In North Carolina there has been an ongoing debate for at least 18 years about how to save the Cape Hatteras Light House. The Park Service decided to move the lighthouse and the keepers residence away from the advancing shore line. About a month ago the keepers residence was moved and the contractor is preparing the lighthouse for the move. They are cutting (?) the lighthouse from the pine beams/granite foundation now and will place a tracked vehicle under the lighthouse for the move. Even though Hatteras has been done by HL at least twice, how often has 1,250,000 bricks stacked 208' on a 45' diameter base been moved. HL did a lighthouse for the relighting of the Tybee lighthouse, how much more difficult is it to move oldest and the tallest brick lighthouse. A lighthouse on tracks would be a superb collectors piece to commemorate saving a piece of history.

For a little news on the move you can visit
http://www.wral-tv.com/news/wral/documentaries/1998/hatteras/

If my html is off you can go to
www.wral-tv.com
and pick up the link.

BTW they have some great pics of the lighthouse.

Edited to change the URL

[This message has been edited by JChidester (edited 03-16-99).]

I think it's a great idea to make a replica of Hatteras moving! This is a great moment in history-like moving the Statue of Liberty! Hatteras has become one of America's maritime symbols-the move should be commemorated! And Harbour Lights is the way to do it! The HL collectors will love it, and many others who have been following the move will be interested, too! It would be a smart move for HL business-wise, and benefit us as well! I would sure buy one!

In regards to your comment about Tybee Island, HL did not make a special sculpture to commemorate the relighting. They used the existing GLOW and slapped a special sticker on it. Otherwise the sculpture is the same as the GLOW on retailers shelves.

Yes, a sculpture depicting Hatteras on wheels would make an interesting piece, but I would rather spend the $80 to $100 dollars on a NEW lighthouse or on a retired I still haven't bought.

Welcome Dove!

Have to agree with akmn on Hatteras though. Very important that it's being moved but no wheels on HL, please. As for the Statue (groan) we've expounded on her at length. Check the older threads for the gory details. Has she been moved? Other than from France? Maybe HL could do a Mini Glow of the Mini version in Paris for the International line, n'est pas?

How 'bout a Hatteras in HO scale? Wouldn't it look cool tooling around the tracks in the basement train setup?

;-)

-Gomez Adams [Duck, Hattie! A tunnel!]

I didn't mean the sculpture of Hatteras on wheels-I meant a sculpture showing the moving of Hatteras-like having the LH on the platform they are moving it on or something similar-maybe depicting the new path it will take and some of the equipment and the LH on the moving platform. Certainly NOT the whole sculpture on wheels-that would be tacky! Maybe some kind of really special edition-Collectors Society or something. Or a thumbnail (LOL!)

I thought that's what you meant, Dove. I'm not being critical of the idea, just having a little fun with it. Don't take me too seriously -- I don't!

-Art

Here is a link to some prior discussion on the mobile Hatteras idea:

http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/forums/Forum4/HTML/000061.html

Yes, Dove, we're just joshin with you! Most new ideas get a few jabs. But we love to hear them. Some of these posts are serious, lots are not. Please don't think we purposely try to offend anyone!

I thought maybe I had misread the original post and it really *was* about Hatteras on wheels-literally! I thought I'd better clear it up, lest people think I'm totally confused!

O.K.-how about Hatteras moving, with equipment, etc, as a thumbnail! (just kidding! I like miniatures, but that would be some thumbnail!)

Hey Dove,
It would a least have to be a spyglass. HL staff are geniuses not magicians.LOL

[This message has been edited by engbrady (edited 03-25-99).]

Has anyone considered a remote controlled Hatteras? Maybe along the dune buggy style. HAHA

I think the neatest Hatteras piece would be to show its original position with shards of the busted foundation forming a small pile. And then some distance away would be the lighthouse at it's new location. And how about a Hatteras piece with a keeper's dwelling on it?

MANY possibilities without detracting from the previous LE (not even a remote dream for most of us) and the OE.

Steve: I totally agree with your post! Good idea!

LE only - not OE.

------------------
Keepin' the flame

Definitely an LE; maybe even a 6,500 LE ala HILLSBOROZILLA!

