Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Respess home on Gwynn’s Island

Willard Forbes of Thomas Point in Camden County, North Carolina, was a grandson of Joseph Mercer, keeper of the North River and Wade Point, North Carolina, screwpile lighthouses. In 2003, Forbes shared his memories with Sarah Spinks Downing, assistant curator of the Outer Banks History Center. Joseph Mercer joined the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1898 and retired in 1932. In 1917, when Forbes was still a baby, Mercer was at the North River Lighthouse in the Albemarle Sound, near the mouth of the North River. On New Year’s Eve, 1917, an ice storm settled in for three days of bad weather. Mercer woke up to find the sound frozen and all five of the iron screwpiles cracked. Certain the lighthouse would fall into the water when the thaw came, Mercer walked across the ice to land. When the lighthouse fell into the sound’s shallow waters, it settled so evenly that it was still usable and remained in service for another year. Finally, the U.S. Coast Guard condemned the lighthouse and transferred Mercer to the Wade Point Lighthouse.

Wade Point had no electricity or running water. Keepers (one keeper, one assistant, and one alternate) worked two weeks on and two weeks off.

Built at the mouth of the Pasquotank River in North Carolina in 1859, the Wade Point Light served until 1955. Originally a hexagonal lighthouse, it was replaced by a 26-square-foot structure in 1884, likely after if felt the impact of the earthquake of 1884 according to Forbes.

Joseph Mercer. Courtesy of Thelma Forbes

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