Lighthouse Lesson #3: Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse in Manteo, North Carolina

Before you begin your lighthouse tour, check out The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society website.  Besides hosting America's largest keepers' descendants' gathering, the society teaches children about lighthouse history.  Before getting in your car, print off their free 19 page coloring book.  If ambitious, tell your kids about the Lighthouse Explorer Patch Program.  If your child completes 7 out of 10 activities, noting 3 are required, he or she can earn a OBLHS embroidered patch.  

While in the Outer Banks, you should visit the relatively new Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse.  Built in 2004, the lighthouse stands as a replica to the 1877 lighthouse also known at the third Roanoke lighthouse.  Due to the lighthouse protecting river traffic versus ocean traffic, the light doesn't need to stand as tall.  Even at 37 feet tall, you will easily see the lighthouse.  It jets out 40 yards into the Roanoke Sound with white exterior, black shutters, and a red shingle roof.  

Several lighthouses have served to protect boats entering and leaving the Shallowbag Bay:

- First Roanoke lighthouse (1831) experienced floods and repairs that led to abandonment

- Second Roanoke lighthouse (1858) suffered wood rot

- Third Roanoke lighthouse (1877) sold to a private owner in 1955 who placed it on a barge; the lighthouse fell off the barge and sunk into the Albemarle Sound

Fortunately, the Roanoke Island Maritime Museum manages today's lighthouse and light still shines 19 miles offshore.  In the spring, summer, and early fall, you can visit the interior which also includes a fourth-order Fresnel lens and local Manteo exhibits.  Just walk down the wooden boardwalk and visit.

Lighthouse Lesson #2: Bodie Island Lighthouse

Bodie Island Light Station stands proud at 170 feet tall and noticeable with it's black and white stripes. It's iconic look likely helped it make the Frommers travel guide article list "7 All-American Lighthouses".

Did you know it's not the first Bodie Island lighthouse?  Marine safety is worth the continued effort for a structure to watch over the "Graveyard of the Atlantic."  A poor foundation caused the first Bodie Island lighthouse to be abandoned.  Confederate troops who feared the lighthouse would be used as a Union observation post during the Civil War destroyed the second lighthouse.  The third lighthouse was built in 1872 and became part of the National Park Service in 1937.  The third time's the charm!

1937 was also the creation of the first national seashore.  Bodie Island Light Station is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the first national seashore.  If you visit, consider timing your visit between the third Friday in April to Columbus Day in October.  That's when the park service allows visitors to climb the 214 steps to the top 70-foot structure.

Today the Keepers Quarters brick house also serve as one of the three Cape Hatteras visitor centers.  You can expect a small exhibit area and a bookstore.

Bodie remains as one of only a dozen remaining tall brick tower lighthouses in the United States.  It's also special because it still has it's original Fresnel lens.

Stay on the trails as signs warn of snakes.  Take the boardwalk leading from the lighthouse to an observation platform near marshes for another view.

If you love the National Park Service like me, take your kids to the other National Seashores too.  Not only will you learn about history, but also shoreline conservation.  Here's the other nine national seashores:
1) Assateague Island National Seashore (MD)
2) Canaveral (FL)
3) Cape Cod  (MA)
4) Cape Lookout (NC)
5) Cumberland Island (GA)
6) Fire Island (NY)
7) Gulf Islands (MS)
8) Padre Island (TX)
9) Point Reyes (CA)