Nauset Lighthouse

The Nauset Lighthouse is not only known as a symbol for Cape Cod Potato Chips, but as one of the Cape’s most recognizable landmarks. Over the years, the community has gone to great lengths to construct and preserve this iconic beacon.

It all began in 1836 when 21 residents of Eastham contacted the Boston Marine Society requesting the construction of a lighthouse on Nauset Beach. Countless vessels had been lost off the shores of Eastham and it was apparent that a beacon was required to safely bring ships into harbor. Congress approved the request and determined three wooden lighthouses would be constructed at the site to distinguish the location from the single light north at Truro and the double lights south at Chatham. And so the lighthouses known at the Three Sisters were erected.

For over 70 years the Three Sisters stood tall, safely guiding seamen to shore, but by 1911 the towers were perched perilously close to the edge of the bluff. Weather and erosion had taken their toll on the shoreline. The lighthouses had to be moved or face certain demise. After the towers were set back from the bluff’s edge, the Bureau of Lighthouses determined it was necessary to keep only one of the three sisters in commission. The center tower flashed three times every ten seconds as a tribute to her sisters who now stood silently by her side. After some seven years of standing stoic on the Eastham shores, the two defunct sisters were purchased for $3.50 by the Cummings family who retired them to their summer cottage know as The Towers.

For a dozen more years the remaining sister faithfully illuminated the shores of Eastham, but age had weakened the once sturdy sister. One of the stronger cast-iron Chatham twin lights was dismantled and transported to Eastham to relieve the last sister of her duty after nearly a century of service. The sister was sold for a mere $10 and was incorporated into a private residence.

While the new Nauset Lighthouse stood guard over the Eastham shores, the National Parks Service was busy reuniting the former sisters of Nauset. They purchased all three towers from the private owners and in 1975 united them, in their original configuration, on a site off Cable Road. Here the sisters remain today, in the process of being restored to their original splendor.

Mother Nature, however, was not done having her way with the Nauset Light. In just three short years, beginning with The Perfect Storm in 1991, over 30 feet of bluff was swallowed by the sea. The Cost Guard proposed decommissioning the lighthouse, which would leave the tower to languish and face a watery demise. The eminent danger faced by the Cape Cod icon catapulted the community to action. Hundreds of letters of protest poured into the Boston Coast Guard headquarters and the Nauset Light Preservation Society was born.

The Coast Guard granted the Society a 5 year lease in 1995 and after much debate, a new site, safely out of ocean’s reach, was chosen. By this point, the lighthouse stood a scant 43 feet from the bluffs edge. On November 15th, with the ocean rapidly approaching, there was no more time to waste. Workers endured frigid temperatures, biting wind and snowfall to move the tower to its new home. The lighthouse was painstakingly hauled by heavy-duty dollies hitched to a truck, inch by inch over 336 feet to the new site.

The Nauset Light, renovated and painted, remains a Cape Cod landmark thanks to the dedication of the community and the Nauset Light Preservation Society. You can visit the Nauset Light May through October. Tours are free, but donations are gladly accepted. For more information or to help with the preservation of the Nauset Light, please contact:

Sources:
http://www.nausetlight.org/
http://www.lighthouse.cc/nauset/history.html
http://www.rudyalicelighthouse.net/MassLgts/Nauset/Nauset.htm