Bald Head Island is actually part of Smith Island, a collection of islands crisscrossed by creeks and inlets, and received its name from the denuded dunes on its south beach, which resemble a bald head. Extending twenty-eight miles from the southeast end of the island are Frying Pan Shoals, a collection of shifting sandbars, obscured by a thin covering of water. Early sailors dubbed the area Cape Fear, no doubt a reference to the feeling evoked when navigation near the hazardous shoals.

A ten-acre site on the west side of Bald Head Island, along the banks of the Cape Fear River, was selected for North Carolina’s first lighthouse. The property was purchased from Benjamin Smith, who would later become the governor of North Carolina. In 1792, Congress appropriated $4,000 to complete the lighthouse that had been started by North Carolina before becoming part of the United States. Work on the lighthouse was overseen by Abisha Woodward, who would later build two lighthouses in Connecticut: New London and Falkner's Island. The lighthouse, which was first activated on December 23rd 1794, directed traffic to the Cape Fear River and the growing port of Wilmington, located several miles upstream. Unfortunately, due to severe erosion along the river, the demolition of the lighthouse was ordered in 1813.

By 1817, the replacement lighthouse, “Old Baldy,” was built further inland and lit, for just under $16,000. A stone plaque above the entrance identifies the builder as Daniel S. Way, and the foundry for the lantern room as R. Cochran. Still the oldest in North Carolina, the octagonal brick and plaster tower stands 90 feet high and was originally equipped with an array of lamps and reflectors. The lantern room is offset from the center of the tower, and as technology improved, it later housed a Fresnel lens. At its base, the tower is 36 feet wide and at its top 14 ½ feet wide, while the walls are 5 feet thick at the base and taper to 2 ½ feet at the top. The rectangular stairway leading up the inside of the tower is made of Carolina yellow pine.

The original keeper’s dwelling, built on the west side of Old Baldy, was eventually lost to erosion. The replacement was a 1 ½ story cottage, erected in the 1850s on the east side of the lighthouse. When this structure was destroyed by fire, a larger two-story dwelling was constructed on the same site. In 1931, this larger dwelling, which was being used as an office for the "Palmetto Island" development, was also lost to fire.

In 1836, Captain Henry D. Hunter visited the lighthouse and reported that the "keeper is an old revolutionary soldier and is unable from sickness to give the lighthouse his constant personal attention. The light, however, shows well from a distance."

Some problems with the Bald Head Lighthouse included its location and illumination. Positioned some four miles from the eastern end of the island and equipped with a minor light, the lighthouse was unsuccessful in guiding ships safely past Frying Pan Shoals. A lightship was therefore placed on the shoals and served from 1854 until 1964.

In 1866, the Bald Head light was discontinued when the screw-pile Federal Point lighthouse was built eight miles upstream, near present Fort Fisher ferry landing. However, this new light was deactivated in 1879 when the New Inlet was closed, and Old Baldy returned to service. Meanwhile, requests for funds to raise the height of Old Baldy and to install a first-order lens to make it a coastal beacon were never approved.

Instead, in 1898 the Lighthouse Board approved a 159-foot, skeleton tower, named the Cape Fear Lighthouse, to be located on the southeastern end of Bald Head Island, where it could mark the shoals. The Cape Fear light served from 1903 to 1958, when the Oak Island Lighthouse located on the mainland became operational.

After the completion of the new Cape Fear Lighthouse, Old Baldy was reduced to a fourth-order fixed light and then decommissioned in 1935. Its Fresnel lens was removed from the tower, and from 1941 to 1958 the tower housed a radio beacon. The lighthouse was sold to a private owner in 1963. After another change of hands, the lighthouse was then given to the Old Baldy Foundation, organized to restore North Carolina’s eldest treasure.

Restoration of Bald Head Lighthouse included placing a new cooper roof on the off-center lantern room and patching up the layer of stucco that covers the brick tower. Over the years, patchwork repairs have led to the mottled look of the lighthouse. Visitors can now scale the 112 restored wooden stairs to reach the top of the tower and take in the beautiful island setting. The lighthouse was relit as an unofficial aid in 1985. A replica of the 1850s keepers cottage was finished in 2000 adjacent to the lighthouse and houses the Smith Island Museum, providing a permanent home for over 400 years worth of the region’s maritime history, including a 1908 keeper’s uniform and two lens panels from the Cape Fear Lighthouse.

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References

1. Lighthouses of the Carolinas – A Short History and Guide, Terrance Zepke, 1998.
2. Old Baldy Foundation website.
3. Bald Head Island website.
4. “New Museum Recaptures the Past,” Lighthouse Digest, August 2000.

Old Baldy Foundation operates a museum in a replica of the 1850s keeper's dwelling adjacent to the lighthouse. For a fee, visitors are allowed to climb the tower. For hours of operation call (910) 457-7481 or visit the foundation's website. Informative Historic Island Tours, which include a visit to the lighthouse, are available by calling (910) 457-5003.