Middle Bay Light

Middle Bay Light, also known as Middle Bay Lighthouse and Mobile Bay Lighthouse, is an active hexagonal-shaped cottage style screw-pile lighthouse. The structure is located offshore from Mobile, Alabama, in the center of Mobile Bay.[3][4][5]

Middle Bay Light
Middle Bay Light in Mobile Bay, near Mobile, Alabama.
LocationMiddle of Mobile Bay, Mobile Bay, Alabama
Coordinates30°26′17.60″N 88°0′40.48″W
Tower
Constructed1885
Foundationscrew piles
Constructionwooden screw-pile lighthouse
Automated1935
Height41 feet (12 m)
Shapehexagonal frustum structure with platform, keeper’s quarter and mast with beacon centered on the roof
Markingswhite lighthouse
Power sourcesolar power Edit this on Wikidata
OperatorAlabama Historical Commission[1]
HeritageNational Register of Historic Places listed place Edit this on Wikidata
Light
Focal height48 feet (15 m)
LensFourth order Fresnel lens (1885), 155 mm solar-powered lens (current)
Range4 nmi (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) Edit this on Wikidata
CharacteristicFl R 6s., bell struck by machinery every 5 seconds.
Middle Bay Light
Middle Bay Light circa 1940.
ArchitectCaptain John Grant
NRHP reference No.74000429[2]
Added to NRHPDecember 30, 1974

History

The station was activated in 1885. In 1916 the keeper's wife gave birth to a baby that summer at the station. According to the Alabama Lighthouse Association web site, the keeper brought a dairy cow to the station and corralled it on a section of the lower deck because his wife was unable to nurse the newborn baby. All had to be evacuated when the station survived but was damaged by a hurricane that year. The light was automated in 1935.

The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 30, 1974.[2] In 1984 the lighthouse was stabilized by Middle Bay Light Centennial Commission in preparation for the centennial celebration. In 1996 the Coast Guard loaned the original Fresnel lens to the Ft. Morgan Museum for public display. In 2002 restoration efforts were begun to repair the lighthouse.

In 2003, a real-time weather station was added to the lighthouse by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. This program is now called ARCOS (Alabama's Realtime Coastal Observing System) and is still active today The weather station, one of seven in Mobile Bay, samples precipitation, total and quantum solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, water depth, and dissolved oxygen. These data can be viewed in real time.[6] From late 2011 - mid 2014 currents and waves were also displayed.

Light
The light itself

Whale oil was the first fuel used and the lighthouse tenders worked in shifts making sure that the lamps did not go out and smoke the lens. In later years kerosene was used and eventually they were converted to electricity.[7]

See also

References
  1. Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Alabama". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2016-06-06.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  3. "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maine". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01.
  4. Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 19.
  5. Rowlett, Russ (2010-03-10). "Lighthouses of the United States: Eastern Maine". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  6. "ARCOS". ARCOS. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  7. "The Fresnel Lens". BrownMarine.com. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
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