Chandeleur Island Light

Chandeleur Island Light stood near the northern end of the Chandeleur Islands off Louisiana’s east coast, guiding vessels along a remote, hurricane-prone stretch of the Gulf of Mexico from 1848 until Hurricane Katrina destroyed it in 2005. Repeated storms destroyed or damaged successive towers and keepers’ quarters, leading to multiple rebuildings, including an iron skeleton lighthouse completed in 1895. As erosion steadily removed the island beneath it, the light eventually stood isolated in the water. It also gained legal significance when the United States Supreme Court held the federal government liable after negligent maintenance contributed to a barge grounding. Its disappearance ended more than 150 years of persistence against storm and sea.

Louisiana · United States