Diamond Shoals Lighthouse

Year Built

1966

Cost

$500,000

Type

Square platform with tower at one corner

Height

120 feet

Location

Dare County

Automated Year

1977

First Lit

1966

Lens Type

DCB 224

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

2001

Color

White

Last Keeper - Date

Malcolm S. Daniels (1968 – at least 1969)

Description

The lighthouse is not open to the public and privately owned.

Brief History

•  On November 7, 1966, Rear Admiral Oscar J. Rohnke dedicated the light station after helicopters shuttled him and other dignitaries out to the tower.
•  At 5:35 a.m. on February 7, 1967, just three months after the station was commissioned, a waterspout packing winds of over 100 m.p.h. struck the tower.
•  Diamond Shoals Light Tower was manned until 1977.
•  Hurricane Fran severely damaged the tower in 1996, and its light was extinguished in 2001.
•  Dave Schneider, president of Minnesota-based Zap Water, who submitted a bid of $17,200 and received the title to the property in late September 2012.