This Hunting Island fixture is closed to the public. Here’s another way to see it
New stresses to the 163-year-old lighthouse at Hunting Island State Park were discovered during a routine inspection, with those areas of concern prompting its closure.
It’s unclear when this popular attraction at South Carolina’s most popular state park 16 miles east of Beaufort will reopen, Park Manager Brandon Goff said. The park attracts more than a million visitors each year.
“It’s so old and it sits there on the beach so things can change rapidly,” Goff said of the lighthouse. “We are always going to err on the side of caution when it comes to our guests.”
Park visitors can pay a fee and climb the 167 steps to the top of the spiral cast-iron staircase for sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2018, engineers assessed the integrity of the brick and cast iron structure, documenting cracks and corrosion and analyzing how much weight the historic staircase could safely hold. In response to recommendations from a report by Bennett Preservation Engineering in Charleston, the state previously said it planned to repair the facility, estimating the project could cost $3 million.
But the lighthouse rehabilitation work had yet to be scheduled and the Feb. 9 closure of the historic lighthouse — named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 — was unexpected and came sooner than anticipated, Goff said.
How long the 136-foot-tall lighthouse will remain closed isn’t clear but it will be at least several months, Goff said.
“We don’t have a date for reopening because this is going to be a fairly large project,” he said.
Special engineering firms and construction companies familiar with lighthouses and historic structures need to be hired to do the work, he said. State Parks is firming up the timeline for the work now, Goff said, adding the project is on the “front-burner” now.
Tower’s spectacular views go high tech
There’s still a way to get a glimpse of the wonderful views from the tower.
An 8-by-13-foot virtual lighthouse with five TV monitors opened last summer in the visitor center offering a virtual glimpse of the sweeping Atlantic Ocean and coastline.
“Its pretty spectacular, really,” said Randal Brown, who led the Friends of Hunting Island crew that built it.
The idea for the virtual lighthouse came from Malia Cooler, a long-time employee at Hunting Island State Park, who told Friends of Hunting Island that many people coming to the Visitor Center said they could not climb the lighthouse.
Volunteers with Friends of Hunting Island went to work. State Parks, Recreation and Tourism provided the film. Beaufort County chipped in with grant.
Visitors can also put on headsets for three-dimensional sensations of walking around the lighthouse, climbing the stairs and viewing different times of day from the top.
“I think it opens up a new opportunity for folks who can’t climb 166 steps to the lighthouse,” Goff said. “We were lucky enough to get that done before the lighthouse closed.”
The work on the lighthouse comes during another disruption at the park — the paving of its roads, which is ongoing and expected to be completed by this summer.
“This is a huge project,” Goff said. Road paving will involve several road closures, traffic diversions and reroutes on a daily basis. Contact the park directly for the most up-to-date closures/reroutes and other information.
The road work disrupted camping plans of some, based on comments on social media, but Goff says the general consensus seems to be that people are pleased the roads are being paved.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 4:55 AM.
