Highland Light

Cape Cod is, in geological terms, a recessional moraine - where the glacier paused for breath on its retreat north 15,000 years ago. The terminal moraine - the point marking the ice’s farthest advance south, more or less parallels the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The Cape Cod cliffs (technically a glacial scarp)form a bulwark against the pounding Atlantic. Highland Lighthouse sits atop the highest cliff on the Cape, about 130 feet above the beach. This boost gives the 50-foot tower an overall height above sea level of 180 feet, only about 20 feet shorter than Cape Hatteras Light,the tallest lighthouse in the U.S. Of course, the beach Hatteras is as flat as a board so its tower has to go it alone. Highland is the official name since 1976, locals, including the Park Rangers, still call it Cape Cod light.



Highland Lighthouse sits on the seventh fairway of the Highland Links Golf Course. Locals joke that all they need is the windmill from Eastham to make Highland Links the world’s only full-sized miniature golf course. Windows in the tower, including those up in the lamp room, have been struck and broken by errant golf balls. I wonder how many penalty strokes are invoked for hitting a lighthouse. Talk about hitting the broad side of a barn. Maybe the embarrassment is enough.

Highland light stands on the Cape Cod National Seashore and is jointly operated by the National Park Service and the Friends of Highland Light. The Friends run the light 24/7 as a “private aid to navigation”. Mariners use the light for a day mark, as a GPS reference point, and to tell them when they are near the offshore shoals, reputed to be the most dangerous on the Cape and which have claimed many a vessel over the years. The light is open to the public and manned by volunteer guides who sit up in the lamp room. To get there, you have to negotiate a cast iron winding stairway bolted to the brick walls. I felt like Alice through the Rabbit Hole as the steps became progressively narrower and steeper. There were no fat lighthouse keepers ever on duty at Cape Cod Lighthouse. I overheard one visitor (of a certain age) comment that climbing the stairs was like “re-enacting the birth process.” When you pop out at the top, the view is worth the climb - impressive vistas over the Atlantic and the moorland behind the lighthouse and helpful signs point out landmarks and landfalls (Portugal, due east 2500 miles; Nova Scotia, due north 700 miles).

Highland Lighthouse is one of the oldest in the U.S., dating from 1797, authorized by George Washington himself and is the first lighthouse using a revolving light. The light was originally fueled by lard, then whale oil, then kerosene, and now runs on electricity. The original lighthouse had its feet cut out from under it by constant wave erosion and toppled over the cliff in 1853, to be replaced a year later. The cliff continued to be eaten away by the waves until, in 1996, with only 50 feet to spare, the lighthouse was moved part and parcel 100 yards inland on the same day as Nauset Lighthouse and by the same outfit. Highland Light now sits well back from the cliff edge, waiting for the Atlantic to catch up.

You can walk from the light to the edge of the sheer cliff and gaze out over the ocean. The view is impressive; just you and the most ferocious mosquitoes on the planet. I don’t know how the golfers can stand it; they must bathe in repellent or have skins tough as rhinoceros hide. The Park Service probably sends out a daily cart to gather up the bodies of exsanguinated golfers just to keep the putting greens from getting too cluttered.