A Massachusetts Beauty - Highland Light (Cape Cod)

The Highland Lighthouse is located at Truro, MA. -- It is the third Highlands Lighthouse built in or near this location. The oldest of this Cape Cod lighthouse was built near here in 1797. It was called Clay Pounds Light because it was built on the side of the Truro Clay Pound. Its tower was constructed of wood and stood 45-feet tall with lantern room atop added an additional 8-feet. The structure sat on a stone foundation. In 1831 that first structure had to be rebuilt due to deterioration.

In 1857, the Lighthouse Service constructed a new 66-foot brick tower and lantern room containing a first-order Fresnel lens. It was built atop the 125-foot bluff known as the "High Land" at North Truro. It was an attempt to eliminate the frequent shipwrecks occurring along the busy shipping lane past the Outer Cape. Although officially it was then called Cape Cod Light, local residents have always regarded the structure as Highland Light during most of its existence, and the later is now the proper designation. The Fresnel lens was replaced in 1946 with a rotating beacon, and the light automated in 1987.

Erosion of the nearby bluff initially presented no imminent problem, but ultimately a more forbidding dilemma. The ever encroaching sea gradually undercut the cliff below the tower and threatened to tumble the station into the sea. By the 1990's the sea was only about 100-feet from the edge of the steep bank. So, in June 1996, the 400-plus ton structure was moved 450-feet inland onto Cape Cod National Seashore property where it now stands. The move cost well over one million dollars.

At the time of my visit here in 2001, Highland Light was active and owned by the Park Service. It was operated as a private aide to navigation.