Skywatch Friday No. 57: Nauset Lighthouse

We have been absent in Skywatch Friday for several weeks due to traveling. We have finally back to Taiwan from our summer vocation on Cape Cod. This blog is the third of our Skywatch Friday postings concerning the Lighthouses on Cape Cod. The other two are Nobska Lighthouse of Woods Hole and Highland Lighthouse of Truro.

Some of you may find the Nauset Lighthouse at Eastham of Cape Cod looks very familiar, because it is used as a symbol by the famous Cape Cod Potato Chips Company. The lighthouse first built on this location (or under the sea close to the present location) were called "Three Sisters", which were three lights on top of a 15-foot brick tower built in 1838 some 800 feet east of the present lighthouse. Because of beach erosion, the brick tower was replaced by three 22-foot high wooden towers in 1892. The old brick tower was lost to the sea the same year.

The present Nauset Lighthouse made with cast iron was built in 1877 as one of the twin tower located at Chatham. It was dismantled and moved to Eastham in 1923 at a location 200 feet from the cliff to replace the older tower.

By 1996, it was obliged to move the lighthouse again for fear of losing it to the sea. It was moved in one piece, 300 feet inland toward west where it now stands. It is hoped that it will be at this location for another 100 years before it will be necessary to move it again!!!

From the pictures, it seems that we always have this beautiful blue sky in the summer on Cape Cod. In reality, it rained most of the time this June and July.

To see more sky from around the world click here.