Outer Banks Scenic Byway
Ocracoke Island Lighthouse, NC

Ocracoke Inlet was once the busiest in North Carolina. Mapped first in 1585, the inlet 200 years later provided access to North Carolina’s interior cities. Pilots taking ships through the inlet formed Ocracoke village in the 1730s.

The inlet was dangerous for mariners. In 1822, the federal government bought two acres at the south end of Ocracoke Island for a lighthouse site. The lighthouse seen today was finished in 1823.

The lighthouse stands 77 feet 5 inches tall. Its diameter narrows from 25 feet at the base to 12 feet at its peak. The walls are solid brick, five feet thick at the bottom tapering to two feet at the top. An octagonal lantern crowns the tower and houses the light beacon.

A fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed in 1854. Ocracoke Light was electrified in the early decades of the 1900s. A battery-powered back-up light operates during power failures. The National Park Service owns and maintains the lighthouse. The United States Coast Guard oversees the operation of the light.