Year first lit date n/a (current) Opened 1903 Automated 1971 | Height 7.9 m Focal height 34 m | |
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Location Unimak IslandAlaskaUnited States Year first constructed 1903 (first)1940 (second)1950 (third) Construction metal skeletal tower (current) )wooden tower (first)concrete tower (second)masonry building with short tower on the roof (third Tower shape square pyramidal skeletal tower with balcony and light (current)octagonal prism tower (first)square parallelepiped tower (second)short tower with light (third) Original lens Third-order Fresnel lens Similar Cape Sarichef Light, Cape St Elias Light, Cape Spencer Light, Lincoln Rock Light, Mary Island Light Station | ||
The Scotch Cap Light is a lighthouse located on the southwest corner of Unimak Island in Alaska. It was the first station established on the outside coast of Alaska.
History
In 1903, the Scotch Cap Light was built. The original lighthouse was a 45-foot (14 meter) wood tower on an octagonal wood building. According to the Coast Guard Historian's Office, the lighthouse was witness to several ship wrecks.
In 1909, the cannery supply ship Columbia wrecked. The 194 crew members were guests of the keepers for two weeks before a rescue ship could remove them. In 1930, the Japanese freighter Koshun Maru became lost in a snowstorm and beached near the light. In 1940, a new concrete reinforced lighthouse and fog-signal building was erected near the site of the original lighthouse. In 1942, the Russian freighter Turksib wrecked near the station. The 60 survivors lived at the station for several weeks because rough seas prevented a rescue ship from reaching the station.
The 1940 aid to navigation was the "twin" of the Sand Hills Light in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, replicating much of its design.
In 1945, Anthony Petit was assigned the lighthouse keeper to the Scotch Cap Light as the head of a five-man crew. All of the men were killed on April 1, 1946 during the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake, when a massive tsunami struck the station, destroying it. This was the worst disaster to ever befall a land-based Coast Guard light station. The United States Coast Guard has named a Keeper class buoy tender USCGC Anthony Petit (WLM-558) based in Ketchikan, Alaska in his honor.
In 1946, in the wake of the tsunami disaster, a temporary unwatched light was established. The new permanent structure was completed in the early 1950s, and the temporary light was discontinued. The lighthouse was automated in 1971. A skeletal tower replaced the 1950s structure, and the fog signal was discontinued.