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In the October issue we published this rare photograph taken March 11, 1926 of this lighthouse installed on Mt. Afrique France. The caption with the old news photo said the lighthouse with one-billion candle power was an aviation beacon visible for 300 miles.
Since then, through the detective work of James Slechta of Stevensville, MD and Dr. Tretheway of the Lighthouse Society of Great Britain the following information was discovered. The lighthouse was located far from the sea and in fact was an early aviation beacon. (You may recall a past story by Cheryl Shelton Roberts of the U.S. Lighthouse Service Airways Division.) Local people in the area said it was built because of magnetic anomalies in the area, which were having an adverse effect on radio transmissions.
It was constructed exactly as a seacoast lighthouse with a rotating Fresnel lens. During World War II German forces in the area used it. It was destroyed by French Partisans and never rebuilt after the war. However, the Fresnel lens was recovered and given to the Museum of the BA 102 of Longvic, a small town near Dijon, France.
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