Montauk Point Lighthouse, New York at Lighthousefriends.com

	Montauk Point, NY

Description: The prominent bluff at the far eastern edge of Long Island reminded the first European settlers of a turtle’s back, and was thus named Turtle Hill.

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Now known as Montauk Point, it takes its current name from the Montauket Indians, who were part of a confederation of four local tribes that also included the Cutchoges, the Shinnecocks, and the Manhassets. The chiefs of the four tribes were all brothers who had inherited authority from their father, and between them they controlled most of Long Island when the first European settlers arrived in the 17th century. The Manhassets had severallong-standing traditions passed down through the generations orally, including that their tribe had lived in that spot ever since the glaciers from the last Ice Age retreated, that at one time they could cross Hell Gate by stepping from rock to rock, and that Plum Island was once connected to Orient Point.
The Montauk area remained relatively untouched by the colonists, and other than the lighthouse, a few caretaker dwellings, and a few Indian residents, there were no permanent homes east of Napeague Harbor until after 1879. This entire part of the island apparently only changed hands three times between 1655 and 1926.
Montauk Point was considered such an important and dangerous piece of land that reportedly President George Washington in 1792 personally ordered construction of a lighthouse there. The U.S. government was following a long line of tradition – according to legend, the Montauket tribe lit signal fires on the point to summon chiefs and warriors to council, usually in dugout canoes made from the trunks of large trees. During the Revolutionary War, British warships blockaded Long Island Sound by laying off Montauk Point, and the British kept large fires burning on the hill to act as a beacon.
A New York contractor named John McComb submitted the low bid of $22,300 for the Montauk Lighthouse, beating out Abisha Woodward, Nathaniel Richards, and Abraham Miller & Company. The Montauk Point Lighthouse built by McComb was like a fortress, with a foundation that went down thirteen feet and a base with walls seven feet thick.

Aerial view of Montauk Point Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

President Washington is often quoted as saying that this lighthouse would stand for 200 years, and it indeed still stands today after having endured more than two centuries of fierce Atlantic storms. McComb also built the old Cape Henry Lighthouse in Virginia in 1791, which also remains in place today, despite being unused for over a century.
For generations of immigrants, the Montauk Point Lighthouse was their first sight of America, and became as much a symbol of their new home as the Statue of Liberty (which also served as a lighthouse for a while).
The octagonal, 78-foot tower was made with red Connecticut sandstone, brought to the site by ship. An iron lantern room was placed atop the tower and surmounted by a round copper ventilator, the opening of which was kept facing leeward by a weather vane. Various forms of illumination have been used in the tower, starting most likely with a spider lamp, followed by Argand lamps and reflectors, a first-order Fresnel lens, and a revolving third-and-a-half-order bivalve Frensel lens that was placed in operation in the lantern room in 1903. The familiar reddish-brown band that bisects the lighthouse was also added in 1903. Before that time, the tower was painted all white.
A new brick keeper’s dwelling was built at the point in 1837 and remains standing to this day, located at the bottom of the hill west of the tower. In 1860, three years after the first-order Fresnel lens was installed, the tower was heightened fourteen feet to make it a proper first-class coastal beacon. Besides the extension, the tower’s walls were also strengthened to support the heavy lens. A new lantern room was put in place, and the wooden stairs in the tower were replaced with an iron staircase. The large, two-story keeper’s dwelling that stands just west of the lighthouse was also constructed as part of these renovations carried out that year.
Until the late 1920s, the last few miles of road leading to the lighthouse were narrow, unpaved, and sandy. Only the most adventurous of drivers tried to make it out to the lighthouse, and even they became trapped at times. The isolation of the station made it an attractive location for smugglers during Prohibition. In 1925, a father and son team named Miller, who maintained the lighthouse as Head Keeper and Assistant Keeper, was suspected of collaborating with sea-borne bootleggers.

Bivalve lens used atop Montauk Point Lighthouse

The Coast Guard had received a call about two ships that had run aground on a sandbar near the lighthouse, both of which were suspected of carrying illegal liquor. When the Coast Guard called and talked to the younger Miller, he replied that he had not seen the grounded ships, and that they must have gotten themselves off the beach. However, a Coast Guard inspector found the two wrecked ships on the same beach, surrounded by empty liquor cases. When the Millers then neglected to return calls to the Coast Guard, suspicions were aroused. However, there had been a heavy snowstorm on the day of the incident, so it was finally concluded that the Millers had not been able to see the ships, as there was not enough evidence to accuse them of any crimes.
Although the lighthouse structure itself has resisted the elements, the bank below the tower has been gradually eroded away by wind and waves. By the late 1960s, the tower was a mere 50 feet away from falling into the sea. The Coast Guard was preparing to abandon the site and build a new light further inland, when a New Yorker named Giorgina Reid claimed to have the solution.
Reid had patented an innovative method for stopping erosion on hillsides, involving digging trenches across the eroded face of the hill and stuffing the trenches with the withered stems of tall grasses and reeds. The grasses helped stop runoff and further erosion, while at the same time holding moisture and giving other soil-grabbing grasses and plants a foothold and a chance to grow. The Coast Guard pronounced Reid’s method a roaring success, and the lighthouse remains at its original site, out of danger for the immediate future.
The Montauk Point Lighthouse was automated in 1987, shortly after the bivalve Fresnel lens was replaced by a DCB-224 optic consisting of two revolving 24-inch drums. The Montauk Historical Society signed a lease for the lighthouse on April 1, 1987, and opened it as a museum just over a month later on May 23. The oldest lighthouse in New York was fortunate to have virtually no gap between the removal of Coast Guard personnel and the takeover by the historical society.
Some lighthouse fans believe that if you can only visit one lighthouse in the U.S., this one would make a good choice. The old, two-story keeper’s dwelling is filled with an outstanding collection of various maritime and lighthouse objects, including the bivalve Fresnel lens removed in 1987 and several other smaller Fresnel lenses.
Photo Gallery: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
References

Capsule Histories of Some Local Islands and Light Houses in the Eastern Part of L.I. Sound, Benjamin Rathbun, 2001.
Northeast Lights: Lighthouses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, New Jersey, Robert Bachand, 1989.
Northern Lighthouses, Bruce Roberts and Ray Jones, 1994.

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Location: Located in Montauk Point State Park at the eastern tip of Long Island.
Latitude: 41.071
Longitude: -71.85706

For a larger map of Montauk Point Lighthouse, click the lighthouse in the above map or get a map from: Mapquest.

Travel Instructions: Take Interstate 495 towards the eastern end of Long Island. At exit 70, take Route 111 south to Route 27. Proceed east on Route 27 to its end at Montauk Point State Park.
The lighthouse is open daily during the summer and on weekends during most of the rest of the year. For hours click here or call (631) 668-2544.

The lighthouse is owned by the Montauk Historical Society. Grounds open, dwelling/tower open during visiting hours.

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Notes from a friend:

Kraig writes:
The Montauk Point Lighthouse was occupied by the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, and it was during that time that the cement Fire Control Tower was built just east of the lighthouse. No, the tower was not built to watch for brush fires, but rather to help direct the artillery fire from nearby Fort Hero.
When you tour the museum look for a stuffed wood duck. The duck was killed when it crashed into the lantern room one night in 1906 and was found the next day by Willy, an eight-year-old grandson of Keeper James G. Scott. Keeper Scott had the bird stuffed and later sent it to his grandson. In 1992, Willy's grandson, who had inherited the duck, brought it with him on a visit to Montauk Point from Ohio and donated it to the museum. The stuffed fowl has been around now for over a century.

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