Administrative Record for the Relocation of the Cape Hatteras Light Station, PC.5003

PC.5003, Administrative Record for the Relocation of Cape Hatteras Light Station, 1999, Outer Banks History Center, Manteo, NC, U.S.A.

This collection consists of reproductions of 317 documents related to a lawsuit concerning the relocation of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse arranged chronologically (the original documents are dated July 1967-3 February 1999). An index in the first folder describes the contents of each folder. These documents consist of environemental impact reports, alternatives to moving, cost estimates, opinions of the opposing Save the Lighthouse and Move the Lighthouse committees, archeological reviews, correspondence, and engineering memoranda.

Chronological.

When completed in 1870, the Cape Hatteras lighthouse was located a safe 1,500 feet from the ocean. Even then, however, storm-driven tides completely washed over Hatteras Island, eroding sand from the ocean side of the island and depositing it on the sound side. By 1970, this process, which has caused the gradual westward migration of the Outer Banks for at least the past 10,000 years, left the lighthouse just 120 feet from the ocean's edge and almost certain destruction.
In 1980, the National Park Service began planning, under the National Environmental Policy Act, for long-term protection. A three-year process that included public meetings yielded several alternatives. Relocation was considered but quickly discounted as impractical. The option finally selected was a concrete and steel seawall revetment that would have protected the lighthouse in place but would eventually have created an island as the coastline receded to the southwest. As moving technology advanced during the decade and additional information became available about relocation versus the approved seawall, the National Park Service examined the alternative that allowed it to accommodate natural processes while still preserving the historic structures of the light station.
In 1987, the NPS requested the assistance of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of scientists and engineers who advise the federal government on technical matters. The Academy's 1988 report, Saving Cape Hatteras Lighthouse from the Sea: Options and Policy Implications, considered ten options but recommended relocation as the most cost-effective method of protection. The National Park Service also considered this the best overall solution in that it would preserve the structures and accommodate the natural shoreline processes.
However, many people feared destruction of the brick lighthouse, the tallest in the United States. From 1988 to 1995, the relocation option was debated and discussed, with no funding requests made at the Congressional level or concerted fund-raising campaigns undertaken in the private sector. In 1996, North Carolina State University independently reviewed the National Academy of Sciences' report and then issued its own report, Saving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse from the Sea, in January 1997. It not only endorsed the National Academy of Sciences' findings, but also recommended that "the National Park Service proceed as soon as possible with its present plans to obtain the financial resources necessary to preserve the lighthouse by moving it." NPS managers then initiated a concerted effort to begin the planning and funding process to move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Funding was finally appropriated by Congress beginning in fiscal year 1998, and the lighthouse was successfully relocated in 1999.

Collection Contents

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (N.C.)

Lighthouses--North Carolina--History--20th century

Lighthouses--Conservation and restoration--North Carolina

Moving of buildings, bridges, etc.--North Carolina--Hatteras, Cape

Donated by Steve Harrison on behalf of the National Park Service, Cape Hatteras Group, May, 1999.

Processed by Tama Creef, December 2018.