Grant’s Pass Lighthouse occupies a singular place in the maritime history of the northern Gulf Coast, not only because it marked a vital navigational shortcut, but because it was the Gulf’s earliest known private lighthouse, erected to serve a privately dredged waterway. Its story is inseparable from the life and work of Captain John Grant, widely regarded as the Father of Gulf Coast Transportation, whose innovations reshaped coastal commerce between Mobile, New Orleans, and Mississippi Sound.

By the early nineteenth century, vessels traveling between Mobile Bay and ports westward faced a hazardous and inefficient route. The “natural” passage required rounding Sand Island and entering the open Gulf of Mexico, exposing ships to heavy swells, shifting shoals, and unpredictable weather. Captain Grant, already recognized for his engineering ingenuity, resolved to eliminate this obstacle. At just twenty-five years of age, he had perfected a dredging machine and, between 1826 and 1829, used it to deepen the approaches to the harbor at Mobile. The success of that effort directly contributed to the construction of Choctaw Point Lighthouse, erected shortly thereafter to aid vessels newly able to reach the port.

Coast Survey Map of 1851 showing Grant’s Pass Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

Grant’s accomplishments extended beyond dredging. He later constructed the railroad linking New Orleans to Milneburg on Lake Pontchartrain—the first railroad west of the Alleghenies—spurring the establishment of Port Pontchartrain and the subsequent construction of multiple lighthouses to support its navigation. Yet it was Grant’s work in 1839, when he dredged an artificial channel linking Mississippi Sound with Mobile Bay, that cemented his lasting association with coastal navigation. The channel, soon known as Grant’s Pass, provided a sheltered inland route that allowed ships to avoid the perils of the Gulf altogether.

The impact of Grant’s Pass was immediate and profound. Packet boats, mail steamers, and coastal traders quickly adopted the route, which also drew vessels closer to the previously overlooked port of Pascagoula, stimulating commerce and communication along the Mississippi coast. Grant marked the channel with rows of stakes and charged tolls at its midpoint, a practice that vessels willingly accepted in exchange for safety, speed, and reliability. Virtually all regular coastal traffic between Mobile and New Orleans soon passed through his cut.

To further ensure safe navigation, Grant constructed a private lighthouse near the west end of the pass, on what became known as Tower Island. This light, exhibited from the top of a small frame structure supported on piles, functioned as a harbor light essential to the operation of the channel. In January 1856, Inspector D. Leadbetter of the Eighth Lighthouse District confirmed its existence and importance, noting that although it was not a federal aid to navigation, it should remain on official charts because Grant’s Pass had become the principal thoroughfare between Mobile and New Orleans.

Grant’s attempt to further deepen the channel in 1860 was cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War, which transformed the strategic value of the pass. Tower Island was fortified by Confederate forces, and during Union operations against nearby Fort Powell, the area was subjected to months of bombardment. Between August 1 and 5, 1864, Confederate troops retreated, destroying the fort and whatever structures remained. Whether Grant’s private lighthouse was destroyed during the bombardment or demolished during the retreat was never recorded, but by the time federal authorities arrived, it was gone.

Confusion followed in the immediate aftermath. In August 1864, Lighthouse Engineer Max F. Bonzano noted a lighthouse marked on older Coast Survey charts and assumed—incorrectly—that it had once been a federal installation that had been discontinued. Regardless of legal ownership, the U.S. Navy urgently required a navigational light to guide gunboats and transports through the narrow channel. Bonzano quickly acted, prefabricating a 25-foot open-frame wooden tower, erecting it on the south side of the pass by December 1864, and fitting it with a small captured fifth-order lens. Two Union keepers were appointed to tend the light.

Although Grant soon reasserted his right to the pass and resumed toll collection after the collapse of the Confederacy, he did not interfere with the federal lighthouse keepers. For nearly two years, the United States maintained a navigational light on this private waterway. However, by August 5, 1866, the temporary structure had deteriorated badly. With no specific congressional authority to rebuild or permanently maintain a lighthouse on a privately constructed channel, the Lighthouse Establishment discontinued the station and removed the illuminating apparatus to New Orleans.

The abandoned tower lingered for years, slowly succumbing to decay. By 1873, the Lighthouse Board reported that the structure had been ravaged by sea worms and rendered useless. A private party had maintained a light for several years, but had recently extinguished it. The Board emphasized that Grant’s Pass remained the only inland water connection between Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound and strongly recommended the re-establishment of a light, proposing a wooden structure on iron screw piles at an estimated cost of $20,000. Despite the acknowledged importance of the route, no permanent lighthouse was constructed. In later years, only small lit beacons were placed in the vicinity.

Nature ultimately reclaimed both the lighthouse site and the channel it served. Tower Island gradually eroded and disappeared entirely by about 1912, and Grant’s Pass soon afterward shoaled beyond practical use. Today, the site of Alabama’s only private lighthouse lies beneath shallow water near the Dauphin Island causeway, its precise location known only to historians and mariners. Modern aids to navigation now guide vessels through Pass Aux Herons along the Intracoastal Waterway, but the legacy of Grant’s Pass endures as a remarkable example of private enterprise shaping public navigation.

Keepers

• Head: Edwin Bailey (1864 – 1865), John Duggan (1865 – 1866), George Parker (1866).
• Assistant: George W. Burgess (1864 – 1865), George Miller (1865), George Parker (1865 – 1866).

References

1. Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
2. Lighthouses, Lightships, and the Gulf of Mexico, David Cipra, 1997.

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