Guard Island Light

Guard Island Light stands on a small island near the entrance to the Tongass Narrows in Clarence Strait, where it was built to guide shipping along Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage through a difficult stretch used by Klondike Gold Rush traffic bound for Juneau and Skagway. Identified as a priority lighthouse site in 1901, it was constructed between 1903 and 1904 as a 34-foot wooden tower with a fourth-order Fresnel lens. Severe coastal weather quickly damaged the original structure, leading Congress to authorize a replacement in 1922. A reinforced-concrete tower was completed in 1924, the station was automated in 1969, and the site gained historic district status in 2004.