Atchafalaya Bay, an arm of the Gulf of Mexico, stretches southeast roughly twenty-one miles from Point Chevreuil to Point au Fer, known earlier as Point Defer. Mariners approaching the bay from offshore confronted shifting bars, shallow reefs, and complex tidal flows. From the early era of steamships in the nineteenth century through the rapid expansion of Gulf commerce in the twentieth century, these conditions made the entrance notoriously difficult to navigate — and in need of reliable lights and signals to guide vessels to safety.

Point Defer Lighthouse was built in 1827 to mark the entrance to Atchafalaya Bay, and then the screwpile Southwest Reef Lighthouse was built offshore from the point in 1859 to better serve mariners. After a newly dredged channel to the Atchafalaya River was cut through Point au Fer Reef, the Lighthouse Service decided yet another lighthouse was needed.

Planned layout for Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse on Eugene Island Photograph courtesy National Archives

In the Act of October 22, 1913, Congress appropriated $50,000 for navigational aids along the new Atchafalaya Entrance Channel. On November 30, 1914, the War Department informed the Department of Commerce that land along the west side of the channel had been transferred for lighthouse use — clearing the way for a station that would become Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse. Initial plans included not just the main light and fog signal, but also a carbide house, boathouse, boatways, wharf, elevated walkways, and a system of channel beacons to mark the newly dredged waterway.

Construction began with the driving of foundation piles on December 4, 1915. By May 7, 1916, both the Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse and five additional Atchafalaya Entrance Channel Lights (Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 2) had been completed under contract with Peter Eskald of Biloxi, Mississippi, at a cost of $18,749.75. Total expenditures to mid-1916 approached $19,616.69, reflecting progress toward a fully marked channel.

The Point au Fer Reef Light and Fog Signal Station was situated on Eugene Island, a low-lying shell and mud formation midway along the dredged channel. Its principal structure was a thirty-two-foot-square wooden platform raised seventeen feet above mean high water on twenty-five iron-cased, creosoted piles. A story-and-a-half frame dwelling supported a square tower, from which a fourth-order Fresnel lens shone a continuous white light visible for up to thirteen miles in clear weather. Illumination came from a 35 mm Type B oil-vapor lamp, rated at about 2,900 candlepower.

Supplementing the main light were five beacon lights placed along the entrance channel: two outer beacons on nine piles each, and three inner beacons on four piles apiece. All were fitted with standard five-day lens lanterns showing fixed white lights visible up to nine miles and fueled by single-wick mineral lamps.

To aid navigation in foggy conditions — common in winter and early spring along Louisiana’s coast — a 1,000-pound bell was installed on the main platform, mechanically struck once every twenty seconds. Quarters for three keepers were integrated into the light station’s structure, with a kitchen/living room, bedroom, bathroom, and a room for the fog-signal machinery on the first floor, and two additional bedrooms on the second floor. Elevated walkways connected the main station to support buildings and the wharf where supplies were delivered by tender.

By the summer of 1916, Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse and its associated channel lights were officially placed into commission, marking a major milestone in the federal government’s efforts to guide mariners through the recently dredged channel from the Gulf of Mexico through Atchafalaya Bay to the Atchafalaya River.

Plans for Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse Photograph courtesy National Archives

Edward L. Rollingson was transferred from the recently superseded Southwest Reef Lighthouse to take charge of Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse with Louis Buras and Joseph M. Waits as his assistants. Keeper Rollingson began his career as a third assistant keeper at Ship Shoal Lighthouse in 1892. He was head keeper of that lighthouse from 1900 to 1909, when he was transferred to the same position at Southwest Reef Lighthouse.

In August 1916, Keeper Rollingson was returning to the station from Morgan City when the government motorboat apparently had issues. It is believed Edward must have thought the boat was out of gas and fell overboard while trying to transfer fuel from a five-gallon can to the tank, which was accessed from the rounded bow of the vessel. Seven years earlier, Edward’s son Patrick was also lost overboard from a launch near the same location in the bay.

In the years immediately following its establishment, the Atchafalaya Entrance Channel system continued to develop. By June 30, 1917, requisitions had been made for gas-lighted buoys and a forty-two-foot motor launch to further improve navigation; although the launch remained unfinished and the buoys were only partly in place, ongoing expenditures reflected the commitment to a fully equipped channel.

The motor launch, completed during fiscal 1918 at a cost of $6,951.71, enhanced the service’s ability to maintain lights and buoys and support keepers on station. By mid-1918, expenditures had grown to $36,383.59, rising over subsequent years as the aids to navigation matured and became fully operational.

Through fiscal 1920, nearly the entire $50,000 appropriated in 1913 had been expended on the lighthouse, beacons, buoys, and support equipment that ensured safe passage for commercial and fishing vessels alike.

Decades later, Point au Fer Reef Light continued serving mariners but also adapted to advancing technology. In June 1949, a Class A radiobeacon—capable of broadcast ranges up to 200 miles—was established at Point au Fer, replacing the smaller Class B radiobeacon previously at nearby Ship Shoal Light. At the same time, the light was converted from oil to electric power, increasing its candlepower to roughly 4,000 and altering its characteristic to a flashing signal, improving visibility for a new generation of navigators.

