Cape Hinchinbrook

Cape Hinchinbrook lighthouse stands high on a cliff at the entrance to the sheltered waters of Prince William Sound. The wreck of the steamer Oregon on Hinchinbrook Island in 1906 led to the light's installation. During construction, foul weather washed away a scow loaded with building materials, and the work remained unfinished when winter arrived. Even so, a keeper and his wife spent the winter in the unfinished building tending a temporary light. When completed, the lighthouse featured a tower rising from the pyramid-shaped roof of an octagonal building made of reinforced concrete and wood. Its ground floor held equipment, and its second floor contained living quarters for four keepers. The keepers lived in isolation, cut off from the rest of the world for as long as a year at a time, and two of them spent their last six months there without speaking after arguing over whether their potatoes should be mashed or fried. Earthquakes in 1927 and 1928 weakened the cliff beneath the lighthouse. In 1934, a new reinforced concrete lighthouse was built 130 feet farther back on solid ground. The original Fresnel lens is now in the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive in Valdez, and the Coast Guard manages the site.

Juneau, Alaska · United States