The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, at a height of 194, 199 or 211 feet, depending on whose chart you will stumble upon, is the tallest lighthouse in the United States. Located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a series of barrier islands, Cape Hatteras is indeed, the “king” of the Brick Giants, the series of tall brick towers built in the United States between the late 1850’s and the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Yes, the 1887 Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is also a brick giant at 175 feet, and actually is the second tallest brick tower in the country. In between, is the Cape Charles Lighthouse at 191 feet. It is a skeletal tower of cast iron screw piles driven into the bedrock below.
The current Cape Hatteras Tower was built because while the Atlantic Currents make for excellent speed of travel for sailing ships and even modern shipping, the nearby Gulf Stream ocean currents collide with the Labrador Current. This fosters conditions which create powerful storms, swells and shifting sandbars. The region is aptly known to all as, “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
Completed in 1870, over the years, ocean erosion significantly threatened its stability. To prevent its loss, in 1999, a decision was made by the Park Service which maintains the lighthouse, to move or relocate the tower.
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse weighs about 4830 tons. The tower was lifted off its foundation and by using hydraulic jacks was placed on steel rails and moved 2900 feet inland from the shoreline in one of the most ambitious historic preservation projects ever attempted. It was called “The Move of the Century.”
It went smoothly. But what no one realized at the time was how close the new site was to what may be called a “forgotten” piece of “energy infrastructure.”
In addition to the sand and shells beneath the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tower itself stands close to one of the deepest oil wells ever driven in the country! During the early years of World War II, the Atlantic Coast was at the mercy of German U Boats cutting off oil tanker deliveries and demonstrating in real time how weak and defenseless the United States energy source was. Geologists recognized that the Gulf produced oil offshore, why wouldn’t the Atlantic Coast do the same thing? The answer was to drill to see if oil existed on shore. One of the first places that were selected to drill was a third of a mile from the Hatteras Lighthouse! It was called by the press, “the most important wildcat venture in eastern America.”
A derrick almost the same height rose from the site in the dunes, and crews worked 24-7, until it reached some 10,054 feet down, the deepest well ever dug. There was no oil. What it did provide was what was called the Hatteras Light Well No.1, and is called today, “the cornerstone reference for Atlantic coastal geology.” The well was plugged and abandoned in 1943 and forgotten almost forever.
Come 1999, the National Park Service does move the Hatteras Light tower, America’s tallest, 2900 feet away from its old location. But by an extraordinary bit of luck, the lighthouse was not relocated atop the unknown old well head. In 2024, the Park Service, using old plat maps and referencing old photos, determined that the lighthouse sits about fifty feet from the capped well head, buried three feet deep in the sand.