Sabine Pass Lighthouse -- Cameron Parish LA
N 29° 42.670 W 093° 51.600
15R E 416814 N 3287090
A unique and inaccessible rocketship-like 8-sided lighthouse stands guard (although dark for 60 years) over the Sabine-Neches Waterway. The waymarked point is at a bridge on the Jetty Rd south of Sabine Pass TX -- as close as you can get to it.
Waymark Code: WMG4QN
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/12/2013
Views: 3
The historic 8-sided lighthouse with rocket-fin flaring buttresses at the mouth of the Sabine River between Louisiana and Texas served from 1856-1952.
The lighthouse is now owned by the Cameron Preservation Alliance. The lighthouse is inaccessible to the public, but occasionally the CPA gives tours by prior arrangement. The lighthouse was damaged by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008. The Cameron Preservation Alliance hopes to begin making repairs soon.
Because the lighthouse is inaccessible, the waymark coordinates are for a bridge on the Jetty Road south of Sabine Pass TX, which is as close to this lighthouse as you can get. Bring your telephoto lens :)
From the newspaper Houma Today:
"Sabine Pass Lighthouse stands tall through ages
by Mike Jones
Published: Sunday, October 3, 2010
JOHNSON BAYOU — The Sabine Pass Lighthouse has weathered a half-dozen hurricanes, including two in the past five years, and still stands tall in the marshes of extreme southwest Cameron Parish.
There were the nameless hurricanes in 1865, 1886 and 1918, Hurricane Audrey in 1957, Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008.
Rita and Ike damaged the buttresses that flare out like rocket fins at the bottom. WOrk on those will be a priority when preservation work begins, said Carolyn Thibodaux of the Cameron Preservation Alliance, which owns the property.
She said the Alliance hasn't done much since Rita, but in January will be ready to launch a new membership campaign.
The buttresses need to be stabilized before anything else is done because they help support the lighthouse walls, and have given it the strength to withstand storms and weathering, she said.
The Sabine Pass Lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, the first property in Cameron Parish to make the list. The octagonal brick structure with a flared octagonal base is believed unique on the Mississippi-Louisiana-Texas coasts.
The lighthouse, built in 1857 for $22,258, served as a navigational aid in trade and aided the westward migration in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana.
Capt. Sammie Faulk, Cameron Parish outdoorsman and tour guide, said the surrounding area was also known for its cattle drives. One of the remaining signs on the countryside from the cattle drive days are cactus plants.
Thibodeaux said the lighthouse is also "hallowed" ground since it was the site of a Civil War skirmish and battle on April 18, 1863. One Confederate soldier and five Union sailors were killed.
On Sept. 8, 1863, Union gunboats near the lighthouse opened fire on Confederate Fort Griffin on the Texas side of the river. In the Battle of Sabine Pass, Confederate forces stopped a Union invasion of Texas.
Construction of the lighthouse began in 1856 with brick from New Jersey. The first lighthouse keeper, Benjamin F. Granger, lit a whale-oil light.
The light was extinguished in 1861, and the lantern and clockworks dismantled by Granger in 1862 to thwart their use by the Union Navy.
It was repaired in 1865 and began operation on Dec. 23 of that year.
During the hurricane of Oct. 12, 1886, between 50 and 110 people were drowned in nearby Johnson Bayou, which had a population of 1,200.
Faulk said that at that time, Johnson Bayou was known for its orange groves.
The hurricane also swept away the lighthouse keeper's wood-frame house. It was rebuilt.
Electricity and a radio beacon were installed in 1929 and black bands painted onto to the white tower in 1932 to make it more visible. On May 21, 1952, lighthouse keeper Steve Purgley turned off the light for the last time.
A marsh fire destroyed the keeper's wood-frame house and walkway were destroyed in 1976. Only the brick tower and generator building survived.
Over the years, ownership of the property was transferred by the federal government to Lamar University, P.G. Grenader and W.C. Pielop Jr. and, in 2001, to its current owner, Cameron Preservation Alliance.
Thibodeaux said architects Randy and Lauren Broussard did a detailed study of the structure in 2002. They found that the foundation of the lighthouse is 50 feet square, probably of layered timbers and concrete. The foundation is three feet above sea level.
The base, with its distinctive masonry buttresses, is 36 feet in diameter. The walls of the lighthouse are 18 inches thick.
The architects found a tilt in the tower that will have to be corrected.
Two 15-foot cracks on the walls have been there since the 1880s, Thibodaux said.
The copper sheathing on the lighthouse dome was stolen in the 1970s.
Last year, the Sabine Pass Lighthouse was featured on a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.
It is not open to the public. Thibodeaux said that after the preservation organization gets going again, more public activities will be held there." [end]
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