Middle Bay Lighthouse, River Region Travel Guide

Middle Bay Lighthouse, also known as Mobile Bay Lighthouse, is a historic beacon located in the center of Mobile Bay, Alabama. Constructed in 1885, it stands as one of the few remaining screw-pile lighthouses in the United States. This unique structure, resembling a hexagonal house on stilts, replaced a lightship that previously marked the bay's treacherous shoals.In the early 1880s, a 17-foot channel was dredged to allow larger vessels to reach the Port of Mobile. The lighthouse was deemed necessary to mark the channel and was placed at the bend of this channel. Its location in the middle of the bay led to its nickname. The lighthouse was prefabricated in the North and shipped to Mobile Point in 1885 due to high labor costs in the post-Civil War South. The structure is built on screw piles, which are screwed directly into the seafloor. This design was commonly used in bays and estuaries with soft, muddy bottoms.The lighthouse originally used a fourth-order Fresnel lens, which cast a white light that flashed red every 30 seconds. A bell sounded every five seconds during foggy conditions. The lighthouse was automated in 1935, eliminating the need for a lighthouse keeper. It was deactivated in 1967, but local protests saved it from demolition. The Mobile Bar Pilots Association argued that the lighthouse was more readily picked up on ships' radars than small, modern buoys.The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Since then, it has undergone several repairs and renovations, including a major restoration in 2002. Today, the lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction, offering a glimpse into Alabama's maritime past. It also houses a real-time weather station for the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. While the lighthouse is not open for interior tours, it can be viewed by boat. Boat tours and fishing charters offer close-up views of the structure.