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On the 19th of
September, 1998, Bob and I were in Pascagoula, Mississippi
at the invitation of one of the members of the Committee to
Save Round Island Lighthouse, Margaret Meiselbach. The
committee had formed not too long before and were just
getting their information together as to what they hoped to
accomplish and how they hoped to accomplish it. They had
already had a donation of rip rap dumped out in the water to
form a breakwater to protect the lighthouse, so the work had
started, all to no avail.
Margaret had arranged for a boat to
take us out to Round Island so that we could shoot the
“before” photos. That was meant to be: before the
restoration. We had been there five years before and
photographed Round Island Lighthouse and now, we were
shocked to see that the water was lapping at the base of the
lighthouse. It truly needed restoration and preservation. We
had a great boat trip out on a gorgeous day. Tropical Storm
Hermine was moving in and I kept thinking about an old story
I’d heard about some people going out to Round Island to
photograph it and caught in a sudden squall off the Gulf,
they drowned.
Our weather stayed beautiful
although we could see the storm off on the horizon. We waded
ashore and photographed the lighthouse from all angles. We
were saddened to see ugly graffiti on the old, dignified
structure on the beach. Although we photographed that side,
it is not for publication, but to remind us how ignorant
people can be. We got several great shots of the lighthouse
and were looking forward to coming back after the work was
done.
It’s an ill wind that blows no good
and the latest ill wind was Hurricane Georges. After
spreading death and destruction in the Caribbean, and one
week after we photographed Round Island Lighthouse, Georges
came on into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the beaches of
North Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Although
it did not cause the deaths of a week earlier, there was
much destruction. Many homes, condos, beachfront properties
were badly damaged and destroyed. Georges also robbed us of
a part of our history, our heritage. Georges destroyed the
Round Island Lighthouse. Exactly two weeks after the
Hurricane, we were back in Pascagoula, Mississippi ready to
go out and photograph the destruction, three weeks to the
day after we had gone to photograph it “before the
restoration”.
This time we went out to the Island
with Pascagoula Police Sergeant Paul Leonard transporting us
in the official Police Boat. It was another beautiful day,
cloudless sky with no storm offshore this time. As we got
close to the island, Paul warned us that the island and the
lighthouse looked like a bomb had been dropped on it. Other
times we had gone there, our first view of the lighthouse
was a silhouette at the end of the island, with many trees
behind it. This time only a strangely shaped outline showed,
with no trees left at that end of the island. As Paul
brought the boat out in front of the lighthouse, we were
saddened to see the destruction. It looked like the
foundation had been washed out from beneath the tower, the
tower tilted, and the top two thirds or three quarters broke
off several feet above the doorway. One wall also had broken
away. How pitiful it looked. Barely more than a pile of
rubble in the water.
After Paul anchored the boat, we
again waded ashore and looked over the destruction the
hurricane had left. We wondered what had become of the
lantern room and finally saw a piece sticking up out of the
water that looked like it could be an edge of the roof. Not
too far up the beach we saw the brick foundation of the old
cistern that had probably been buried in sand for many
years. The last times we had been there, four of the piling
supports for the last keepers house had still been in
existence. Now, they were totally gone, along with the trees
and brush. The trees had entirely disappeared, their broken
branches and trunks probably washed up on some other shore.
Bricks from the lighthouse were scattered well down the
beach and I just couldn’t imagine the strength of water that
could move bricks many feet, much less break up a
lighthouse.
Quoting reporter Todd Twilley in the
Mississippi Press, October 1, 1998:
“On Sept. 27th, 1906, a hurricane demolished the buildings
surrounding the lighthouse on Round Island. On the same day
92 years later, Hurricane Georges demolished the
lighthouse.”
Round Island is a small island about
four miles off the coast of Pascagoula. It was named Isle
Ronde (Round Island) by early French explorers. However the
island, then and now, is tear shaped.
This lighthouse, built in 1859 and
just destroyed, was the second one built on the island. The
first lighthouse was built in 1883 to guide ships through
treacherous shoals and into Mississippi Sound and
Pascagoula. It was built much too close to the water’s edge,
and although it weathered many storms, in the 1850’s it was
judged too vulnerable to continue. The new lighthouse was
built on higher ground and did it’s job until the Civil War.
At that time, lighthouses all over the Gulf Coast were put
out of commission by the warring forces. After the war,
Round Island again presided over Mississippi Sound. It
served well until 1946 when it was discontinued by the Coast
Guard. In later years the City of Pascagoula became the
owners of Round Island and had the lighthouse placed on the
National Historic Register.
There are several interesting
stories in Round Island’s history. It seems it was an
outpost for blockade runners, smuggling cotton during the
Civil War and also a quarantine station for Yellow Fever in
some later years.
In 1849, mercenary forces and
equipment were being gathered on Round Island for a
revolution to free Cuba. History says there were hundreds of
armed men camped on that little island. The public was in
favor of their plan, although the Federal Government was
not. The Island was blockaded by U.S. Naval ships. The
keeper, on his way to the lighthouse, was arrested by the
Navy, along with his two sons. His provisions, boat and gun
were seized until he was able to prove who he was. Luckily
he had the papers naming him the lighthouse keeper in his
possession and he was set free. The mercenaries were forced
to leave the island, but before they left they did a lot of
damage to the house, outbuildings and tower.
Round Island has also gone through
other terrible hurricanes. In 1860, the keeper and his
family were stranded in the lighthouse for several days
without food and water. Every building on the island
disappeared except for the lighthouse where they stayed. In
1906 another fierce hurricane pounded Round Island and the
keeper survived by staying inside the tower. Five other
people at lighthouses along the Gulf Coast were not so lucky
and did not survive this killer storm. This brick lighthouse
has outlasted many others on the Gulf Coast.
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