Halfmoon Reef Light

The Halfmoon Reef Light is one of the many screw-pile type lighthouses built on the Texas Gulf Coast, but the only one that still stands. To distinguish it from the nearby Matagorda Island Light it was given a red glass chimney to be used with the oil lantern to give it its red beam. Though originally constructed on the bay, the current resting place for the light is on Port Lavaca, alongside Highway 35.HistoryAfter the lighthouse on Matagorda Island was completed, residents asked the Lighthouse Board to mark reefs and channels in the actual bay. In response, the Board asked Congress in 1854 for funds to build a screw-pile lighthouse on the southern end of Halfmoon Reef on the eastern side of Matagorda Bay. After four years, seven iron pilings arrived at the reef by barge, each long. The pilings were shipped from Baltimore to Galveston on the same vessel that delivered material for the Point Bolivar Lighthouse and the Matagorda Island Lighthouse. The lighthouse was completed by the first of July, and on the same day the sixth order Fresnel lens displayed its fixed white light. However, mariners complained that the light resembled the one at Matagorda too closely, and a red glass chimney was placed over the lantern to give it an easily identified beacon.