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If you haven’t visited the new Smith Island Museum of History, it’s probably because you haven’t yet heard about it.
The new museum is housed in a replica of the 1850’s lighthouse keeper’s quarters at North Carolina’s Bald Head Lighthouse, known more affectionately as “Old Baldy.”
Many treasures from Bald Island’s past are on display in the museum, but more importantly to lighthouse, aficionados, are the lighthouse artifacts.
Among the museum’s most prized displays are a 1908 Lighthouse Keepers uniform and two glass lens panels that were taken from the Cape Fear Lighthouse before it was blown up.
Construction of the museum was made possible by a donation from the Bald Head Island Management Company, which is owned by the Mitchell family, the current developers of the island.
Cutting the ribbon that opened the museum was Reese Swan, youngest son of Captain Charles Swan, keeper of the Cape Fear Lighthouse from 1903 until his retirement in 1933.
For more information on the Smith Island Museum of History, contact the Bald Head Island Information Center
5079 Southport Supply Road
Southport, NC 28461,
or call them at
910-457-5000.
This story appeared in the
August 2000 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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