I even hate to bring this up again, but if you open the door for another LE of a particular lighthouse, then there will be a second one and a third one produced. Then why bother calling them limited editions. I could go on and on about this and I have in the past but I won't. I just hope that Harbour Lights never issue's a second limited Edition of any lighthouse they have made for any reason, for it has been the downfall of some collectible lines and would start to lessen the value (not just money) of one's collection. There are still thousands of great lighthouses to be done!

Saint WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame


[This message has been edited by engbrady (edited 03-26-99).]

I agree with Paul!

Maybe Harbour Lights could team up with Hallmark and design a Christmas special combining an ornament-size Cape Hatteras and a Radio Flyer miniature?

Hatteras was Harbour Lights finishing up the limited edition with another version; they did not do it as a second limited edition. They picked up the numbering on the revised version, where the first Hatteras left off.
John will probably point out where I am wrong, but I have seen nowhere that the "Anniversary Edition" 5th anniversary piece is a limited edition. I figure they probably will retire it, but who knows the answer. On the information sheet I have it doesn't say limited, just says for members only. Also from what I have been told the lighthouse mini is the exact same mold, only difference is the hand touching. It is really one edition since there isn't any mold changes for the two versions.
As for Rose Island you should know my thoughts on that. I didn't think it was a good thing to do at the time and I still don't think it was a good thing to do. As far as I am concerned you can lump the society version at the end of the Reunion versions numbers.
Finally if all of my thought are invalid, then I say, "No Mas!"

WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame


[This message has been edited by engbrady (edited 03-26-99).]

It's that fence, that I want Harbour Lights to stay off. One limited Edition series of a lighthouse and then as many opens, as they want. I still wish they would have only made the charter version of the Point Fermin mini, and that to get it you would have to have joined every year. That would have made it very special for those, who by sticking with the Society every year, have formed a very solid foundation. By the way I joined the second year, so wouldn't qualify for it

WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

I agree with Paul on the Fermin issue. I have been with the society since the beginning. I have joined every year. I wish the Fermin piece was something really special for those who have stayed with the society. I don't like the idea that now, to have a complete Fermin set, I have to get a non-charter Fermin on the secondary market. I know the mold is the same, but it is a different piece due to the labeling. And the different art work (though I don't know if that would be a big thing-each one has variations anyway.) The only reason why I want a complete Fermin set is because it was my 1st HL. I joined the society just to get that piece after I saw the LH. I got hooked after that. I had never seen HL before I walked into a store in Scottsdale AZ. I didn't buy, but joined the society right away. So Fermin is special to me. I never plan on selling my humble collection, so it's not the $.

The more I think about it, the more I think a Hatteras moving should be an OE. There are too many LHs still to be done a first time without repeating. I would rather see a new CA light than a new Hatteras, no matter how much I like Hatteras.
Just thoughts from a newbie!

Well, since this topic has come around again, I guess I'll weigh in once more with my "new collector's perspective". I'm not a new collector, but if I were, what lighthouses am I likely to know about? Which ones am I most likely to plan vacations to visit and climb? Which ones will I walk all the way around looking for the right place to take a picture? Which ones are most likey to inspire me to take the path towards Wackoville?

It's the same ones that have already lead us to Harbour Lights and our love of lighthouses. It's the Cape Hatteras', the St, Augustines, the Diamond Heads and the Thomas Points. Or maybe for some it starts with Whitefish Point or Anclote Key or Cape May and along the way we find out about the more well known names.

However it starts, I don't think it's my place to say to a new collector that they can never have what I have. And that's what telling HLs to not ever make two LEs of the same light says. Yes, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of lighthouses for HL yet to model. But in my estimation, there's no good reason not to issue another LE of a light if it can be done substantially and historically different from the first edition. Like others, I would object to just using the old mold and spitting out more of the same.

The moving of Cape Hatteras presents an opportunity for HLs to issue a new, different, Hatteras LE. I think Steve's idea above is wonderful one. The remains of the foundation (and maybe those of the first Hatteras tower too?) with a small section of the cleared path and the tower at it's new site. Historically important and significantly different from HL102.

The histories of some other lights offer similar opportunities for additional LE releases. Cape Florida in it's restored splendor is one, as is Tybee Island. I don't advocate issueing all of these in the same year, or even in consecutive years. But as the popularity of lighthouses grows and restorations and history provide opportunities, I think we deprive ourselves and new collectors of some great additions to our collections if we insist that HL never have more than one Limited Edition of our favorite lights.

