Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Windmill Point Light – 1869 Windmill Point marks the north side entrance to the Rappahannock River. Three separate lightships had manned the point since 1834. In 1869, a permanent, hexagonal screwpile structure, lit with a fifth-order lens, replaced the lightships. Riprap stones, added at the base of the pilings, helped ward off ice and harsh weather. After the lighthouse was automated in 1954, a small automatic beacon replaced the cottage on the original

A lighted buoy shone on the shoal, temporarily. In June, the lighthouse tender Holly , equipped with a light, anchored on the shoal for emergency duty until a lightship was reassigned to the station. In 1893, funds were appropriated for a caisson-style light to be built on Wolf Trap Shoal. Stingray Point Light – 1858 Stingray Point is located at the entrance to the Rappahannock River near Deltaville, Virginia. Captain John Smith named the point in July of 1607, after a stingray stung and severely wounded him, the story goes, while he

Stingray Point Light

Windmill Point Light

foundation in 1965. Eastern Shore

was spearing fish with his sword. The point appears on the John Smith map published in 1612. The hexagonal screwpile lighthouse built at Stingray Point in 1858 marked the point with a sixth-order, fixed, red Fresnel lens. After suffering minor damage during the Civil War, the lighthouse extinguished its light until the end of the hostilities. An automated electric lamp replaced the kerosene lamp, and the structure was boarded up in 1950. Fifteen years later, the Coast Guard replaced the (by then) shabby building with a pole light mounted on the screwpile foundation. About 30 years after the structure’s demise, two owners of the Stingray Point Marina built a carefully detailed and accurate replica of the lighthouse at the Marina in Deltaville. Bowlers Rock Light – 1868 Bowlers Rock Light was located on the Rappahannock River north of Urbanna. Two lightships marked the location beginning in 1835. After rebels destroyed the first lightship in 1861, a second lightship was on station in 1864. The rectangular screwpile lighthouse built there in 1868 had two additional fender piles, one set on each of the ebb and flow sides to protect against ice floes. After ice still managed to damage the lighthouse in 1896, riprap stone, placed shortly afterward at the ebb and flow fender piles, served as additional icebreakers. The relentless ice finally destroyed the lighthouse in 1918. Three years later, a caisson structure with an acetylene light and an automatic fog bell operated by carbon dioxide gas replaced the screwpile lighthouse.

Old Plantation Flats Light – 1886 Old Plantation Creek flows near the town of Cape Charles, Virginia. In 1886, a newly constructed, white, rectangular, cottage-style lighthouse marked the entrance to the creek. Ice floes damaged the lighthouse and destroyed the Fresnel lens in 1893. When ice floes damaged the lighthouse again in 1918, the pilings were reinforced with concrete. An automated, steel skeleton tower, 39 feet tall, built on the original lighthouse base,

Old Plantation Flats Light

replaced the screwpile lighthouse in 1962. There is, however, a 2004 replica of the original lighthouse within easy view of the original light’s foundation. The carefully researched and privately owned replica, equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens, stands on the Bay Creek Resort & Club property .

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