Upper Jettee, NC 
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Along the winding lower reaches of North Carolina’s Cape Fear River, mariners bound for Wilmington once navigated one of the most complicated inland waterways on the Atlantic seaboard. Unlike most rivers in the state, which emptied first into broad sounds before reaching the ocean, the Cape Fear flowed directly into the Atlantic through a shifting and hazardous estuary lined with shoals, bars, tidal flats, and artificial jetties. Pilots guiding vessels upriver confronted constantly changing channels, hidden obstructions, and dangerous bends that could turn a moment’s misjudgment into disaster. To address these dangers, federal officials in the mid-nineteenth century undertook one of the most ambitious river-lighting systems yet attempted in North Carolina. Among the final links in this chain of navigation stood the Upper Jettee Range Lights—humble but strategically important beacons that guided mariners through one of the Cape Fear’s most difficult passages.
Though never as famous as the great lighthouse at Bald Head or even the Oak Island Range Lights at the river’s mouth, the Upper Jettee station served a vital purpose. Established in 1856 after years of debate, redesign, and engineering uncertainty, the range lights marked a dangerous section of channel near Reedy Point and helped vessels safely negotiate the river’s upper approaches toward Wilmington. Their brief history reflected both the promise and instability of navigation improvements on the Cape Fear during an era when commerce, engineering, and geography remained locked in constant negotiation.
The Cape Fear River occupied a unique place in North Carolina history. As the state’s only river flowing directly into the Atlantic Ocean, it became the principal maritime artery for a vast hinterland rich in naval stores, lumber, rice, cotton, and agricultural products. Long before railroads transformed transportation, the Cape Fear connected the forests and farms of the piedmont and coastal plain with Atlantic trade networks stretching to New England, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Recognizing the region’s economic promise, Maurice Moore established Brunswick in 1726 approximately twelve miles upriver from the river’s mouth. The settlement initially held a strategic advantage because deep-draft vessels could anchor there below the troublesome shoals known as “The Flats,” deposited near the mouth of Town Creek by Campbell Island. Yet Wilmington, founded farther inland during the 1730s at the junction of the river’s northeast and northwest branches, eventually eclipsed Brunswick due to superior inland trade connections and safer harbor conditions. By the eve of the American Revolution, Wilmington had emerged as the Cape Fear region’s dominant commercial center.
Despite its prosperity, Wilmington remained difficult to reach. Mariners approaching from sea first crossed dangerous offshore bars before entering a river system complicated by constantly shifting channels. Hazards were found near New Inlet, Horseshoe Shoal, Campbell Island, Price’s Creek, Orton Point, and the jetties near Reedy Point below Wilmington. Pilots familiar with local waters could often navigate these obstacles in daylight, but nighttime travel remained especially hazardous. The low, muddy banks of the river blended into darkness, bends concealed shoals, and decaying engineering works often projected unexpectedly into the channel.
Recognizing these dangers, Congress approved an ambitious navigational system for the Cape Fear River on August 14, 1848. Rather than funding isolated aids, lawmakers envisioned an integrated chain of lights extending from the ocean entrance nearly to Wilmington itself. The appropriation included two range lights on Oak Island to mark the western entrance channel; paired range lights at Price’s Creek; a floating lightship at Horseshoe Shoal between New Inlet and Price’s Creek; a beacon light at Campbell Island; a beacon at Orton Point; and finally a beacon light on the Upper Jettee near Wilmington. Together, the stations would guide mariners inland step by step through one of the South’s most difficult waterways.
Yet federal officials quickly realized they lacked sufficient knowledge of local conditions to determine whether all the proposed lights were practical or even necessary. Fifth Auditor Stephen Pleasonton therefore requested a formal naval survey under provisions of the newly enacted lighthouse law. Commander William A. Gardner examined Cape Fear later in 1848 and concluded that all of the authorized aids should be established, affirming the vision of a coordinated navigational system extending from the ocean to Wilmington.
Among all the proposed Cape Fear improvements, none proved more complicated than the beacon planned for the “Upper Jettee.” Congress appropriated $3,500 for the light in 1848, envisioning a modest beacon atop the jetty itself near Reedy Point. Yet almost immediately confusion arose concerning its location.
Gardner identified the eastern jetty as the proper site, believing a light there would best guide vessels through the channel. Pleasonton, however, noted that the language of Congress appeared to reference the western jetty instead. More troubling still, engineers discovered that neither structure offered an easy foundation for construction. The jetties—stone works built years earlier by the Engineer Department to improve navigation—had fallen into varying states of deterioration. Much of the proposed site stood in roughly twenty feet of water, making construction far more expensive than lawmakers had anticipated.
In November 1848, Pleasonton instructed Superintendent of Lights William C. Bettencourt at Wilmington to investigate the matter further. Carpenter and overseer John C. Wood was asked to examine the jetty and estimate what expense would be required to build a beacon at its end. Pleasonton hoped a modest wooden structure might suffice, but concerns quickly mounted.
The Treasury Department formally requested an estimate not only for the beacon itself but also for repairs to the jetty, the construction of a bridge or walkway so a keeper could safely reach the light, and a pile-supported platform capable of holding a lantern structure. The resulting figures proved startling. Wood estimated that simply constructing the bridge and platform would cost nearly $9,596, while the beacon itself would require another $3,000 or more—far exceeding the original appropriation.
