Five Finger

Five Finger was first named Southeast Five Finger because it stood on the southeastern-most island of the Five Finger Islands group. The original wood boathouse and carpenter shop remain. In 1933, a keeper thawing frozen water pipes with a blowtorch accidentally set fire to the lighthouse. Another keeper ran into the smoke-filled building to save the large leather-bound visitor log, but escaped with a thick book that turned out to be a Sears Roebuck catalog. Ironically, the National Archives later erroneously burned all Alaska lighthouse visitor logs. Five Finger's second lighthouse was built on a higher, more central part of the island. The two-story reinforced concrete building housed all equipment and three keepers. Five Finger was first lighted on March 1, 1902, in Frederick Sound, 37 miles northwest of Petersburg, and it was the last Alaska lighthouse to be automated, in 1984. Its original fourth-order Fresnel lens was destroyed in the 1933 fire, and the site is owned by the Juneau Lighthouse Association.

Juneau, Alaska · United States