September 6, 2009
From hamptonroads.com
Bodie Island Light Station is getting beautified | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
BODIE ISLAND
Nearly every corner of the Bodie Island Light Station site will soon be buzzing with restoration projects.
Three historic buildings that were on the oceanfront off the highway were relocated last week to the station’s entrance road in preparation for rehabilitation.
And workers this month are expected to begin removing the original First Order Fresnel lens atop the lighthouse before restoration starts on the 1872 tower and its lens.
A new mile-long, 6-foot-wide wooden boardwalk from the lighthouse to the Pamlico Sound, a partnership with the state, is nearly finished. Soon, the roof of the lightkeeper’s station and its walkway will be replaced. Next year, the entrance road will be widened and bike paths will be added.
Once the projects - which will cost about $4.5 million - are completed, visitors will be able to climb the Bodie Island Lighthouse for the first time in decades. The beacon might finally outshine the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the public eye, said Doug Stover, historian with the National Park Service Outer Banks Group.
“This is going to be incredible,” Stover said. “It’s going to be much more popular because they haven’t climbed it and it’s closer to the urban area.”
When two of the relocated buildings, the 1916 boathouse and the 1879 life saving station, are secured on pilings at their new homes off the west side of N.C. 12, the Park Service will prepare them for use in the near future. The third moved building, the 1925 Bodie Island Coast Guard Station, will be re-sided and boarded up until money is acquired to restore it.
Before the buildings were moved, the entire station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1960s, had been behind dunes just north of Coquina Beach, and was in danger of destruction by erosion.
Stover said the life saving station, used as a ranger station, and the small boathouse, used as a garage, are expected to maintain the same purposes. The Coast Guard station may become a visitor center, lifeguard housing or an education center.
“When we get close to the restoration, we’ll have a public scoping meeting to decide what the use of that building will be,” Stover said. “But the main point is, we won’t have to worry about it being destroyed by the ocean.”
By then, improvements elsewhere at Bodie Island will be well under way.
From the ground, the 156-foot lighthouse looks well-tended, with some signs of wear and tear showing inside the oil house at its base.
But inside the tower, windows are rotting and broken. Some steps are rusting and fragile. Off the lantern room, the gallery is held together with cables and chicken wire; large panes of glass are shattered or have cracks in them. One framed window with a large hole is patched with yellow caulking foam, blue Plexiglas and duct tape.
“It seems like the lighthouse deteriorated more the further up you go,” Stover said.
In 2004, four chunks of iron - one weighing 450 pounds - fell from the gallery. The public was not allowed into the lighthouse’s base until the tower was stabilized with the cables two years later.
An innovative casting method was recently tested on three of the steps on the spiral staircase with much success, Stover said. By melting the original cast iron and blending it with zinc and steel, he said, the resulting product was stronger but still included the “historic fabric” of the stairs.
A total of 21 stair treads will be replaced during the restoration project.
When the lighthouse reopens, the winding spiral staircase will be strong enough to allow 15 people at a time to scale its 205 steps to the deck, where there is a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean and the marshlands stretching to the Pamlico Sound and Oregon Inlet.
“Look at the view,” Stover said as he gazed out a window two-thirds of the way up the tower.
“It’s still like it was when the keepers were here.”
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August 4, 2009
Family Night Aug. 13
An evening to shiver your timbers as pirate pretenders invade the Aquarium on Thursday, Aug. 13, for the last Family Night of 2009. The Aquarium stays open late for Pirates Family Night, with activities featuring colorful characters from North Carolina’s history on the high seas. The fun begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m.; ticket sales end at 8 p.m.
Activities are free with admission or membership, and include:
• Swift swordplay in mock battles by the Shadow Players Stage Combat Group
• Live Dive in “Davy Jones’ Locker,” aka the Living Shipwreck
• Treasure hunt
• Animal feeding in the Queen Anne’s Revenge
• Tales of the high seas
• Creature Feature live animal program
• Crafts, games and other fun for the younger set
Contact the Pine Knoll Shores aquarium for more information at 866-294-3477 or visit their website at www.ncaquariums.com
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July 26, 2009
North Carolina Aquariums Jennette’s Pier construction
From www.zandavisitor.com
Manteo, NC - Construction of the North Carolina Aquariums Jennette’s Pier is moving eastward into the Atlantic Ocean. To keep informed about the progress being made on the pier site, visit this link: http://www.ncaquariums.com/aquarium-piers/jennettes-pier. There you will find information updated regularly along with photos showing different aspects of the construction. The pier construction started in May of 2009 and is expected to be complete by May of 2011.
Jennette’s Pier will be a family oriented educational and recreational fishing pier. It will feature a 1,000 foot long fishing pier, a 16,000 square foot pier house and public bath house. The pier house will have a tackle shop, and educational classroom and large multi-purpose room on the second floor. The upper floor will accommodate large meetings, school groups, conferences, dinners and receptions.
