Established on September 1, 1859, Southwest Reef Lighthouse stood near the entrance to Atchafalaya Bay on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. One of only two such lighthouses built in the United States, it was designed as a square pyramid fully enclosed in boiler plate. Originally, it displayed a fixed white oil light 54 feet above mean high water, visible for 14 miles. It remained active until March 30, 1916, when it was decommissioned after the Point Au Fer Reef Lighthouse was built. For over seventy years, it continued to mark the passage into Atchafalaya Bay as a day beacon until it was moved ashore and fully restored by the Town of Berwick in October 1987.
