Carl Gowler was stationed on Destruction Island Light Station in 1967-1968 and visited the island as a guest as part of the crew securing the station in 2004. He shared these photos taken during that visit stating, “What I find interesting is a majority of lighthouse photos are of pristine lighthouses freshly painted and spruced up by hard working volunteers. I haven’t seen  any with moss on the sides.”

Although Destruction Island Light Station is inaccessible to the public, its beautiful first-order lens has been restored and placed on exhibit at the Westport Maritime Museum in Grays Harbor, Washington. The magnificent lens was manufactured in France in 1888 by Henry Le Paute. The lens was installed in the lighthouse in 1891 and operated until 1995 when it was removed by the Coast Guard. In 1998 the historic optic was reassembled as the centerpiece of a specially designed lens building.

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U.S. Lighthouse Society News is produced by the U.S. Lighthouse Society to support lighthouse preservation, history, education and research. Please consider joining the U.S. Lighthouse Society if you are not already a member. If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to candace@uslhs.org.

Candace Clifford

Candace was the US Lighthouse Society historian from 2016 until she passed away in August 2018.  For 30 years, her work involved lighthouse history.  She worked with the National Park Service and the Council of American Maritime Museums. She was a noted author and was considered the most knowledgable person on lighthouse information at the National Archives.  Books by Candace Clifford include: Women who Kept the Lights: a History of Thirty-eight Female Lighthouse Keepers ,  Mind the Light Katie, and Maine Lighthouses, Documentation of their Past.