|
|
Bolivar, Texas
All Photos © Tim N. Touchton
Each
photograph is available as an 8x10 for a cost of $ 12.00
plus $2.00 shipping. Check or money order only please.
I visited this lighthouse and took these photographs on December
14, 2000 while
in Galveston, Texas. I was in Houston the previous evening to see my sons band,
xbxrx, play a show. We stayed with, Larry, a friend while in Houston and I left
the
following morning while the band headed to play a show in Austin.
The lighthouse is really awesome and you can see it from the
ferry in Galveston as you
cross the bay to Port Bolivar, Texas. You cannot miss this tower since you can
see it
for most of the ferry ride and it's right there in plain site at the ferry landing.
It's right off
Highway 87, you cannot miss it. As you travel east along the peninsula (Hwy
87) you will
realize how isolated and unpopulated this area still is.
Some inflammation about the Point Bolivar Lighthouse:
First lighthouse established: in 1852
Present lighthouse established: in 1872
Materials: cast iron with brick lining
Tower color: black
Tower height: 116 feet
Deactivated: in 1933
Lens pattern: 8 rays of light every 15 seconds
It is now privately owned and not open to the public. The tower
is made of brick covered with
cast iron plates and is now covered with rust and is almost completely black.
It was once painted
in a black and white band pattern. The beacon was a 52,000 candle powered lens
that was fueled
by kerosene contained in storage tanks on the bottom level. Mrs. Claiborne,
the wife of the first
lighthouse keeper once said, "Life at the lighthouse is very lonely and
friendless. There is very little
visiting because travel is nonexistent from the point to Galveston. We pass
most of out time by
reading books."
The lighthouse has withstood it's share of coastal storms over
the years. It survived the deadly
hurricanes of 1900 and 1915 that wiped out Galveston. A report after the 1900
hurricane, which
killed over 6000 people on Galveston Island, said that, "through the keeper's
efforts, the lives of
125 people were saved, and to my personal knowledge, he harbored and fed a large
number of
them for a considerable period." It is said that during the storm the winds
were so strong that the
lighthouse tower swayed so badly that the machinery failed to work the lantern.
The keeper rotated
the machinery by hand to keep the light working.
The hurricane of 1915 had winds of up to 126 miles per hour
and the tower held strong. The lantern
always burned at the lighthouse except for only 2 nights during this hurricane.
On August 17 and 18,
1915 the light was out due to an 11 foot tidal surge that washed away the fuel
used to light the lantern.
Sixty-one people took safety in the tower during this hurricane by hanging onto
the iron steps inside the
tower as the storm rocked the tower back and forth.
In 1947 the US Government sold the lighthouse and E.W. Boyt
won a private bid for the tower for only
$5,500. On May 29, 1933 the lighthouse was deactivated and retired. All the
inner machinery has been
removed and the lamps and reflector lens is now in the Galveston County Museum.
In 1952 the property
and the tower were sold to Pat E. Boyt. The 1968 movie, My Sweet Charlie, was
filmed at the lighthouse.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION - All of
the photographic images in this web
site as well as all of the written content in this web site are protected
by copyright and are not offered for commercial, public or personal use without
prior written consent. Please do not copy and/or distribute the images or the
written
content contained in this web site in print or digital form. Distributing images
or the written content from this web site may put you or others at risk for
copyright violations.