Cabo Blanco Lighthouse, Lighthouse in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina

Cabo Blanco Lighthouse is a 27 m tapering brick tower, unpainted red, topped by a black lantern and gallery, on a rhyolite outcrop at the south end of the Golfo San Jorge. Its focal height of 67 m comes from the rock beneath it. A 251 m² brick keeper's house stands about 30 m from the tower's base.

Built between 1915 and 1917, the lighthouse was inaugurated on 1 November 1917. Its materials were landed by the small Salinero railway of Cabo Blanco, which carried them 650 m to the foot of the rock, then up an 80 m wire-railed incline: 110,000 trapezoidal bricks for the tower and 86,900 common bricks for the keeper's house. Its first crew counted a first-class keeper, two second- and two third-class keepers, a stoker, a cook and seven sailors.

The name Cabo Blanco comes from the guano-covered rocks sighted by Magellan in 1520; the Tehuelche had called the place Yenk Aike, "sea lookout". A 1950s legend tells of a marine officer keeper who typed in his free time and whose typewriter is still heard in the tower.

The road to reach the site requires a four-wheel drive vehicle due to the gravel surface and challenging conditions during bad weather. Visitors should check weather conditions and plan to arrive early, as the route is remote and exposed.

The lighthouse stands within the Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve. Near the tower are large mussel beds, including Mytilus edulis, Aulacomya ater and Nacella magellanica, plus colonies of South American sea lions and South American fur seals. Several cormorant species nest here; Magellanic penguins appear occasionally, and a king penguin only rarely.