Three wind turbines located on the pier will help power the facility. Solar panels, geothermal heating and cooling and gray water reuse plumbing systems are also among the sustainable green building components featured at the facility.
Jennette’s Pier will educate visitors about the oceans, and it will inspire appreciation and conservation of North Carolina’s aquatic environments. The pier will also be a state of the art recreational fishing facility.
The Aquarium Division of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will construct the pier with funds from existing non-General Fund receipts of up to $25 million. The funding will come from admission receipts, private funds, and a storm water pilot project to clean up state-maintained ocean outfalls.
Construction of the pier will provide 555 on-site jobs and 1,250 off-site jobs and a benefit of more than $14 million to North Carolina’s economy.
The pier and pier house are aiming to be LEED certified at the level of Gold. The LEED certification process is a national ranking system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council for qualifying the level of sustainability and green building methods.
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June 13, 2009
Inside of NC’s Ocracoke Lighthouse to be renovated - NC Wire: Local & State - News & Observer
OCRACOKE, N.C. — North Carolina’s Ocracoke Lighthouse is getting a new look.
The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reported Monday that the inside of the 65-foot white lighthouse will be closed for up to six months, probably beginning in early August.
The renovations will include restoration of the metalwork on the 80 steps of the spiral staircase, repainting walls and cast iron and installing new lightning protection.
The historian for the National Park Service Outer Banks Group says the inside of the tower hasn’t been restored since ownership was transferred around 2000 from the Coast Guard to the National Park Service. Historian Doug Stover says the decomposing bricks that leave dust on the floor every morning shows the need for repairs.
The lighthouse was built in 1823.
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April 30, 2009
From WRAL.COM
MANTEO, N.C. — The federal budget includes $3 million to restore the deteriorating Bodie Island Lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported Thursday that the money is the estimated amount for a complete restoration of the 1872 lighthouse structure north of Oregon Inlet.
Bodie Island light was damaged when the National Park Service acquired it in 2000 from the Coast Guard. Some of the 205 metal steps in the building were corroded and pieces of cast iron metalwork were missing.
Officials at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore say work should start in August and run about 18 months. The light’s Fresnel lens also will be restored.
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March 6, 2009
The Knights of the Black Flag exhibit was moved from the Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC to the N.C. History Museum. The exhibit showcases many artifacts related to pirates, including the largest collection of artifacts ever exhibited from the shipwreck believed to be Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge. Legends surround another compelling artifact on loan from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.: the alleged skull of Blackbeard! The exhibit will be on view through July 6, 2009.
You can find more information on the N.C. History’s website at ncmuseumofhistory.org
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March 6, 2009
WILMINGTON, N.C. — A South Carolina company that does dive charters and fishery research is the high bidder for a dilapidated light tower located 35 miles from the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
The Star-News of Wilmington reported Thursday that Shipwrecks Inc. bid $515,000 for the Frying Pan Shoals light tower. The tower includes 5,000 square feet of living space and has its own helipad.
Lee Spence, one of the owners, says the company plans to use the prime fishing spot for a sport fishing group, a dive charter business and probably will do fisheries and oceanographic research with two or three universities.
Spence says the company also plans to use part of the tower for a commercial diving school that will be run by the International Diving Institute in Charleston.
—
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.
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March 4, 2009
Frying Pan Shoals, a rusty, abandoned light tower off the North Carolina coast is for sale and the online federal auction has attracted two mystery bidders dueling at more than $500,000 for the relic.
The Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower is nearly 35 miles off the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The former Coast Guard outpost and weather station has been replaced by buoys.
Two bidders who go by the names “Hunley” and “Big Gun” have raised their offers daily. The federal auction will continue as long as one raises their bid by $3,000 each day.
The Coast Guard and state officials have explored the idea of tearing down the tower and dropping it in the ocean as an artificial reef, but that would cost more than $3 million.
Courtesy of WRAL
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January 25, 2009
You can now purchase pictures of you favorite North Carolina Lighthouses from our online store. The pricing is very affordable for photos of such a high quality. We are using SmugMug to host our Photo Store. They are highly respected in the Photography community and their print quality and customer service is exceptional. They also ship your prints very fast, so you won’t have to wait long for them.
4×6 prints can be purchased for as little as $0.57
8×10 prints can be purchased for as little as $5.97
Be sure to check out some of their other print options. They have many different gifts and cards that can be created also.
Please check out the store by clicking on this link, or click the “Gallery Store” link in the header.
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October 29, 2008
From hamptonroads.com:
A sad depiction of the collapsed New Canal Lighthouse may have made
the New Orleans landmark a winner. But unfortunately for the Outer
Banks, it also makes the Bodie Island Lighthouse a loser.
One of the 12 semi-finalists in the JELD-WEN Reliable Lighthouse
Restoration Initiative, the New Canal has been chosen as the one most
deserving of free windows and doors, according to a news release from
Jeld-Wen Windows & Doors.
Read the full article here
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