Name: Bald Head Lighthouse County: Brunswick Built: 1817 Operational: No Body of Water: Atlantic Ocean, Cape Fear River Color: White Design: Plain Height: 90 feet Signal Visible: 18 miles
More Bald Head Pictures (Latest pictures added 3/01/04)

From the beginning, the light from this lighthouse never completely illuminated the 20-mile area of shoals that extend into the ocean. The current Bald Head Lighthouse, nicknamed "Old Baldy," was build in 1818 about a mile from the ocean. It was this lighthouse that the Confederate forces disabled in January, 1865, prior to losing control of the Cape Fear River in the battle at Fort Fisher. In the early 1900s, the Bald Head light was downgraded to a low-intensity, steady light, and was finally discontinued in 1935. From 1941 to 1958, Old Baldy produced a radio beacon to direct ships into the Cape Fear River Channel in times of fog and bad weather. Today, it emits a long steady beam as a restored historical site on Bald Head Island.