Rick

[This message has been edited by RMau (edited 03-27-99).]

Bravo, Rick! I agree with you 100%.

While we are on the subject of making more than one model of a certain light (LE + LE, LE + OE, LE + OE + LE) I would once again state that HL should make a Coquille GLOW. I still feel it would be a popular piece.

That's the word from the East Coast where it's sunny and 50 degrees.

Bravo, Rick! I agree with you 100%.

While we are on the subject of making more than one model of a certain light (LE + LE, LE + OE, LE + OE + LE) I would once again state that HL should make a Coquille GLOW. I still feel it would be a popular piece.

That's the word from the East Coast where it's sunny and 50 degrees.

Rick, new collectors can have the same lighthouses that I have, and in the same way I obtained them. I bought them at retail, won them in drawings, traded for them and bought them in the secondary market. What makes them collectibles certainly is not many different Limited? Editions. They suddenly all become Open Editions because a collector just will wait for the new version to be produced instead of searching, looking and obtaining a real Limited Edition. I feel that Harbour Lights has offered an alternative for those who can't afford or find the older HL lighthouses, that is, the Open Editions. At this time HL is upgrading the quality of the earlier Open Editions which are readily available to all, new and old HL collectors.

Limited
--------------------
Open

It is a narrow line between the two series and I for one, will always want a single version Limited Edition and as many open editions as they would like to make. Sure they can make the first 17 over and much, much better, but when they made my Burrows Island lighthouse that was the best they could do at the time. I enjoy looking at my collection and seeing the progression of Harbour Lights over the years. For that reason, I enjoy my Yaquina as much as I enjoy my Sanibel. I can go on and on forever about this, but I promise this is my last rambling on the subject.


WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

Sean,

What did you do with the beaver? Hope you didn't let him go. He has become a pet of all of us (at least me - but then I love my pets more than I do lighthouses). Please bring him back.

The Shadow (Lou)

Bob,

If Coquille had been produced to the full 5500, it would probably still be out there - or, at best, recently retired. The only reason you want it is because of the low issue number. Oregon/Washington lights do not sell that good. If Hl does produce the GLOW it would probably sell a few thousand, at most, to those who want the LE and cannot buy it, and then it would sit on the dealers shelf and gather dust. Don't kill all the dreams - "someday, someday, I will own one". Everyone needs a wish list.

The Shadow (Lou)

Paul, and everyone else who favors one and only one Limited Edition of a lighthouse. I think we're debating the difference between 1/2" and 4/8". I'm not advocating that HL just start over again with HL101 because they can. There are some lights that have been done that took a good long time to move off of dealer shelves. I think the dealers themselves would not want those lights again.

My interest is as much in the lighthouses as it is in the Harbour Lights. I'd love to see a HL of Cape Florida as it is today after restoration. I'd display it right next to the Cape Florida that we already have. A history lesson if you will. But your stance is that I can have that only if HL does it as an OE. Well, I don't buy OE's. I buy the LE's from the east and gulf coasts. Maybe I'm alone here in limiting the collection, but I don't think so. I know one collector who only wants lights that had a first order Fresnel.

I don't want arbitrary re-issues over the years. But I really think that for me and other collectors to continue to enjoy the HLs that we do collect, there has to be reasonable and rational re-issues from time-to-time. Else at some point the collecting has to end.

Reasonable and rational has to start with some significant historical or architectural difference. Cape Florida as it has been done (kinda like after the Seminole Indian attack) and Cape Hatteras' move are examples of the kind of events I think would warrant another LE.

I guess time will tell for all of us. After all, it's not the future of our company that depends on these and other decisions. It's the Youngers that have it all at stake. We could all lose if HL doesn't survive the test of time.

Rick

PS - I gotta get one of those fancy signature things.

[This message has been edited by RMau (edited 03-28-99).]

Rick, I like your idea about HL producing the Cape Florida Light as it is today. It could become a "Now & Then" set like Morris Island. I too would display both side by side.

Hey Shadow, You must remember I did not come up with the idea of a Coquille Glow. If my memory serves me correctly that idea was brought forth by Bob Younger's brother, Bill. The fact that announcement was made at the HL Reunion in Providence made me think this new Glow was a distinct possibility. Whenever I bring the subject back up it is only because I would truly like to see the piece made.

