Fresnel lenses are composed of multiple prisms that focus the light into one strong beam, substantially increasing the light’s brightness.ĭuring the Civil War, the lighthouse had been used as a lookout tower by both Union and Confederate troops, and it sustained structural damage. The lighthouse was raised to 150 feet in 1854, and a first-order Fresnel lens was installed over the whale oil lamp. At 100 feet tall, it could be seen almost 18 miles out in clear weather, but the light was too dim to see during storms. In 1803, a lighthouse was built on Cape Hatteras to warn sailors of the shoals. Many ships have run aground here and been pounded to oblivion by the relentless waves, earning this strip of coast the nickname “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.” Its elbow-like point juts into the sea and is surrounded by Diamond Shoals, which is a trio of constantly shifting sandbars that stretches nearly 15 miles out to sea. This creates unstable weather conditions and fantastic storms.Ĭape Hatteras is also the easternmost point on the Atlantic Coast. Here, the cold Labrador current comes down from Canada and mixes with the Gulf Stream’s warm Caribbean water. No stretch of the Atlantic coast is more dangerous to navigate than the waters off of Hatteras Island. The Cape Hatteras Light has been a beacon for sailors for more than 200 years. Now, 85 years later, the National Park Service is restoring the lighthouse to the way it looked in Unaka Jennette’s day. That night, an electric light shone baldly out from a steel skeleton tower in the woods west of the lighthouse. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was officially decommissioned. He ran his hands over the lens he had so lovingly cleaned for 18 years, took one last look around the tower, climbed down to the watch room, walked through the swinging doors and descended the 269 stairs for the final time. Those estimates are added to the number of passengers going to Ocracoke Island from Cedar Island and Swan Quarter.Story by Andrea Kelley, Graphics by Rachel WockĪs the sun rose over the Atlantic on May 15, 1936, Unaka Jennette turned out the light for the last time.
Seashore visitation estimates are collected by counting southbound vehicles just north of the Marc Basnight Bridge and using a multiplier to estimate the total number of passengers heading south.
Visitor totals for the past five years, per the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau’s statistics, are listed below. In 2022, the CHNS received a total of 2,862,844 visitors, which made it the third busiest year at the National Seashore on record, behind only 20. In recent history, this is a slightly higher total than 2022, (which had 763,554 visitors for January through May), but less than record-breaking 2021.Ģ021, (which was during the height of the pandemic), had the highest visitation ever recorded, and was also the first time that CHNS visitation surpassed the 3 million mark. Per statistics from the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, CHNS recorded 248,371 visitors in May, 228,766 visitors in April, 147,925 visitors in March, 81,607 visitors in February, and 67,735 visitors in January. With 774,404 visitors recorded in the first five months of the year, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) is on track to have another busy year in 2023.
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