Old Baldy and install a more powerful first-order lens to make it a coastal beacon, as had been done at Cape Hatteras in 1854 and Tybee Island in 1866, were never approved. Instead, in 1898 the Lighthouse Board approved the construction a new 184-foot cast iron skeleton tower equipped with a first order lens named the Cape Fear Lighthouse, to be located on the southeastern end of Bald Head Island, where it could mark the shoals. The Cape Fear Light served as a coastal beacon from 1903 to 1958. After the construction of the Cape Fear Lighthouse, Old Baldy continued to serve as an active lighthouse with a fourth-order fixed beacon until 1935, and it housed a radio beacon until 1958. It was used mostly to help guide ships into the mouth of the Cape Fear River. After the construction of the Oak Island Lighthouse in 1958, Old Baldy and the Cape Fear Lighthouse were both decommissioned. The Cape Fear lighthouse was demolished but Old Baldy still stands as a day beacon and symbol of Bald Head Island. The lighthouse has been restored and is open to the public. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 as Bald Head Island Lighthouse. In 1995 Jacob Arthur, grandson of Charlie Frank House, Jr. (a contributor to the lighthouse's restoration and preservation) unveiled the plaque that stands in the foyer today. This plaque commemorated the re-opening of the Old Baldy Lighthouse after years of renovations. Keepers Henry Long (1794 – 1806) Sedgwick Springs (1807 – 1837) Bryan Morse (1837 – 1848) Francis Morse (1848 – 1853) William R. Sellers (1853 – 1857) James R. Flowers (1857 – 1859) T. M. Thompson (1859 - light extinguished during Civil War) John Bell (1865 – 1866) James S. Sanders (1866) Joseph A. Bell (1879 – 1881) John R. Newton (1881 – 1882) Asa Ross (1882) James Henry Dosher (1882 – at least 1913) Smith Island Museum of History The Old Baldy Foundation operates Old Baldy and the adjacent Smith Island Museum of History, which is located in a replica of one of the original lighthouse keeper's quarters from the 1850s and features period furnishings, lighthouse artifacts including parts of the lens from the Cape Fear Lighthouse, and exhibits about the history of Old Baldy and the island. Hurricane Fran When Hurricane Fran struck the southern North Carolina coast on September 5,