The historic 6,000-pound bronze and crystal lens from the 1803 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was reconstructed in the spring of 2005 in the lobby of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and is on display there for visitors. The first-order, Fresnel lens is on loan to the museum from the National Park Service. Nationally recognized lighthouse lampists James Woodward of Cleveland, Ohio, Jim Dunlap of Staten Island, N.Y., joined by metals expert Kurt Fosberg of Marquette, Mich., completed the stabilization and reconstruction of the artifact in the entrance hall of the museum in early April, 2005. The project team was assisted by volunteers from lighthouse organizations from North Carolina to New England. Woodward has called the lens “a national treasure.” Built in 1853 by the French lens manufacturer, Henry-Lepaute & Co. of Paris, the lens was one of the first purchased by the U.S. government to reduce the number of shipwrecks off Cape Hatteras, which was described by the 32nd Congress as the most deadly place for shipping along the eastern seaboard. During its 152-year history, the artifact has served in two lighthouses, crossed the Atlantic Ocean three times, and survived storms, lightning strikes, and an earthquake, but it was severely damaged by souvenir hunters in the 1940s. What remained of the valuable lens was later stored in various government warehouses, and it was eventually neglected and forgotten. On the eve of the Civil War, the first-order apparatus, comprised of more than 1,000 crown-crystal prisms, was removed from the top of the first Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in a desperate attempt to prevent the beacon from aiding the Union Navy’s blockade. Nine months later the lens was hidden in “a good storehouse” in an obscure farming community in Granville County, N.C., 200 miles from Cape Hatteras. Throughout the war, the lens had been sought by Union soldiers, sailors, spies, and two cabinet secretaries in the administration of President Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, 28,000 men of General Sherman’s army passed within yards of its hiding place but failed to find it. Throughout the pursuit of the lens, careers were lost, towns were ransacked and burned, and lives were threatened. On its journey, the prized optic was transported by horse-drawn carts, pole-propelled rafts, steamboats, the rickety rails of the Confederate railroad, and finally by wagon to a hiding place so secretive that it was thought to be still lost 140 years later. As years passed the magnificent first-order lens seemed to have vanished into the mists of time—a mystery born of myths, urban legends, and a sea of faded and fire-damaged documents. In 2001, Tim Harrison, president of the American Lighthouse Foundation wrote, “The whereabouts of the first-order Fresnel lens taken from Cape Hatteras remains one of the great-unsolved mysteries of American lighthouse history.” In 2002, the mystery was solved by Raleigh researcher, filmmaker, and author, Kevin Duffus. Duffus found the lens, and discovered the amazing story of its odyssey, during a three-year search at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and North Carolina Archives. Documents revealed that the lens had been recovered five months after the Civil War’s conclusion and was returned to the U.S. Lighthouse Service’s Staten Island, N.Y., depot. There it remained until 1867 when it was sent to Paris to be repaired before being transferred to the new lighthouse under construction at Cape Hatteras. At the time, the U.S. Lighthouse Service did not consider the lens’ ironic destination to be remarkable and no mention was made of its origins, and the lens remained “lost,” even though it was gloriously sitting atop the new Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. In 1936, the modern Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was abandoned by the U.S. Coast Guard, and the property was transferred to the National Park Service. During World War II, the unlighted lighthouse served as a lookout tower to spot German U-boats operating off the Outer Banks. Sometime after 1942, the lighthouse was repeatedly entered by souvenir hunters, and by 1949 more than half the crown-glass prisms were taken. The bronze frame and the remaining glass were removed by the Coast Guard in 1949 so that a modern rotating aero-type beacon could be installed and the lighthouse reactivated. The historic lens was initially stored by the National Park Service at the Wright Memorial at Kill Devil Hills and later at the abandoned Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station near Avon. In 1987, parts of the lens were stolen from the NPS storage facility but were recovered a year later in the marsh five miles south of the station by Dare County sheriff’s deputies, following an anonymous tip. In 2002, after Duffus’ discovery of the historic origins of the lens and its amazing odyssey, the Park Service agreed to lend the lens to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum where there is adequate space to exhibit the 12-foot-tall artifact. The museum does not plan to restore the lens to its original appearance and missing prisms will not be replaced with glass or acrylic facsimiles. Many of the bronze frame members were damaged or warped and were reshaped and realigned. All of the existing glass was removed, cleaned, remounted and re-glazed. “With a significant amount of attention and skilled labor, the lens can be reconstructed in such a way that the public will still be able to appreciate its size and artfulness,” said Woodward. “They will also be able to appreciate how greed and a lack of consideration for history and heritage can almost destroy a fascinating machine crafted at the pinnacle of the industrial age.” Kevin Duffus, who was president of the museum’s board of directors in 2005 said, “We hope this remarkable symbol of our nation’s lighthouse history, having served seafarers and saved countless lives over two centuries, will serve a new purpose by guiding future generations on a voyage of discovery and understanding of our rich maritime past.” FOR MORE INFORMATION Additional information about the museum can be found at: http://www.graveyardoftheatlantic.com/ Additional information about the Hatteras lens can be found at: http://www.thelostlight.com/

August 19, 2011 | Local News

Historic Hatteras Lighthouse lens was “lost” during Civil War The historic 6,000-pound bronze and crystal lens from the 1803 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was reconstructed in the spring of 2005 in the lobby of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and is on display there for visitors. The first-order, Fresnel lens is on loan to the […]

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If you want to see the lens and pedestal

August 19, 2011 | Local News

Together again….The story of the reunion of the original Hatteras lighthouse lens and pedestal By KEVIN DUFFUS By KEVIN DUFFUS Human genius, artistry, symmetry, craftsmanship, engineering elegance, perfection. These are just a few of the qualities that describe the recently restored, 19-foot-tall, 156-year-old Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Fresnel lens and pedestal that are together again at […]

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August 12, 2011 | Local News | By: Connie Leinbach

The destination is 240 feet under the Atlantic Ocean. The place is the wreck of oil tanker the E.M. Clark, sunk in 1942 by a German U-boat 25 miles southwest of Ocracoke. It’s “the cherry on top” among diving professionals, because it’s so large, so deep, but mostly so intact, gushed Joseph Hoyt, a maritime […]

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Dig for Civil War cannons at Hatteras Inlet ends in disappointment

August 12, 2011 | Local News | By: Catherine Kozak

They had maps, ground-penetrating radar images, and historical accounts all pointing to two buried cannons where the Civil War battle at Fort Clark raged 150 years ago at Hatteras Inlet.   Early Thursday, under the direction of Cape Hatteras National Seashore historian Doug Stover and assisted by Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum executive director Joseph […]

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Dig for Civil War cannons at Hatteras Inlet ends in disappointment

August 12, 2011 | Local News | By: Catherine Kozak

They had maps, ground-penetrating radar images, and historical accounts all pointing to two buried cannons where the Civil War battle at Fort Clark raged 150 years ago at Hatteras Inlet.   Early Thursday, under the direction of Cape Hatteras National Seashore historian Doug Stover and assisted by Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum executive director Joseph […]

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