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Georgetown Lighthouse
Looking out towards the Atlantic Ocean, the Georgetown lighthouse
sits at the mouth of Winyah Bay leading in to historic Georgetown ten miles away. Many of
the locals around Georgetown call it the North Island lighthouse as it sits on North
island and some didn’t even know what I was talking about when I referred to it as
the Georgetown lighthouse. It is after all, about twelve miles away from Georgetown by
boat on North Island. The first lighthouse on the island was built of wood in 1801and the
lantern was lit with, at that time, plentiful whale oil. Two years later everything was
washed away by a storm. Another lighthouse was built of brick in 1812 but major damage
during the Civil War put an end to its usefulness.
The present Georgetown lighthouse rose from the ashes in 1867. It’s the oldest active
lighthouse in South Carolina and stands eighty-seven feet high with six foot thick walls
at the base. It has one hundred and twenty-four spiral stairs inside cut from solid stone
instead of the more common cast iron. A simple but stately two-story keepers house just in
front of the lighthouse, all surrounded by a white picket fence once finished off the
scene. Now only the lighthouse remains along with the cistern and a few small buildings
that were built more recently.
You can only reach the Georgetown lighthouse by boat. The day we visited it was foggy. Not just a
little foggy but "can’t see anything" foggy. I asked a fishermen for
directions and he pointed the way with reservation but wished us good luck as we put our
small boat in the water. I figured it could only get better and eventually the fog would
lift. We hugged the shoreline for a mile or two, then made a left, crossing the bay. That
would, according to his directions, land us at the lighthouse. The interesting thing about
lighthouses is that when you most need them they may not be of any assistance. Just as I
was almost ready to admit defeat and turn back with nothing but thick fog surrounding us,
we practically ran into the beach. The lighthouse beacon normally seen from about fifteen
miles away was only a faint beam of light struggling unsuccessfully to peer out through
the dense cloud of white soup. If we had been a ship instead of a twelve-foot aluminum
boat we most certainly would have beached ourselves hard on the island. Fog horns,
although used in the northern states, were not commonly employed in southern lighthouses.
Mariners simply had to sit tight in conditions of fog until it lifted before trying to
enter an area along the coast.
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As the bow of our boat plowed itself into the sandy beach, a young husky man approached
and wanted to know out intentions in being there. After explaining that I was doing a book
on lighthouses, his demeanor softened and he offered to give us a tour but not without
first asking us to disabling our outboard motor by removing the spark plug. I was
confounded about his request until he explained that the lighthouse and small outbuildings
served as a camp for young but hard-line felons. They were out here on the island trying
their best to rehabilitate themselves but I guess not to the point that the temptation of
a small boat to the mainland might be available for a convenient unscheduled departure.
After being shown around the grounds and lighthouse the cover of fog had lifted suddenly
exposing the full length of the handsome white sand beach with the lighthouse standing out
like an exclamation mark against the contrasting dark foliage of the island.
Since that time, the boot camp type program has been discontinued and the island is
deserted. Today you can bring a boat over there but since it’s a private island,
you’re not supposed to walk above the high tide mark. The best way to get there is by
private boat but there were several tours to the island by ferry from Georgetown, at least
when I was there. Georgetown also offers tours of its historic downtown district.
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