Cape Hatteras Light Station, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cultural Landscape Report

Vincent, Susan

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stands today as a testimony of human determination to maintain a light at Cape Hatteras in the midst of one of the nation's most dynamic environments. For 200 years, advancements in engineering have allowed the light to sustain through shifting sands, flooding, overwash, and high winds. The recent relocation of the complex to a new site exemplifies both the continual changes in the barrier island environment and an engineering feat. Today, the lighthouse setting represents the later part of the historic period (1870-1936) when the Civilian Conservation Corps built dunes and planted them extensively with native vegetation. The existing shrub thickets and pine/oak woodland are a direct result of those protection methods. The CLR recommends a preservation/ rehabilitation strategy to return the lighthouse complex landscape to this later part of the site's period of significance as it provides a direct link to the site's environmental history and the many efforts to protect the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Furthermore, this strategy allows for future endorsements of significant events that are associated with efforts to protect the tower. It links the earlier efforts during the historic period to the 1999 move as part of the lighthouse's ongoing history. This document is the result of a limited investigation of the light station site during the U.S. Lighthouse Service period (1850 to 1936) and the NPS period (1937 to the present). The report 1) examines the conditions of the old and new sites during the period of significance (1870 to 1935) and provides the management treatments necessary to achieve a similar setting, 2) studies the sites' natural and cultural resources, and 3) re-evaluates the existing NHL boundaries in light of the move and the treatment recommendations provided in this document. Primary sources for investigating the Cape Hatteras Light Station were historical drawings, maps, period photographs, aerial photographs, and park master plans. Existing park documentation includes the park's 1938 Prospectus, Cape Hatteras National Seashore; the 1939 Master Plan; the 1966 Master Plan; the 1984 GMP/DCP/Amended EA; the 1978 Cape Hatteras Light Station District Nomination; the 1978 Status Report for Cape Hatteras; the 1986 Report on the Preparation of the Comprehensive Design Keepers Quarters Landscape Plan for the Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras National Seashore; the 1989 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Complex Protection Alternatives, DCP/EA; and the 1998 Cape Hatteras Light Station National Historic Landmark Nomination. Other primary sources reviewed were natural resource management reports including the 1936 Bi-Monthly Narrative Progress Reports for Cape Hatteras State Park, vegetation studies, engineering studies, and archeological reports. Secondary sources included local histories of Dare County and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. In addition to documentary research, site visits and park staff interviews were conducted.

Cape Hatteras Light Station, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cultural Landscape Report

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