Deactivated 1945 Construction wooden building Material Wood | Foundation wooden piles pier Opened 1891 Year first constructed 1891 | |
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Location Roe IslandSuisun BayCaliforniaUnited States Tower shape lantern atop a building Markings / pattern white building,black lantern Similar Carquinez Strait Light, Table Bluff Light, Long Beach Light, Farallon Island Light, Oakland Harbor Light | ||
Roe Island Lighthouse was a lighthouse on Roe Island on the east end of Suisun Bay, California.
History
The Roe Island Light was built on Suisun Bay across from Port Chicago, 33 miles (53 km) inland from the Golden Gate and five miles (8 km) east of Benicia. In the 1900s, a second dwelling similar to the lighthouse without the lantern were built adjacent to the lighthouse.
During World War II, trains delivered ammunition to ships at the Port Chicago Navy Depot, which was 3,000 yards (2,700 m) from the Roe Island Lighthouse. On 17 July 1944, the Port Chicago disaster occurred, damaging the lighthouse. Two ships, Quinault Victory and E. A. Bryan, were being loaded with tons of munitions. At approximately 10:20 pm, there was an enormous explosion. More than 300 men, both ships, two Coast Guard vessels and much of the train were destroyed.
With changes in the shipping waterways in the area the light, was no longer needed anymore so it was decommissioned in 1945 and sold. An 11 August 1944 Coast Guard report noted that the station: "consists of the light, with two keepers, with dwellings, outhouses, power house, water supply tanks, wharf, walkways, boat harbor and boatways. No fog signal is maintained. Electric current for the light and quarters is generated at the station. Water supply is from rain collected from the building roofs, augmented by supply pumped in from the tenders."
It was sold to a private family. The family used the station as a summer home until a fire destroyed it.