Yes, I'm trying to get them all. Yes, I do buy LEs and OEs. Yes, I do display both next to each other in my curios. Yes, I like to have a model of each light whether or not it's an LE or OE. Yes, if I had an opportunity to buy a CH2 or a Coquille for an affordable price I might purchase it. If I did buy them I would probably still buy the Glows.

I personally don't feel the making of a Glow of a retired piece will lessen the value of the LE that came before it. The "Ancient Mariner" will still be my hero even if he purchases a Coquille Glow to display next to his Coquille LE.

That's the word from the East Coast where it is sunny and heading for 60 degrees!

<^>

Ok, I couldn't do it, but I did last over 12 hours. I won't ramble I will be brief.

"Reasonable and rational has to start with some significant historical or architectural difference"
Significant historical or architectural difference, that could apply to almost every lighthouse in America and probably the world.
Come up to the Great Lakes Rick, we have some Great lighthouses filled to the brim with history. Here's a plug for my state's lighthouse at Michigan City in two words, Harriet Colfax. If you are looking for historical significance, this lady affected every other lighthouse keeper in the country. For all that are reading this post; your homework assignment is to learn why she affected them and the history of lighthouses.

Sorry, sorta still rambled, not a full fledge ramble just a little rambling and I could probably go on and on about rambling, also.

WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

That's the best signature yet, Sean!

I'll give you an A+ for that one!

Nope Sean, that's not it. Next?

WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

It sounds to me like the historical significance of Harriet Colfax, on all the other lighthouse keepers, may have to do with her relationship with Ann Hartwell.

Ann Hartwell, a school teacher, had a lifelong relationship with Harriet Colfax. Back in August of 1997, The Bailiwick Pride Theater, in Chicago, did a show entitled: "The Light Keepers". It followed the "spirited and independant" Harriet Colfax's affair with the "mysterious" Ann Hartwell.

-Todd

Harriet kept great records in a journal and each year sent an annual report to the Lighthouse Board. In 1871 they built what is now the East Pier light, it was from information from her logs of what was needed to improve the capability of warning ships in the area, that lead to it being done. The next year all keepers began keeping their journals. As a result of Harriet Colfax keeping such good records, which started others keeping journals, we today have a lot more in depth look of the history of lighthouses during her 43 years as the lighthouse keeper in Michigan City, IN.

Saint WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame

Great history lesson Paul. Sorry the answer was there before I saw the question, I would have enjoyed the hunt! Sounds like a great addition to the Lady Lightkeepers series.

I know the Great Lakes lights are full of tales to be told. Heck, there are more lights in Michigan than any other state for a reason. And I know that many of them are yet to be represented in the HL line. That's good. We need to extend the Younger's business for many years so we can all continue to enjoy our hobby (passion?) for collecting and lighthouse history.

Due to concerns about the legality of doing a 'cut 'n paste' of the actual Associated Press article, I've edited this post to remove it. I hadn't given any thought to the copyright issues involved (very bad) and couldn't find a linkable source for the article, so I'll paraphrase here. You can find the article by searching the AP web site, or possibly through your local papers AP links.

Judge Allows N.C. Lighthouse Move

A Chief U.S. District Court Judge has declined to rule on the suit file in January, 1999 by Dare County, NC to stop the move of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

The Judge had some comments regarding the amount of effort already expended to accomplish the move. That progress includes having several buildings already moved and progress on the lighthouse itself on schedule for a May/June move to the new site.

So it looks like people who have vacations scheduled for the Outer Banks this spring may be in for a real treat.

Rick

[This message has been edited by RMau (edited 04-04-99).]

Another site to go to for information on the move is:
http://www.wral-tv.com/news/wral/5newsfocus/1999/0310-lighthouse-move/

WRAL-TV in Raleigh has extensive coverage of the event.

Saint WackoPaul
'
Keep the Flame

Thanks guys for the update. We will be there at the light May 25-26, so I'm really starting to get excited that I may have timed it out right.

---

-RodW

Hey Rod,

Another near-miss! We'll be there May 28-29.

Bring that Coquille, just in case.
[This message has been edited by Art (edited 04-06-99).]

Even closer Art is Bill Younger signing at Lighthouse Gallery and Gifts on Saturday the 30th of May in Nags Heads at 1pm.

WackoPaul '
Keep the Flame