However, by the mid-1970s, changing navigational practices and cost concerns led the U.S. Coast Guard to deactivate many traditional lighthouses. In 1975, Point au Fer Reef Lighthouse was decommissioned and replaced with a more utilitarian skeleton tower that continued to mark the channel entrance. The Coast Guard offered the historic lighthouse to the South Lafourche Cultural and Historical Society, but when no group accepted responsibility for preservation, it was deliberately burned down—a fate shared by several obsolete Gulf Coast lighthouses. With that, the light station that had guided mariners for nearly six decades passed into history.

Keepers:

• Head: Edward L. Rollingson (1916), Louis Buras (1916 – 1917), Joseph M. Waits (1917 – 1926), Peter Duay (1926 – 1942), Leo L. Guidry (1946 – 1948), Godfrey C. Kiff (1948), Joseph Brown (1950 – 1952), James S. Holston (at least 1955), Nelson R. Rowell (1956 – ), William Wallace (at least 1959), Thomas E. Wood (at least 1961 – 1962), George E. Shy (1962), James C. Carter (1962), John S. Davidson (1962 – 1963), William A. French (1963 – 1964), Kerry G. Lewis (1964 – 1965), Jackie L. Johnson (1965 – ), David L. Ferrell (at least 1967 – 1968), Harold G. Gardner (1968 – 1969), Jackie D. Heard (1969), Allen D. Anders (1969 – 1970), Stephen D. Willmann (1970 – ).
• First Assistant: Louis Buras (1916), Joseph M. Waits (1916 – 1917), Sullivan R. White (1918 – 1925), Peter Duay (1926), Godfrey C. Kiff (1926 – 1931), Lee O. Price (1931 – 1943), Godfrey C. Kiff (1942 – 1948), William H. Davidson (1948).
• Second Assistant: Joseph M. Waits (1916), William F. Stephens ( – 1917), Walter W. Legge (1917), Henry Oliver ( – 1918), Sullivan R. White (1918), Jofe Cram (1919 – 1920), Napoleon Bourke (1920 – 1921), Joseph J. Olivier (1921 – 1923), William H. Davidson (1946 – 1948).
• USCG: Donald Scott (at least 1944), Joseph D. Dufresne (at least 1955), B.N. Wallace (at least 1955), James S. Utley (at least 1955), Murray R. Gardner (at least 1955), Donald L. Dodson (at least 1961 – 1963), Thomas E. Dukes (at least 1961 – 1963), J.D. Johnson (at least 1961 – 1962), Walter B. Edwards (at least 1961 – 1962), Robert E. Isaacson (1962), George D. Fikes (1962), David E. Rose (1962), Maurice I. Wales (1962 – 1963), Bobby Little (1962), Elmer H. Parrish (1962 – 1963), Malcolm G. Fatzer (1962 – 1963), Harold G. Gardner (1963 – 1965), David C. Schroeder (1963), Phillip H. Rausch (1963), James J. Simoneaux (1963 – 1964), Mackey P. McGuire (1963 – 1964), Thomas K. Quinn (1963), Richard V. Wentling (1963 – 1964), John M. LaDow (1963 – 1964), John G. Hartung (1963 – 1964), Giles D. Loftin (1964 – 1965), Bobby G. Pace (1964 – 1965), Charles B. Ott (1964 – 1965), Billy M. Hildebrand (1964 – 1965), George F. Reed (1964 – 1967), Ismaro Cardenas (1965), Maurice I. Wales (1965), Roger L. Druck (1965 – 1966), Paul P. Patterson (1965 – 1966), Kenneth D. Parker (1965), Robert C. Yarbrough (1965 – 1966), Peter B. Ertz-Berger (1965 – 1966), Thomas L. Stritzinger (1965 – 1966), J. Christensen (1967), John W. Bebbington (1967), Arthur W. Davis (1967 – 1968), K.G. Thomas (1967), Anthony P. Brincat (1967 – 1968), Timothy E. Pickern (1967 – 1968), Thomas S. Baker (1967 – 1968), E.I. Herbert (1967 – 1968), Carlos L. Barnett (1968 – 1969), Jackie D. Heard (1968 – 1969), Larry M. Comeaux (1968 – 1971), Charles Baggett (1968 – 1969), Joseph C. Huguet (1968 – 1970), Lloyd L. Thomassie (1968 – 1969), Robert L. Mund (1969), Earl J. Friedell (1969 – 1970), H.C. Wear (1969), John W. Brewer (1969 – 1971), John S. Glancey (1970), Stephen D. Willmann (1970), J. Broderick (1970), Clinton C. Griffee (1970 – 1971), Donovan E. Duplant (1970 – 1971), James E. Hankee (1970 – 1971),

References

1. Report of the Commissioner of Lighthouses, various years.
2. Lighthouse Service Bulletin, various years.

No light exists at this location today.

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