Oak Island Light

The Oak Island Light, one of the newest lighthouses in the US, is located in the town of Caswell Beach, NC. It features four 2.5 million candlepower aerobeacon lenses which produce four, one-second bursts of light every ten seconds. Owned by the town since 2004, it sits next to a United States Coast Guard (USCG) Station on the east end of Oak Island in Brunswick County, NC.HistoryThe Oak Island Lighthouse is located at the mouth of the Cape Fear River to help ships navigate Frying Pan Shoals and can be seen over 16 miles away. Constructed in 1957-58 by Brinkley, W.F. & Son Construction Co. located in Granite Quarry NC, at a cost of $110,000, it replaced the Cape Fear Light, a steel skeleton structure on Bald Head Island, which was demolished in 1958. This light, which began operation in 1903, was in turn a functional replacement for the still standing and now popular tourist attraction, the 1817 Bald Head Light (Old Baldy). The Oak Island Light was lit for the first time in May 1958 and during the period 1958–1962, it was the brightest in the US (the Charleston Light in South Carolina now holds that distinction). In February 2002, it became a news item when the adjoining USCG Station caught fire, and while the station burned to the ground, the lighthouse suffered no damage. Rebuilt over the existing foundation, the current Coast Guard station closely resembles the old one The following year, the lighthouse was designated as surplus and in 2004 the Town of Caswell Beach gained ownership from the Federal Government of it, the surrounding grounds and adjacent oceanfront property. The transfer agreement requires the town to maintain the property for recreation purposes with the Coast Guard continuing to be responsible for operating the beacon. In April 2007, the Oak Island Lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places.