To reach Alaska’s oldest original lighthouse, you’ll need a captain, a boat and a bit of a salty sense of humor. The best way to get to Eldred Rock Lighthouse, then? Catch a ride from Retired U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Captain Edward Page.
From Juneau, the nearly 60-mile ride up the Lynn Canal to the lighthouse begins at the Marine Exchange of Alaska, a nonprofit Captain Page founded to enhance maritime safety through real-time information and vessel tracking. During the two-hour jaunt, Captain Page will share stories of his Coast Guard days, long kayaking trips and the many sailboats he’s owned — or wants to own. If he is lacking in anything, it’s certainly not stories of time spent out at sea.
“I first came across Eldred Rock when I was helping the Weather Service get there to maintain their weather station,” Captain Page said of his initial interest in the lighthouse. “I went to the island and thought it was pretty amazing, but wondered why no one was paying attention to it.”
It’s the only remaining octagonal frame lighthouse in the state and the second to combine the keepers’ quarters with the tower itself, with the light and fog-signal just up the tower from the bunks.
Built in response to the curious 1898 wreck of the SS Clara Nevada — lost with over 100 passengers, 800 pounds gold, and a suspected illegal dynamite shipment — the lighthouse has long stood as both beacon and mystery. To this day, the true cause of the wreck is shrouded by unknowns — fueling speculation of gold theft.
Originally finished in 1906, Eldred Rock is unique among lighthouses. Just 17 miles south of Haines, located on a 2.4 acre island, its solid concrete base kept it strong throughout the years and it never had to be rebuilt like many other structures across the state. Once it was converted to an unmanned operation in 1973, however, upkeep and maintenance ended and the building slowly began to deteriorate.
“It was horrific, awful,” Captain Page said of his first look inside the time-spent building. “In fact, it felt like “Mission Impossible.””
Over four decades of Southeast Alaskan weather had taken their toll. All this time later, however, a new chapter is beginning.
“The first day I went out there was in September of 2018. I was just in awe,” said Sue York, executive director of the Eldred Rock Lighthouse Preservation Association (ERLPA). “Anytime you step on Eldred Rock it’s amazing. The island itself has its own life blood, but the building was disgusting. There was lead paint just dripping off the ceilings and walls. All that asbestos tile that is beautiful and shiny and polished now – well, there were sections and areas where it was all busted up. It was basically a hazardous material site.”
As York and Captain Page checked out the site during their first 2018 trip, he asked York, “Okay, this is it – you think you could take it on?”
York, a former USCG member herself, was spellbound. She spent the next two years working to secure a lease from the USCG under a program that outsources preservation of historic stations to qualified non-profits. During that process, she put together a five-year preservation plan to rehabilitate it back into a safe, liveable space. The goal: get it open to the public by 2026 to celebrate its 120th anniversary.
“I had connected with the State Historic Preservation Office in the state, which is very important. It’s on the National Registry, so you have to restore it in a way that’s historically appropriate,” said York.
The first stage in 2020 focused on safety — so hazardous was the site that the first contractor worked alone by day and slept in a tent outside at night.
The subsequent years saw volunteers, board members, contractors, pro bono environmental engineers, and York herself doing asbestos and lead paint remediation, painting, plumbing and everything else in between.
“We started flying in some specialists in 2022 because the lantern room, being the most important aspect of the building, was full of rust and cracked windows,” York said. With the support of the Marine Exchange, a crew of lighthouse specialists from Michigan, the state with the most lighthouses in the country, was flown in to take care of business.
“We’ve gone a long way from inhabitable to actually very pleasant to be there,” said Captain Page. “We’re very excited to make a place that hasn’t been available to the public for the last 120 years available to enjoy.”
Captain Page himself has been a unique witness to the story of this little island.
“Eldred Rock was decommissioned the same year that I arrived in Alaska, so throughout my Coast Guard career, it was just kind of left alone and deteriorated,” he said. “Now I get to come back after my Coast Guard career to see it habitable and watch as visitors experience it. It definitely tugs the heartstrings – I’ve visited a lot of lighthouses over the years, but this one is the most unique, most beautiful one.”
York plans to celebrate the grand re-opening next summer on June 1st.
“We’re hoping for cruise ship tourism and drive-in tourism through local companies, to give them all opportunities to use the lighthouse in that way,” York said. “However, we would like for it to be lived in as well: artist retreat, writer retreat, any kind of retreat. We feel like the energy of the island is very conducive to creativity.”
The romance of this lighthouse will soon be available for anyone keen to experience a taste of that dreamy keeper lifestyle. Out on this gorgeous spit of land — surrounded as you are by towering mountains, sea otters, and humpback whales — a person is simultaneously met by the weight of history and the steadfast commitment to providing safety to mariners and seagoers far into the future. And for those fearing isolation — not to worry, the island’s resident oyster catchers make lively company.
Rachel Levy is a Juneau-based photojournalist whose work culminates at the intersections of environmental justice, arts and culture, and sustainable tourism. A 2022 graduate of Harvard University's Environmental Policy program, she is also the director of the award-winning documentary "Hidden in Plain Sight" that exposes the labor exploitation and colonial framework burdening Tanzania's safari industry.
