Texas Lights

Texas Lights - The Story

The lighthouses of Texas have a long and varying history. A lighthouse was planned for Texas as early as 1840 but complications caused it to be delayed for over a decade. In 1847, funds were appointed for the establishment of two iron towers, one at the Galveston Bay and one on Matagorda Island. Before either of these towers were built, a lightship was put into service in the Galveston Bay. The contract for the two lights went to the same company and two iron towers, both identical, were constructed at Port Bolivar and Matagorda Island. Within the next 5 years several more lights went into service, Point Isabel, Aransas Pass (now Lydia Ann Channel), Half Moon Reef etc... Within years the Texas Coast was dotted with dozens of "screwpile" lights. The Civil War spelled the end of duty for every Texas lighthouse. Forces from either side, Confederate or Union, removed the optics from the lights and usually attempted to destroy them, only a couple survived, which is a tribute to how well they were built. Re-lighting these lights after the Civil War became a top priority. The lights at Port Bolivar, Matagorda Island, Aransas Pass, and Point Isabel were among the highest priority. Out of those 4, only one had been completely destroyed, Port Bolivar, which was completely rebuilt at a new height of 117 feet, making it Texas' tallest lighthouse. New designs were coming up for lighthouses and Texas became home to nearly all of them. A tall "sanibel-class" skeletal tower marked the Brazos River, the Gulf's only cassion lighthouse went into service 15 miles off-shore from Sabine, and the only Gulf lighthouse to be built using Skyscraper technology was built 2 miles down Galveston's South Jetty. Throughout the years many of Texas' lighthouses were destroyed by weather, the most recent being the Galveston South Jetty lighthouse, which was destroyed on May 2, 2002. The Coast Guard removed the Sabine Bank lighthouse in 2002 and replaced it with a modern skeletal tower. Now, Texas has 5 original lighthouses remaining, Port Bolivar and Lydia Ann Channel, now in private hands, Half Moon Reef, which was moved onshore and is now a visitor's center/museum, and Port Isabel and Matagorda which were restored, reactivated, and are now open to the public. The good news is that none of these lighthouses appear to be in any danger of being destroyed by weather, the Coast Guard, or any other threat.