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| The Calcasieu River Lighthouse | The Gulf Biologic Station |
The Southwest Louisiana Historical Association
Calcasieu River Lighthouse/Gulf Biologic Station Historical Marker Dedication Ceremony
The Association dedicated its newest historical marker on Tuesday, April 20, 2004. We held the ceremony at the site of the marker on Davis Road in Cameron [map]. Norma Jean Blake made a few brief comments before the unveiling of the markers. After the ceremony, the Cameron Parish Police Jury and the Association served lunch and cake at the pavilion near the jetties.
The Calcasieu River Lighthouse
The Calcasieu River Lighthouse (or Calcasieu Pass Lighthouse) helped ships from the Gulf of Mexico navigate through the pass for more than 60 years. In 1876, the United States Treasury Department’s Lighthouse Division determined the need for a lighthouse at this site. Engineers constructed the lighthouse on the Calcasieu Range Lighthouse Reservation, located on the west side of the river approximately parallel to the Gulf Biologic Station on the east side.
The pyramid-shaped lighthouse tower rose 53 feet above the marsh. The raised tower consisted of three stories of living quarters and the lantern, all sheathed in black boilerplate iron. One iron balustrade surrounded the first story and another surrounded the lantern. Lighthouses on the Atlantic Coast used heavy beams pounded into the earth as their foundations. However, the softer soil of the Gulf Coast required engineers to use lighter beams screwed into the earth to support the building and enable it to withstand high tides and heavy winds during storms.
The massive lantern featured a kerosene or coal oil flame, a fourth-order Fresnel lens, and a silvered copper mirror for reflection. Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist, invented the Fresnel system of illumination for lighthouses. Light from the Calcasieu River Lighthouse shone for 13 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.
Keepers of the lighthouse included Charles F. Crossman, William and Phillip Hill, and E.A. Malone. These men and their families lived in the lighthouse and served as hosts to federal inspectors, migrant workers, and other travelers. During Hurricanes in 1877, 1916, and 1919, area residents took shelter in the secure structure of the lighthouse.
During the dredging of the ship channel from the Calcasieu Pass jetties to Lake Charles in 1939-1940, work crews dismantled the obsolete lighthouse and used explosives to unearth the screw pile foundation. The former site of the lighthouse lies approximately in the middle of the modern ship channel.
The Gulf Biologic Station was the first marine research laboratory and teaching facility on the Gulf Coast. State Speaker of the House Samuel P. Henry of Cameron Parish provided 10 acres of land for the station, located just east of this point. Act 182 of the 1898 Louisiana Legislature established the station to study Louisiana’s rich flora and fauna. Researchers at the station studied shellfish, fish, animals, plants, and insects. The State Bureau of Agriculture and Immigration published the research results in a series of 15 bulletins.
Governor William W. Heard dedicated the station on July 23, 1903. The Board of Control included the governor, who served as the chairman, and representatives from Louisiana State University, the state colleges, and Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes. These parishes also provided partial funding for the station. The station affiliated itself with the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, the Department of Agriculture, and the Smithsonian.
The main building, in the shape of a 90-foot square cross, housed the laboratory and the largest federal weather station in the state. The station also operated a large schooner, a darkroom, and equipment for trawling and dredging. In 1905, the station began conducting free summer school sessions for local educators. Visitors to the station traveled by way of the steamers Romeo and Borealis Rex from Lake Charles.
The legislature closed the station in 1910 and in 1912 the state returned the land to the Henry family. Workmen tore down the main building in 1938.
Snapshots from the Dedication Ceremony
Copyright 2004-2005 Southwest Louisiana Historical Association
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