The weather cooperated on Thursday, May 18 as the National Park Service and 500 visitors celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Ocracoke Lighthouse. The celebration included a birthday cake, a descendent of Keeper Captain Joseph M. Burrus the last lighthouse keeper, and stories about what it is like to have an iconic lighthouse as part of a village.
The lighthouse is about to undergo an extensive renovation that will include repairing the internal stairwell and structural work to the iconic symbol of Ocracoke. Perhaps most importantly, though, the double lighthouse keeper quarters will be raised on pilings—it flooded during Dorian, renovated and will become a visitors center with information about Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The lighthouse is one of the oldest continually operating in the nation. Although owned by the National Park Service and a part of CHNS, the light itself is maintained by the US Coast Guard. The light continues to shine out to Ocracoke Inlet, telling mariners where they are.
Noah Porter finished his work on the lighthouse and keeper’s quarters, he finished his work on time and under budget…considerably under budget. Congress had allocated $20,000 for the project; Porter’s final tally was $11,359.
Ocracoke was almost an accidental choice for a lighthouse. A lighthouse located on a small sandbar in the middle Ocracoke Inlet between Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island—Shell Castle Island—guided ships into port from the 1790s until it was stuck by lightening and burned to the ground in 1818.
The channel had shifted in Ocracoke Inlet and a new lighthouse on Shell Castle Island made little sense. Ocracoke was seen as the better port over Portsmouth Island and the lighthouse was placed there.
History, beautiful nature and so much more calls out to be explored from Corolla to Hatteras Village. Plan your visit to the Outer Banks when your make your Brindley Beach Vacations reservation.