Round Island Lighthouse

Round Island, in the shallow Mississippi Sound three miles offshore from the entrance to the Pascagoula River, became an important lighthouse site as coastal commerce increased in the early 19th century. The first lighthouse there was completed on December 1, 1833, at a cost of $5,895, with a 45-foot brick tower and adjacent quarters for the keeper and his family, and its lamps were said to be visible more than 12 miles away. In 1853 a Fresnel lens replaced the older Winslow Lewis lamps. As erosion gradually threatened the structure, a second lighthouse replaced it in 1859 at a cost of $7,130. No records have been found of the original lighthouse's fate, but it is thought to have been storm damaged and dismantled. The new brick tower stood 50 feet tall and carried the more modern Fresnel lens. During the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Confederate authorities temporarily removed the light lens to Montgomery for safekeeping from Union forces. Life for lighthouse keepers was solitary and often family-centered, broken only by occasional visitors or trips to the mainland, and in 1853 the annual salary was $500. The work was also dangerous, as hurricanes could arrive with little warning, and during one 19th century storm a keeper and his family, trapped in the lighthouse, took refuge in the tower while waves crashed halfway up the brick column. In 1939 the U. S. Coast Guard assumed responsibility for all American lighthouses. The lighthouse was automated in 1944 and discontinued from service in 1954. After years of disrepair and relentless wave erosion, Hurricane Georges on the night of September 27, 1998, toppled the tower into the Gulf. Private and governmental efforts later transferred the remaining base to more secure land, where it rests today, while the ventilation ball and lightning rod were recovered and placed in storage. With funding, the entire structure is intended to be rebuilt, even as modern navigation aids such as automated beacons and GPS have replaced manned lighthouses.

Pascagoula, Mississippi · United States