Southwest Reef Light

Southwest Reef Light, built in 1856 in Atchafalaya Bay, replaced lightships that had marked a hazardous point for the previous decade and helped guide vessels around the reef into the main channel of the Atchafalaya River. It remained in use until 1916, when a shorter, deeper channel cut across the reef made it obsolete and Point Au Fer Reef Light took over. The lighthouse then stood abandoned and rusting for decades before Berwick moved it about 25 miles upriver in 1987. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, it endures as a rare surviving piece of Louisiana maritime history.

Berwick, Louisiana · United States