Recognizing the inadequacy of available funds, Pleasonton appealed to Congress in 1851 for an additional appropriation. Lawmakers responded on March 3, 1851, increasing available funding to $13,000, including the cost of a bridge from shore to the proposed lighthouse. Yet even with additional funding secured, uncertainty remained over whether the project represented the best solution for navigation.
Doubts surrounding the Upper Jettee Light intensified as coastal surveyors reevaluated the river’s navigational needs. Professor Alexander Dallas Bache of the United States Coast Survey ordered a fresh examination of the proposed site, assigning Lieutenant Commander John Newland Maffitt to inspect conditions firsthand.
Visiting Cape Fear in September 1851, Maffitt concluded that a light remained necessary—but not where officials originally intended. The eastern upper jetty, he reported, projected dangerously across the apparent channel and created confusion for vessels traveling both upstream and downstream at night. Navigators frequently misjudged their distance and ran into the structure. Yet Maffitt found the western jetty largely irrelevant to navigation and dismissed the idea of placing a light there as useless.
Even so, Maffitt questioned whether a costly lighthouse directly atop the jetty represented the wisest investment. The river channel curved sharply in this reach, and vessels needed guidance not simply at a fixed obstruction but along a navigable line through the bend. He also recommended larger white-painted buoys and conspicuous white tripods erected on other jetties to improve nighttime visibility.
Though local support for the light remained strong, uncertainty persisted in Washington. In March 1852, Wilmington citizens assembled at Masonic Hall to advocate urgently for harbor improvements, fearing the government might abandon the Upper Jettee project altogether. Participants unanimously resolved that the proposed river light should not be canceled, arguing that it formed an indispensable link in the broader chain of navigation connecting Wilmington to the sea. Local leaders petitioned the federal government to continue the work.
Progress slowed further following creation of the Lighthouse Board in 1852, which assumed control over lighthouse construction from the Treasury Department. Plans were revised, surveyed, delayed, and reconsidered. By 1855, engineers finally proposed a more economical and effective alternative to the original jetty beacon.
Rather than erecting an expensive structure atop the deteriorated jetty itself, the Lighthouse Board approved a new system of range lights on the eastern bank of the Cape Fear River approximately two and a half miles below Wilmington. By aligning the lights vertically, mariners could safely navigate a course passing roughly 150 feet west of the dangerous head of the eastern upper jetty while simultaneously following the best water through the winding channel.
The new arrangement also eliminated the need for an elaborate bridge or offshore foundation. After lengthy delays securing property and legal title, construction finally proceeded in earnest.
On the evening of March 1, 1856, the Upper Jettee Range Lights were exhibited for the first time.
The front range consisted of a keeper’s dwelling topped by a lantern displaying a fixed white light through a sixth-order Fresnel lens. Painted white and standing forty-two feet above the river, the modest wooden structure doubled as both residence and lighthouse. Approximately eight hundred feet to the north stood the rear range—a distinctive white-painted open-frame beacon tower measuring twenty feet square at the base and narrowing to eight feet at the top. Surmounted by an enclosed lantern, the rear light rose approximately sixty-five feet above the river.
When properly aligned, the two lights guided vessels safely around the dangerous obstruction and through nearly two and a half miles of navigable river. Though simpler than the originally envisioned lighthouse, the range proved both economical and highly practical.
Enoch Farrow became the station’s first keeper in 1856 at an annual salary of $350. Responsible for maintaining both lights, trimming lamps, cleaning lenses, and ensuring reliable illumination, Farrow lived in the front range dwelling along the riverbank. Like many lighthouse keepers of the era, he also served informally as a local river watchman and helper to mariners.
Evidence of this role appeared in July 1857 when Farrow placed a notice after finding a small yawl boat drifting downriver near the Upper Jettee Light House. The ten-foot craft, recently repaired with a new plank, could be reclaimed by its owner upon proof of ownership and payment of charges.
Farrow served until his death in 1859, when James A. Burch assumed responsibility for the station. Burch continued tending the lights through mounting sectional tensions and increasing military activity along the Cape Fear.
The outbreak of the Civil War abruptly ended operation of the Upper Jettee Range Lights. Like other coastal lights throughout the Confederacy, the station was extinguished in 1861 to prevent Union naval forces from using it for navigation.
Unlike some stations merely darkened, however, the Upper Jettee structures suffered complete destruction during the conflict. By war’s end, little remained of the range system.
Federal officials recognized the continuing navigational value of the station and proposed its re-establishment in 1867 and again in 1868, noting that the wartime destruction had entirely eliminated the range. Yet reconstruction never occurred. Improvements elsewhere in the river, changing navigational methods, dredging projects, and new harbor works gradually altered priorities.
The Cape Fear River of the late nineteenth century differed dramatically from the river the Upper Jettee lights had once served. Federal engineers dredged channels, removed wartime obstructions, rebuilt breakwaters, and modified inlets in a continuous struggle to improve navigation. Reports during the 1870s described efforts to remove dangerous logs and stumps, deepen channels near Snow’s Marsh, and clear debris near Reedy Point above the Upper Jettee.
Even after the original range disappeared, navigational aids returned in altered form. By the late 1870s, contractors erected day beacons marking the upper and lower jetties—simple visual markers replacing the more sophisticated nighttime illumination once provided by the range lights.