The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is not only a Carteret County treasure, but a regional and national one as well, and efforts are underway to restore and preserve the beacon for years to come.
Early last fall, the Save Cape Lookout Foundation formed with the intent to raise money to make repairs to structures on the island, and in March a series of bright orange barriers were placed in front of the summer kitchen, where the water had been lapping at the foundation of the building on the lighthouse complex.
Read more: Beacon of Hope: Iconic lighthouse will soon see repairs, new nonprofit also raising funds
Cape Lookout National Seashore Superintendent Jeff West said they are called wave attenuators and were funded by the nonprofit.
"So far, they're doing a good job,” he said, “Basically, the only point to those is to knock down some of the strength of the waves as they come in and hopefully the jersey barriers and the and the sandbags will finish off anything until we can finally get dredge material in there to build that beach back up.”
The dredging project this fall will allow for the addition of sand in that area, which is also close to the keeper’s quarters, and then the National Park Service will design a living shoreline that will help keep that sand in place.
Related: Dredging in the sounds near Cape Lookout would improve navigation, safety
Many have asked why the summer kitchen, a small structure which is dangerously close to the high tide line, and the keeper’s quarters can’t just be picked up and moved inland.
“We could move them. That's a possibility, and certainly it's been done. if we can move a lighthouse, we can move a keeper’s quarters; we can move a summer kitchen pretty easily there. It's not going to be cheap, but it can be done,” West said. “So, the next question is, if we do that, what does it mean? Well, it means that we've changed the historic nature of the place, and if we can maintain it, it would make more sense from both the cultural side and the historic side to leave them right where they are.”
He's, of course, talking about the relocation of another iconic North Carolina lighthouse – the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the Outer Banks – which was moved 2,900 feet over the course of more than three weeks in 1999 because there was just 120 feet separating it from the ocean.
Read more: NPS, the Cape Hatteras Light Station
The Cape Lookout lighthouse was closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic due to social distancing restrictions that were enacted, and after an inspection prior to possibly reopening West said it has remained closed to prevent further damage to the structure.
But now West is putting the final touches on all of the paperwork necessary to put repairs and restoration work on the lighthouse out for bid.
The most recent estimate for all of the repairs needed is nearly $23,600,000, a substantial increase from last fall’s estimate of $16-to-17 million.
West said that’s mostly because further investigation of the housing that surrounds the lighthouse’s lens determined that most of the cast iron components would have to be removed, shipped to a foundry, recast, shipped back and reassembled.
And each year that passes increases the costs of all portions of the work by 4-6 percent.
The work wish list includes stripping all eight layers of paint from the exterior, because it’s not allowing moisture to escape – impacting the masonry; work on the cast iron stairs; removing and rehabbing the cap atop the lighthouse; window pane replacement and more. West said repairs will be done in phases.
“A company can bid on certain proposals that are in line in order, that have to be done in sequence, and once we exceed the money that we have, we'll cut them off. ‘OK, you can do component one through 6 out of eight’ for instance, so, that company might win the contract,” he explained, “There may be companies that have all components in there, then they can bid all of them. We've had a fair amount of interest from companies in the project, so we'll see where we land. I'm very hopeful for that. I also feel confident that the National Park Service will come up with any additional funds that we need to do it if we don't have enough.”
The lighthouse cost $45,000 to build nearly 170 years ago – equivalent to about $1.7 million today.
“I can't imagine what it took when they were building a lighthouse, 1857-1859, to carry all that cast iron by hand. Once they got the cast iron stairway installed, got everything bricked as they went up and stuff, but to carry up that cast iron cap to the top, I can't even imagine what that took. But it's going to take something similar to rebuild it, all that's got to come off, much of the cast iron cap has to go to a foundry to be recast because it's just not repairable. So, it's going to be a fascinating process to go through and it's going to take a company with a lot of expertise in a lot of areas to pull it off.”
Even with all of the technological advances made since the lighthouse was originally built, because it’s on a barrier island West said they are likely to have to restore it by hand.
"Go up there, unbolt everything, carry it down,” he said, “Getting a big enough crane over there to do the work and handle the loads would be … I mean, it's possible to do, but it would be very expensive. Helicopters that can do that kind of work are very expensive, and nobody likes working in 30 mile an hour winds. Which are, you know, typical out there. So, I don't foresee that happening.”
Work on the restoration and preservation of the historic lighthouse is expected to begin sometime next year.
In the third and final installment about all that is happening at Cape Lookout, West will talk next week about the damage left behind by Dorian in 2019 and the progress that’s been made on restoration in the years since.
