Cape Saint Elias

Facing the open Gulf of Alaska, Cape Saint Elias lighthouse stands on Kayak Island, where in 1741 Russian voyagers first set foot on North American soil. The cape's bald pinnacle serves as a key landmark in daylight, and the light provides guidance at night. During construction, a mid-summer storm sank a barge carrying the lens, and the only suitable replacement was a 57-year-old lens from the first US Pacific Coast lighthouse that had been on display at the San Francisco Panama Pacific Exposition and was called back into service at Cape Saint Elias. The light shone from a square tower above a reinforced concrete building, and nearby stood a separate 2-story reinforced concrete keepers dwelling. The site was so isolated that ships delivered supplies only twice a year. In 1964, a Cape St. Elias lighthouse keeper was washed away by the tsunami resulting from the Alaska earthquake as an Armed Forces radio station was playing a song the keeper had requested by letter earlier that year. The lens is on display at the Cordova Historical Museum. The lighthouse was first lighted on Sept. 16, 1916, used a third-order Fresnel lens, was automated in 1974, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is managed by the Cape Saint Elias Lighthouse Keepers.

Juneau, Alaska · United States