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The telltale sight of the white octagonal structure and red roof of Eldred Rock Lighthouse is a marker for mariners and many upper Lynn Canal residents sailing north, signaling they are close to home. 

Alaska’s oldest original lighthouse is located 55 miles north of Juneau and 17 miles south of Haines, and will be open to members of the public for the first time. Visitors can learn about its storied history and service to Southeast Alaska. 

Boats of supporters from Haines and Juneau joined a grand opening event on the island May 30 to celebrate a roughly six year volunteer-run effort to preserve and restore the now 120-year-old lighthouse.

Sue York is executive director of the Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association, a Haines-based non-profit organization that took over the lighthouse from the U.S Coast Guard in 2020 and spearheaded the restoration effort. She said it was easy to recruit support for the project because of the lighthouse’s regional significance.

“This building to us is our heritage, Coast Guard heritage, maritime heritage. It’s Southeast Alaska special,” York said. “(On) the ferry, everyone that lives in Haines, Skagway and Juneau has a feeling about the lighthouse as they go by, right? It’s home, it’s ‘Oh, we’re almost home.’” 

Eldred Rock Lighthouse was constructed after a shipwreck tragedy during the Klondike Gold Rush and completed in 1906. It has served as a beacon and navigation aid for mariners ever since. Several generations of lighthouse keepers kept the kerosene light alive year-round. Technology improvements replaced lighthouse keepers and Eldred Rock was automated and left empty in 1973. It was listed under the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

After storm damage in 2016, the preservation effort drew volunteers from around Haines, Skagway, Gustavus, Juneau and beyond to restore the iconic lighthouse. It took extensive repairs, repainting and abatement work to remove hazardous building materials and renovate the lighthouse, living quarters and out buildings and dock. Charter tours will be available for groups of 25 from Haines beginning this summer, and visitors can rent one of five bedrooms or volunteer as a lighthouse keeper, according to the group’s website.

The mission of the group is to restore, preserve and share, said John Woods, a board member with the Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association. 

“It’s kind of this quintessential Alaskan thing, where you’re like, ‘I’m in this lighthouse on this tiny little island in the middle of Lynn Canal, with these huge mountains and glaciers around, there’s whales, eagles, puffins,’ you know,” he said. “So we’re excited that… we’re going to be able to fulfill that part of our mission, the ‘share’ part.”

“People will get to have that experience and get to go out there and be like, this is a special place,” he added. 

The public opening celebration on May 30 represented a particularly special day for siblings Tainya and Doug Adamson, who traveled from Washington state to Southeast Alaska for the occasion. They are the great-grandchildren of the first lighthouse keeper on Eldred Rock, Nils P. Adamson, who manned the lighthouse from 1906 to 1911.

“I’m just grateful,” said Tainya Adamson, growing emotional as she first spotted the lighthouse from the boat. “To be here is incredibly overwhelming, but incredible. We’re very honored to be able to pay respect to our great-grandfather, as well as everyone else who was here.”

“This is incredibly important for our family, something that’s been part of our family story for a very long time,” said Doug Adamson, “And something we’ve heard about our whole family as a history of mariners — my great-grandfather is a light keeper, my grandfather was in the lighthouse service, and my father was in the Coast Guard, worked at a lighthouse, so for our family personally, this is very important.”

The preservation group is continuing repairs and renovations into the summer, as they begin welcoming tour groups and visitors, and working to set up a maritime museum onsite.

AAA reports Alaska’s average gas price is $5.22 per gallon, about $1 above the national average, with some Anchorage stations nearing $5.50 and costs rising sharply from last year.

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