The Long Point Lighthouse is located near Provincetown, MA. This lonely lighthouse sits at the outermost curl of Cape Cod, and is the sole surviving structure at the location of a once thriving settlement. During the mid-nineteenth century, as many as 200 souls lived and worked along the sandy spit known as Long Point. However, the active community was abandoned during the Civil War, after the Confederate warship Alabama was spotted in the waters off the Cape. Provincetown authorities hastily commissioned a pair of earthworks at Long Point as protection for the harbor town. No enemy ever materialized and local residents dubbed the twin embankments: "Fort Useless" and "Fort Harmless".
In 1827, the first light at Long Point was placed in a six-sided, wood-frame tower on the roof of a three-room house which stood on piles. These were set eight feet in the sand and protected by 1,800 tons of granite blocks. Then in 1875, the light was relocated atop an adjacent thirty-eight foot square brick tower, although the old wooden dwelling remained standing for several more years. At the time of my visit in 2001, the above lighthouse was still an active light.
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