In 1848, the United States Lighthouse Service erected the South's first cast-iron lighthouse in Biloxi on a low sandy bluff overlooking the Mississippi Sound. Fabricated by the Murray and Hazelhurst Vulcan Works of Baltimore, Maryland, and shipped to Biloxi, the tower had an interior brick lining made by local artisans, and the light from its white fifth-order fixed lens could be seen for 13 nautical miles. Because it stood so near the water, erosion and storm surge repeatedly threatened it: an 1860 hurricane severely undermined one side of its foundation, and excavating the opposite side set the leaning tower upright again. Before the 26-mile Harrison County seawall was completed in 1926, breakwaters of heavy timbers, brick, ballast rock, and concrete were used at various times to hold back the gulf, and after a man-made sand beach and four-lane highway were completed in 1954, the lighthouse stood landlocked for the first time. Its lamp was fueled by sperm oil, lard, and kerosene before being electrified in 1926. Six people tended the light, including three women: Mary Reynolds from 1854 to 1866, Maria Younghans from 1867 to 1920, and Miranda Younghans from 1920 to 1929. The lighthouse came under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1938, and an automatic revolving lamp ended the need for a light tender. It guided paddle-wheel steamboats, lumber ships, oyster schooners, shrimp trawlers, and pleasure craft by night and served as a daytime landmark, with its light withheld only from Federal warships during the Civil War. The Coast Guard decommissioned it in 1967, and the City of Biloxi acquired it in 1968. In 2005, the tidal surge of Hurricane Katrina filled one third of the 64-foot tower, dislodged bricks from the interior wall, shattered windows, and destroyed the electrical system. A 14-month 421,000-dollar restoration was completed in 2010 with a rededication and relighting, and the lighthouse now operates as a working lighthouse and museum, with a fifth order Fresnel lens visible for 10 nautical miles as boat captains continue to seek its flashing beam when approaching the Biloxi channel.
