The Hatteras lighthouse move, 10 years later

BUXTON

Ten years ago, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was a superstar, its iconic candy-stripe markings televised worldwide as the tallest brick beacon in the nation was moved a half-mile from the sea.

Thousands of people poured into this tiny coastal village every day of the 23-day move to watch the 4,800-ton tower inching hydraulically on rollers across steel tracks.

The relocation of the lighthouse began under rainy skies June 17, 1999, and ended in blistering heat July 9.

It was proclaimed an engineering miracle, but the $12 million project had been mired in controversy since 1996, when the National Park Service announced its plans. The talk didn't fade until the tower was declared safe in its new location 1,600 feet from the Atlantic Ocean.

Opponents of the move, which included Dare County, wanted to widen the beach in front of the 208-foot tower's historic location at the edge of the sea.

Move proponents, on the other hand, said it needed to be moved from the eroding shoreline to ensure its survival.

But after a lawsuit and letter-writing campaign failed to budge the Park Service, opponents grudgingly accepted the move and later celebrated its success.

"It turned out to be a huge economic boon for the Outer Banks," said Buxton resident Danny Couch, one of the leaders of the opposition. "It has brought thousands and thousands of people."

Despite the benefit to tourism on Hatteras Island, Couch said he still has questions about the need for the move. The beach at the old site, where a circle of granite stones marks the spot, appears to have widened, he said.

"From an aesthetic standpoint and a from a local heritage standpoint, it took a beating," Couch said. "There's just something about being on that balcony and looking down at the ocean. It was just an amazing experience.

"Where it was will always be the real thing."

Bruce Roberts, a founder of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, says the move made the Hatteras lighthouse more famous than ever, and time has proved its necessity.

The beach at the old site appears to him to have narrowed, he said, and the ocean is even closer than before. About two years ago, he said, he observed the granite boulders there pushed askew by a big storm.

"I think the lighthouse would be in the water now if it hadn't moved," he said. "You can look at maps and see that decade after decade, the shoreline is advancing."

The light keeper's buildings and other structures in the light station were all relocated inland at the same alignment to the 1870 lighthouse that they were before.

Contractors International Chimney Corp., based in Buffalo, N.Y., and Expert House Movers, based in Virginia Beach, worked through bitter cold and blazing heat, good-naturedly fielding questions from slews of prying reporters.

Starting in December, workers separated the lighthouse from its concrete foundation, placed a steel grid underneath it and lifted it onto a concrete pad.

During the move, seven hydraulic jacks shoved it slowly on tracks up to 100 feet a day down a corridor, as a steel mat leapfrogged in front of it as it inched ahead.

Wearing cowboy-style construction hats, smiling and cracking jokes, the Matyiko brothers, Jim and Jerry, with Expert House Movers became familiar figures in news coverage of the dramatic move. A favorite pastime for them was to place a coin on the track, watch as the lighthouse rolled over it, then hand it out.

The job, which later won a national engineering award, was one of the most difficult the company ever did, Jim Matyiko said last week. To this day, he said, people still ask him about moving the lighthouse.

"I guess that's my trademark - that'll be on my tombstone," he said. "Reflecting back, that was such a great job. I'm glad that we were part of, probably, saving it."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com