After an hour boat ride we arrived at our 4th Lighthouse. The Bloody Point Bar Lighthouse was one of the last lighthouses built on the Chesapeake Bay. It became operational in 1882. On April 30th 1960 in the early morning an electrical short caused a fire inside the lighthouse. The lighthouse was manned by two young coastguardsmen who were unsuccessful in putting it out. They had to use the escape boat with one of the coastguardsman having minor burns. (The esape boat hung off the side of the lighthouse, and with pulleys you lowered it) When a forty-foot firefighting boat arrived the lighthouse was glowing “like a cherry-red pot-bellied stove”. After the fire the interior was gutted and the lighthouse was automated with an acrylic lens.
In 2006, Bloody Point Lighthouse was purchased at auction by a Nevada-based lawyer named Michael Gabriel of $100,000. He had big plans for this lighthouse but they never materialized. As you can see this lighthouse is in really bad shape.
