Mobile Point Range Lights, Harbor lighthouse at Mobile Bay entrance, Alabama, United States
Mobile Point Range Lights was a navigation system at the entrance to Mobile Bay, consisting of multiple towers to guide ships safely. The primary brick structure stood about 40 feet (12 meters) tall and worked together with shorter support towers to direct vessels into the harbor.
The original lighthouse was built in 1822 to guide ships into harbor. It was damaged during the Battle of Mobile Bay and later rebuilt several times using different materials and designs.
The site's name comes from Mobile Point, the tip of the Fort Morgan peninsula, where the first tower was lit on 29 September 1822. A pre-Civil War photograph shows two shorter masonry towers on the beach below the main tower; these served as range lights, paired so that ships lining them up stayed in the channel. The 1872 iron tower was dismantled in 1979 and partly re-erected near the Fort Morgan museum entrance.
A Fresnel lens from one of the earlier structures is on display at the Fort Morgan Museum nearby and open to visitors. This is a good place to learn about the technical history of navigation at this site.
The 1872 iron lattice tower was dismantled in 1979 and later partially restored near the entrance to the Fort Morgan museum. In 2003 the Alabama Historical Commission had it dismantled, transported and stored with Robinson Iron Works, where it remained awaiting restoration funding as of 2007.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,641 contributors worldwide.