Sand Island Lighthouse

Three miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, a lighthouse stands 132 feet above the water. It marks the southernmost point in Alabama — a navigational anchor for a harbor that once couldn't accommodate deep-draft ships. Dauphin Island blocks the western entrance; Mobile Point takes the east. The tower watches the gap.

The first structure went up in 1837, completed two years later by Winslow Lewis — a 55-foot tower lit by 14 lamps in 16-inch reflectors, the Argand-style Lewis lamp that held a government monopoly until 1853. A second lighthouse was finished in 1859. It lasted four years. On February 23, 1863, Confederate soldiers at Fort Morgan watched Union troops climb the tower to scout their position. The fort's guns destroyed the lighthouse. A year later, a 48-foot wooden replacement went up. It held until 1873.

The current tower was completed by September 1864. Its base is 28 feet in diameter, 6 feet thick, built on 171 interconnected wood pilings sunk into the island and sealed with 12 feet of concrete. The focal height reaches 125 feet. At the time, the island measured roughly 400 acres. A two-story keeper's dwelling stood beside the tower.

The island eroded. Granite blocks were added to slow the loss. By 2004, Hurricane Ivan damaged the structure. Katrina hit the following year. The lighthouse became one of the most endangered in the country, surrounded by water like its sister light, Morris Island, off Charleston, South Carolina. In December 2011, contractors dredged 1.4 million cubic yards of sand from the sea floor and rebuilt the island — 2,600 feet by 500 feet, roughly 15 acres. The $6 million restoration lasted less than a year. Hurricane Isaac washed it away.

The Dauphin Island Foundation, working with the Alabama Lighthouse Association, administers the restoration project. The lighthouse remains on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You'll need a boat to reach it.