Press & media

We would like this station written about.

It is one of seven offshore light stations built on the Atlantic coast in the 1960s, it has been standing since 1964, and it is being brought back. Everything below is cleared for publication and dated. If you need something that is not here, ask.

Fact sheet

The basics, in one place.

Accurate as of September 2, 2026

Official name: Frying Pan Shoals Light Station. 'Light Station' is two words.
Also known as: Frying Pan Tower — the name used in most prior press coverage. Both names refer to the same structure.
Location: Frying Pan Shoals, 32 miles off Cape Fear, North Carolina, in federal waters. 33°29′N · 77°35′W.
Type: Offshore 'Texas Tower' light station — a steel platform on four legs driven into the seabed, a design adapted from offshore drilling platforms. One of seven built along the U.S. Atlantic coast in the 1960s.
Operational: November 24, 1964, replacing the lightship station established at Frying Pan Shoals in 1854.
Automated: 1979. The resident Coast Guard watch stood down.
Retired: 2004, from active U.S. Coast Guard service. The station is not a federal aid to navigation.
Height: Light approximately 135 feet above the Atlantic; main deck approximately 80 feet above the water.
Ownership: Privately owned continuously since the federal government sold the station at public auction in 2010. In July 2026 stewardship consolidated among the station's existing co-owners; no new outside owners entered.
Current status: Condition assessment and restoration planning are underway, and the station's visitor program is being prepared for its return.

Angles

What there is to write about.

The engineering, first. The station is a Texas Tower — a design borrowed from offshore oil platforms and pressed into service keeping a light. Four steel legs driven into the seabed, a deckhouse eighty feet up, a lattice tower above that. Seven were built along the Atlantic coast in the 1960s, and this one has stood on its shoal since November 1964.

Then the people. For fifteen years, until automation in 1979, Coast Guard crews lived here in rotation — a steel island with no ground to walk on, reached and left only by boat or helicopter. Published recollections describe long isolation, sudden danger, and remarkable sunrises.

And now the work. Preserving a steel structure thirty-two miles offshore is a logistics problem before it is a preservation problem: every material, every tool and every crew must be carried out and worked within whatever window the weather allows. The station's original 1963 Coast Guard drawings survive, and are being used as the restoration's reference documents.

Imagery

Archival photography, free to publish.

The archival photographs on this site — the 1929 launch of LV-115, the lightship on station in 1949, the tower under tow in 1964, and the 1965 aerial of the station relieving the lightship — are U.S. Coast Guard photographs. As works of the United States federal government they are in the public domain and carry no licence fee. Credit them as 'U.S. Coast Guard photograph'.

The structural linework and title block come from U.S. Coast Guard civil engineering drawing 107911, dated May 16, 1963, and are likewise public domain. Credit as 'U.S. Coast Guard engineering drawing 107911'. Higher-resolution scans of these, and of other sheets from the same set, are available on request.

Timeline

A hundred and seventy years, in dates.

1854: The first lightship. Federal authorities establish a floating light at Frying Pan Shoals. (The U.S. Coast Guard did not yet exist.)
1930: LV-115 takes station. The final Frying Pan lightship—LV-115, later WAL-537—begins the last generation of the floating watch.
Nov 24, 1964: The station goes operational. The permanent Texas Tower light station—modeled on an offshore drilling platform, on four steel legs driven deep into the seabed—replaces LV-115.
1979: Automation. The resident Coast Guard watch gives way to automated operation.
2004: Active service ends. Modern navigation makes the station redundant as a federal aid to navigation; it is retired from active Coast Guard service and faces an uncertain future.
2010: A private preservation chapter. The federal government sells the station at public auction to a private buyer. It has been privately owned ever since. Years of difficult offshore restoration and volunteer work follow.
July 2026: Stewardship renewed. Ownership consolidates within the station's existing co-owners — no new outside buyers — and a renewed program of urgent stabilization and long-range planning begins.

Get in touch

Write to station@fpsls.com. A person reads it, and we are glad to talk — about the engineering, the crews who served here, the restoration, or anything on this page that raises a further question. High-resolution archival files are available on request.

If you are working to a deadline, say so and we will work to it.