Alternate Name(s):
Alligator Head
Type:
Year Established:
1858
Existing:
No
Download:
swash channel.jpg (611.41 KB)
File Type:
jpg (image/jpeg)
LOCATION
Location:
Matagorda Bay
Latitude:
0° 0'
Longitude:
0° 0'
U.S. State:
Texas
Country:
United States
OWNER & ACCESS
Open to Public:
No
STRUCTURE
Year Discontinued:
1861
Disposition:
Pile Structure remains with Modern Beacon on Top
Year Tower Established:
1858
Tower Foundation:
Screwpile
Height, in feet, from base of structure to center of lantern:
38 feet
Fog Signal Building?:
No
Keeper's Quarters?:
No
Year Keeper's Quarters:
0
OPTICS
Original Optic Type:
Fifth Order
Year Original Lens Installed:
1858
Private Aid:
No
USCG Access to Optics:
No
Entered by:
Entered Date:
Jan 15, 2018
Erected and lit in 1858, the short-lived Swash Channel Lighthouse served as a navigational marker to help pilots negotiate the difficult currents of the dogleg channel leading into Matagorda Bay. Sadly, by the end of the Civil War, only the seven iron screw piles of the lighthouse's foundation remained. Although a replacement lighthouse was planned for the Swash Channel in 1871, the Light-House Board instead built two lights, one at the East Shoal Lighthouse and one at the West Shoal Lighthouse (Matagorda Bay).
(Cipra, Lighthouses, Lightships, and the Gulf of Mexico, p. 192)