Bald Head Island Lighthouse

Year Built

1817

Cost

$16,000

Type

Octagonal

Height

110 feet

Location

Bald Head Island, Cape Fear River

Automated Year

N/A

First Lit

1817

Lens Type

15 Lewis lamps, 1817 - 3rd order Fresnel lens, 1855 - 4th order fixed Fresnel lens, 1903 to 1935

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

light beacon, 1935 - radio beacon, 1958

Color

White

Last Keeper - Date

James Henry Dosher (1882 – at least 1913)

Description

Visitors can now scale the 112 restored wooden stairs to reach the top of the tower.

Brief History

•  A Jones fog bell was placed near Bald Head Lighthouse in 1855.
•  In 1866 Bald Head Light was discontinued after a new lighthouse had been built at the mouth of the Cape Fear River to replace Federal Point Light.
•  A new skeleton tower was completed in 1903 on Smith Island and furnished with a first-order flashing lens apparatus.
•  The light atop Old Baldy was changed from oil to acetylene in 1915 and then decommissioned in 1935.
•  In 2009, the Old Baldy Foundation purchased remnants of Cape Fear’s first-order Fresnel lens that had been on display outside an antique dealer in Wilmington, North Carolina.