Ocracoke Light

Ocracoke /ˈoʊkrʌkoʊk/ [2] Light was built in Carteret County, on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina in 1823 by Massachusetts builder Noah Porter. The lighthouse stands 75 feet (23 m) tall. Its diameter narrows from 25 feet (7.6 m) at the base to 12 feet (3.7 m) at its peak. The lighthouse was built to help guide ships through Ocracoke Inlet into Pamlico Sound.

Ocracoke Light
Ocracoke Light
Tower


Location	SR 1326, Ocracoke Island, Ocracoke, North Carolina, Hyde County, North Carolina
Coordinates	35°6′32.3″N 75°59′9.8″W
Constructed	1823
Foundation	Dressed stone / timber
Construction	Brick with mortar surface
Automated	1955
Height	76 feet (23 m)
Shape	Conical
Markings	White
Heritage	National Register of Historic Places listed place
Fog signal	none

Light
First lit	August 15, 1824 (current tower)
Focal height	75 feet (23 m)
Lens	4th order Fresnel lens installed 1854
Range	15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi)
Characteristic	Fixed white



Ocracoke Light Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
Built	1823
Architect	Noah Porter
NRHP reference No.	77000110[1]
Added to NRHP	November 25, 1977

In 1864, Confederate troops dismantled the fourth-order Fresnel Lens, but Union forces later restored it.

Ocracoke Light is the oldest operating light station in North Carolina and the second oldest lighthouse still standing in the state. The lighthouse was automated in 1955. During the summer months when there is a U.S. National Park Ranger on duty, visitors may access the base of the lighthouse. Access to the top of the lighthouse is not allowed due to the simple steel spiral staircase being safe only for maintenance activity.

However, this is not the original staircase; the original staircase was a wooden step spiral built into the inside of the exterior wall. This was removed during the 1950s due to excessive rotting to the boards and a lacking necessity for a substantial staircase because of the automation of the light. The wooden stairs were removed and the holes in the all-brick lighthouse were cemented closed.

The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as Ocracoke Light Station.

Controversy

Various claims have been made about the light, including "the Ocracoke Light is the second oldest operating lighthouse in the nation," from the National Park Service.[3] The original 1795 construction a mile away[4] would qualify only as fifth oldest and the current 1823 tower is about twelfth oldest.

Ocracoke Lighthouse with the Milky Way Galaxy
Ocracoke Lighthouse and Silver Lake from Ocracoke National Park Museum
U.S. Coast Guard Archive

References

"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
Talk Like A Tarheel Archived 2013-06-22 at the Wayback Machine, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2013-02-05.
"The Ocracoke Light Station". National Park Service. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
"Historic Light Station Information and Photography: North Carolina". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ocracoke Lighthouse.

Lighthouses of North Carolina
Main: List of lighthouses in the United States
Active	Bodie Island Light Cape Hatteras Light Cape Lookout Light Currituck Beach Light Oak Island Light Ocracoke Light
Deactivated / Dismantled / Decommissioned	Bald Head Light Campbell Island Light Cape Fear Light Diamond Shoal Light Federal Point Light Frying Pan Shoals Light Hatteras Beacon Price Creek Light Roanoke Marshes Light Roanoke River Light Wade Point Light

Outer Banks of North Carolina and Virginia
Landforms	Bodie Island Knotts Island Monkey Island Mary Island Colington Island Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula Roanoke Island Pea Island Hatteras Island No Ache Island Cape Hatteras Shelly Island Ocracoke Island Beacon Island Portsmouth Island Core Banks Cape Lookout
Places	City of Virginia Beach Sandbridge Currituck County Knotts Island Carova Beach Corolla Dare County Duck Southern Shores Kitty Hawk Kill Devil Hills Colington Nags Head Whalebone Junction Manteo Wanchese Rodanthe Waves Salvo Avon Buxton Frisco Hatteras Hyde County Ocracoke Carteret County Portsmouth Cape Lookout Village
Waterways	Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Bays Onslow Bay Raleigh Bay Back Bay Knotts Island Bay Sounds Currituck Sound Albemarle Sound Croatan Sound Roanoke Sound Pamlico Sound Core Sound Back Sound Inlets Oregon Inlet New Inlet Isabel Inlet Hatteras Inlet Ocracoke Inlet Drum Inlet Barden Inlet
Lighthouses	Currituck Beach Light Bodie Island Light Cape Hatteras Light Ocracoke Light Cape Lookout Light
Protected areas and wildlife	National Seashores Cape Hatteras National Seashore Cape Lookout National Seashore Wildlife Refuges Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge Currituck National Wildlife Refuge Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge State Parks False Cape State Park Jockey's Ridge State Park State Coastal Reserves Kitty Hawk Woods Buxton Woods Game Lands Currituck Banks Game Land Roanoke Island Marshes Game Land Buxton Woods Game Land Preserves Nags Head Woods Preserve Roanoke Island Marshes Preserve Museums, zoos, and institutes North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum University of North Carolina - Coastal Studies Institute Other Mountains-to-Sea Trail Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Wright Brothers National Memorial Currituck Banks North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve Run Hill State Natural Area Wildlife Banker horse Red wolf
Transportation	Routes North Carolina Highway 12 North Carolina Highway 45 U.S. Highway 64 U.S. Highway 64 Bypass U.S. Highway 158 North Carolina Highway 345 North Carolina Highway 400 North Carolina Highway 615 Historic Albemarle Tour North Carolina Ferry System Bridges Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge Marc Basnight Bridge Herbert C. Bonner Bridge Wright Memorial Bridge William B. Umstead Bridge Washington Baum Bridge Melvin R. Daniels Bridge Rodanthe Bridge Mid-Currituck Bridge Captain Richard Etheridge Bridge Airports Dare County Regional Airport First Flight Airport Billy Mitchell Airport Ocracoke Island Airport
History	Events and places Pea Island Life-Saving Station Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Roanoke Colony Graveyard of the Atlantic Torpedo Alley Battle of the Atlantic Hatteras Weather Bureau Station Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island People Roanoke people Croatan Wanchese Manteo John White Richard Grenville Blackbeard Raleigh Virginia Dare Marc Basnight
Weather	1936 Outer Banks hurricane 1945 Outer Banks hurricane Hurricane Fran Hurricane Irene Hurricane Isabel Hurricane Dorian Hazard mitigation

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Topics	Contributing property Keeper of the Register Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Property types
Lists by county	Alamance Alexander Alleghany Anson Ashe Avery Beaufort Bertie Bladen Brunswick Buncombe Burke Cabarrus Caldwell Camden Carteret Caswell Catawba Chatham Cherokee Chowan Clay Cleveland Columbus Craven Cumberland Currituck Dare Davidson Davie Duplin Durham Edgecombe Forsyth Franklin Gaston Gates Graham Granville Greene Guilford Halifax Harnett Haywood Henderson Hertford Hoke Hyde Iredell Jackson Johnston Jones Lee Lenoir Lincoln Macon Madison Martin McDowell Mecklenburg Mitchell Montgomery Moore Nash New Hanover Northampton Onslow Orange Pamlico Pasquotank Pender Perquimans Person Pitt Polk Randolph Richmond Robeson Rockingham Rowan Rutherford Sampson Scotland Stanly Stokes Surry Swain Transylvania Tyrrell Union Vance Wake Warren Washington Watauga Wayne Wilkes Wilson Yadkin Yancey
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks

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