Hilton Head Range Rear Light, Historic lighthouse in Beaufort County, United States
Hilton Head Range Rear Light is a 27-meter cast-iron skeleton tower on Hilton Head Island with a hexagonal base supported by six concrete piers. The structure was built to guide ships through Port Royal Sound.
The U.S. Lighthouse Board built this rear range light between 1879 and 1880 as part of a system guiding ships into Port Royal Sound. Its Hains oil lamps were replaced by Funck-Heap lamps in 1893, and the station was deactivated in 1932. The keeper's house was later cut in two and moved to Harbour Town.
The tower is known locally as the Leamington Lighthouse, after the Leamington neighbourhood of the Palmetto Dunes Resort where it stands. Its keeper's house was cut in two and moved to Harbour Town, and the brick oil house that once stood beside the tower is gone. A brick oil house of the period and a water cistern remain on site next to one of Hilton Head's oldest live oaks.
The structure sits on Arthur Hills Golf Course at hole 15, where you can observe the tower's construction and metal framework. Access requires awareness that the site is part of an active golf course.
The keeper's house was cut in two and moved to Harbour Town, and the front range light, which was movable to follow the shifting channel, no longer exists. The brick oil house that once stood by the tower is also gone.
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