Cape Sarichef & Scotch Cap

Scotch Cap and Cape Sarichef lighthouses marked the north and south entrances to Unimak Pass in the Aleutian Islands, and both were considered too isolated for family life. Scotch Cap was the first light on Alaska's outside coast and the state's most southerly lighthouse, and at one shipwreck its keepers hosted 194 stranded crewmen for two weeks. In the mid-1930s, its original wood frame lighthouse was replaced with a concrete building. Cape Sarichef was the most westerly lighthouse in North America, and one winter a keeper walked 263 miles around the island to meet a schoolteacher at the False Pass Cannery. On April 1, 1946, a tsunami destroyed the Scotch Cap lighthouse and killed all five keepers, after which it was rebuilt on a cliff above the original site, while the Cape Sarichef lighthouse was also moved higher. The tsunami destroyed Scotch Cap's original third order lens, and Cape Sarichef's was later lost in a warehouse fire. The Coast Guard manages both lighthouse sites.

Juneau, Alaska · United States