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Bolivar Lighthouse
[Excerpt from "Bolivar!" by A Pat Daniels]
The Lighthouse was
built in 1872 and towers 117 ft. above sea level. It
guided mariners for 61 years and was retired in 1933
when it was replaced by the South Jetty light. It is
now privately owned and not open to visitors. A
lighthouse which may have been erected by the Republic
of Texas was dismantled during the Civil War and plans
for the present Bolivar light made after that time.
The Bolivar lighthouse is of brick sheathed in cast
iron plates riveted together. It once glistened with a
white-and-black banded exterior, but now is covered
with rust and is almost a uniform black.
The 52,000 candle-power beacon guided ships through
the channel, which in earlier years was undredged,
safely from the Gulf of Mexico into the Port of
Galveston.
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The burner of
the lamp was fed by kerosene, contained in storage tanks
on the lower level, and the kerosene was forced through
nozzles into a mantle where it became gas, burning with
great intensity. Eight rays of light were produced every
15 seconds as the lamp slowly revolved throughout the
night. Inside the lighthouse the brass finishings always
were kept brilliantly polished, and it was considered
one of the most attractive and efficient lighthouses on
the Texas Gulf Coast.
From Mrs H. C. Claiborne, wife of the first lighthouse
keeper: "Life at the lighthouse is very lonely and
friendless. There is very little visiting because travel
is non-existent from the point to Galveston. We pass
most of our time by reading books." |
click for larger view
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The
lighthouse withstood the onslaught of two of the worst
storms recorded on the Texas Gulf Coast, the 1900 and
the 1915 hurricanes.
An inspector's report said after the 1900 storm - which
claimed an estimated 6000 lives on Galveston Island -
that, "through the keeper's efforts, the lives of 125
people were saved, and to my personal knowledge, he
harbored and fed a large number of them for a
considerable period".
At one point during the storm, according to the story of
one historian, the hurricane winds caused the tower to
sway so badly that the machinery for the light failed to
work, and that night Claiborne rotated the machinery by
hand to keep the beacon bright.
Winds of 126 miles per hour were recorded in the 1915
hurricane, and still the lighthouse withstood the
pounding of wind and wave.
The light in the tower burned every night during the
years of it's service except two nights of that storm,
Aug 17 and 18, when the supply of oil used to light the
lamps floated away after the surging waters of an
11-foot tide burst open the door at the base of the
tower.
Sixty-one people took refuge in the lighthouse during
that storm, huddling on the iron steps during the night
as winds rocked the tower, and peering out the windows
during the daylight to see their homes and crops being
destroyed.
Two houses, on stilts for protection from rising tides,
were built near the lighthouse for the lighthouse keeper
and his two assistants. H C Claiborne retired and was
replaced by Capt J B Brooks in 1918.
The government sold the lighthouse as surplus property
in 1947.The E W Boyt interests entered a private bid of
$5,500 which was $500 higher that the only other bid. |
click for larger view
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On
May
29,1933,
after 61 years of service, the Bolivar lighthouse was
officially retired. The inner mechanisms have been
removed. The lamps and reflector lenses have been
reassembled in the Galveston County Museum. In 1952, the
land and buldings were sold to Pat E. Boyt.
In 1968, the movie "My Sweet Charlie". starring Patty
Duke and Al Freeman, Jr., was filmed at the lighthouse.
No longer painted and maintained, the lighthouse has
rusted to a uniform shade of black. It stands, near
Highway 87, a visual delight and a symbol of the romance
and adventure of long-ago times at sea. |
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The Lighthouse
survived Hurricane IKE
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Aerial View after IKE
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Photo taken 10-05-08
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