Mary Island

Mary Island's lighthouse, the second seen by ships heading up Alaska's Inside Passage, guides mariners into Revillagigedo Channel leading to Ketchikan. Like most of Alaska's lighthouses, it was built soon after the Klondike Gold Rush to reduce maritime hazards that had taken a tragic toll in lives and ships. First lighted on July 15, 1903, its main structure was a one-story, octagonal, wooden building with a pyramid-shaped roof topped with a tall light tower, with two frame houses for keepers nearby. Mary Island was one of the few Alaska lighthouses where keepers could bring their families, and one keeper's son who spent much of his childhood there joined the Lighthouse Service and later became a keeper on the island where he had grown up. In 1938, a new reinforced-concrete lighthouse replaced the pioneer building. The original fourth-order Fresnel lens is on display at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, and the site is managed by the Coast Guard.

Juneau, Alaska · United States