Year first constructed 1848 Construction Iron Opened 1848 Focal height 31 m Added to NRHP 25 June 1986 | Foundation Pile Automated 1966 Area 404.7 m² Material Iron | |
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Location Chandeleur Islands, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana Year first lit 1896 (most recent tower) Deactivated destroyed by Katrina, 2005 Similar Point Au Fer Reef Light, Southwest Reef Light, Pass Manchac Light, New Canal Lighthouse, Ship Shoal Light | ||
The Chandeleur Island Light was a lighthouse established in 1848 near the northern end of the Chandeleur Islands in the Gulf of Mexico, off the east coast of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the light in 2005.
History
The first light was finished in 1848 with nine lamps in 21 inches (530 mm) reflectors about 55 feet (17 m) above the base. The tower and the keeper's house were destroyed by a hurricane in August 1852.
A second, brick, tower was in operation by 1855, with a focal plane of 50 feet (15 m). By 1865 it had a 4th order Fresnel lens. This tower was the only building on the site that survived the hurricane of October 1, 1893, but it was badly damaged and was taken down. Congress appropriated $35,000 for its replacement.
A new, iron skeleton tower with a 3rd order Fresnel lens (focal plane 102 feet (31 m)) was erected in its place in 1895. The light figured in a case before the United States Supreme Court. After a barge carrying fertilizer ran aground, it was determined that the Coast Guard had been negligent in maintaining the proper operation of the light. The Court held that the United States was liable. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as Chandeleur Light.
Erosion eventually left the tower standing alone in the water, with the last auxiliary building, a keeper's house, destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969. The tower was utterly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, so that a visit by a research vessel the following spring found no trace of it.