Back in August, we were lucky enough to get an invitation to visit the Outer Banks. During that visit, we took a day trip all the way down to Cape Hatteras. Why? Because it was the only lighthouse in the area that we had not seen in person.
At 208 feet, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest in the nation. Still in use, the lighthouse flashes a short beam every 7.5 seconds. The beam is said to be seen over 20 nautical miles in clear conditions and almost 51 miles in exceptional conditions. (Sorry, the Park Service did not define “exceptional conditions” for me.) Constructed of 1.25 million bricks (fired in kilns along the James River in Virginia), this oversized barber shop pole can be hiked by the intrepid visitor. Don’t worry, there are only 268 steps and 8 landings where you can stop and rest (if that’s your thing). Of note though, you can only scale the lighthouse April to mid-October. I highly recommend the hike to the top. The view is superb. From that vantage point, the flatness, and fragility, of Hatteras is quite obvious.
It is a fact that the barrier islands of North Carolina are very, very environmentally fragile. There is a fine balance between allowing Mother Nature to ‘do her thing’ and allowing development to occur. When our lives end and we meet our Maker, will we have to account for our treatment of Mother Earth along with our other mortal (and moral) sins? Nine years ago, the lighthouse was moved over 2800 feet inland due to erosion. That’s not the scary part. The information that makes me most fearful is that, if this rate of erosion continues, it is predicted that the lighthouse will have to be moved again in 100 years. If that is to be the fate of the lighthouse, what will be the fate of the barrier islands in North Carolina?
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