent Mexican War before joining White’s filibustering affair, which had as its goal the liberation of Cuba from Spanish rule. U.S. President James K. Polk had previously offered to purchase Cuba from Spain for 100 million dollars. When Spain declined the offer, various schemes were hatched for stirring up a revolution in Cuba. The Round Island affair was the most notorious plan, but like the other plans it did not have the support of the federal government. In fact, three naval warships were sent to keep the group in check.

The ensuing standoff exposed the deep feelings that divided the North and South and that would lead to the War Between the States just over a decade later. The South viewed the naval blockade as a violation of its citizen’s rights to assemble and as an illegal excursion into Mississippi’s waters. The North backed the President’s call for the blockade, reasoning that any meddling with a foreign power should be conducted at the federal level. The North also suspected that the liberation of Cuba was part of a Southern plan to annex the island and disrupt the current balance of slave and free states.

On September 5, 1849, the naval blockade was lifted. Three weeks later, White and his men abandoned their plans and left the island, knowing that any attempt to reach Cuba would be blocked by the navy. The naval ships graciously ferried several of the mercenaries back to the mainland, and the island was turned over to keeper Childress. The station had experienced considerable damage at the hands of the occupiers, but the light, produced by the tower’s eleven lamps backed by 13-inch reflectors, was soon back in service.

1859 Round Island Lighthouse with dwelling Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

By 1854, the sea had eroded the shore near the lighthouse and was threatening the integrity of the tower. Twenty-seven piles were driven into the sand to prevent the lighthouse from being undermined. The following year, Daniel Leadbetter reported that the light was “exhibited from an old and badly built tower, exposed to easterly storms. The keeper's dwelling is old and encroached upon by the sea. I would recommend that the whole establishment be rebuilt of bricks in a position withdrawn from the present site.” Leadbetter’s recommendation was heeded, and Congress appropriated $8,000 for a new lighthouse. A fifty-foot, brick tower outfitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens was completed in 1859.

The construction of the new tower and dwelling further removed from the water proved prudent, as a powerful hurricane struck the island in 1860. Keeper Fischer, accompanied by his wife and six children, sought refuge in the tower during the storm. From their lofty perch, the family could only watch as water swept over the island, washing away the dwelling and all of their possessions.

The tower was darkened for a period during the Civil War, but otherwise it faithfully sent out its beam of light until being decommissioned in the mid 1940s. In 1986, the Bureau of land management deeded 48.98 acres of Round Island, including the lighthouse, to the city of Pascagoula. The city successfully nominated the lighthouse for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, and shortly thereafter the Round Island Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed. Through the years, the southeast corner of the island was gradually washed away until the tower was again perilously close to the water. The pictures to the left show the state of the lighthouse in January of 1998.

On September 27, 1998, Hurricane Georges swept through the area creating a ten-foot storm surge. The water undermined the foundation of the Round Island Lighthouse, causing the tower to topple over. Rather than abandon the lighthouse, the preservation society decided in its first meeting following the hurricane to rebuild the tower. Backed by a $525,000 grant from federal disaster assistance funds set aside for historic preservation and restoration, work quickly began on the tower. The first phase of the project was to recover the lantern room and as many bricks as possible form the water and sand near the site. Next, Compton Engineering was contracted to return the base of the lighthouse to its original site. A fifty-foot caisson was then driven around the lighthouse stump to provide protection from future storms. Just when it looked like their was a chance of restoring the lighthouse, Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the project in August of 2005, when it toppled the lighthouse base inside its protective caisson. Since Katrina, focus was understandably placed on other projects, but in April of 2007 plans were officially announced to relocate the lighthouse to a waterfront site in Pascagoula.

The Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History unanimously voted in December of 2009 to change the scope of a $250,000 state grant it had given Pascagoula in 2003 from restoring Round Island Lighthouse to relocating the structure. The city can now use the funds to move the base of the lighthouse from the island to the mainland, with the help of additional FEMA funds. The project is expected to begin in 2010 and take roughly two years. The lighthouse will stand on the southeast side of the U.S. 90 Highrise Bridge.

References

1. Lighthouses, Lightships, and the Gulf of Mexico, David Cipra, 1997.
2. Pascagoula.net
3. Round Island Lighthouse Preservation Society