Oak Island Light - History

History

Being completed in 1958, the Oak Island Lighthouse is one of the newest lighthouses in the United States. It is made from concrete and stands 153 feet (47 m) tall (with only 148 ft. above the ground) and is ancored by 24 pilings that are 67 ft. deep (10" round and filled with concrete). It replaced the Cape Fear Lighthouse, a steel skeleton lighthouse near Cape Fear on Bald Head Island. (That lighthouse was demolished afterwards to avoid confusion.) The lighthouse marks the mouth of the Cape Fear River and from 1958 until 1962 it was the brightest lighthouse in the US and second most powerful beacon in the world, only surpassed by a French lighthouse along the English Channel. In 1962 it lost that distinction due to a change in the bulb technology used. The light is 169 ft. above the water and can be seen for 16 miles, which is needed to mark the entrance to the Cape Fear River and help ships avoid the dangerous Frying Pan Shoals.

The characteristic flashing pattern for the light is four one-second flashes every 10 seconds. It has become the symbol for Oak Island and can be seen on many of the souvenirs sold there.

The top 52 feet of the lighthouse are black; the middle 50 feet are white, while the bottom 40 feet are grey. The final 11 ft. are the aluminum and glass light enclosure. These colors are not painted on the structure, having instead been mixed into the concrete at the time the tower was constructed.