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Although most lighthouse were constructed only once, and on the actual site where they were built, there were a decent number of lighthouses that were first built elsewhere and then shipped to their on-site location to be reconstructed. Such was the case with Florida’s Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse that was originally manufactured and assembled at the Russel Wheel Foundry in Detroit, Michigan.
In order to make sure that all the steel was correctly fabricated, the lighthouse had to be built at the foundry and then all the sections and parts were numbered and the structure was disassembled and crated for shipping.
In the case of the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, the crates were shipped on a vessel, perhaps on one or more lighthouse tenders, up to and on Lake Huron, then to Lake Michigan, and down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, then into and across the Gulf of Mexico, then around the lower tip of Florida, and then up the Atlantic Ocean to its new home on the eastern coast of Florida where it would be reconstructed at its permanent location where it has stood since 1907.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2017 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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