The Buck Island lighthouse is located on an island 2 miles southwest of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The lighthouse has been inactive and abandoned for a number of years, replaced by a steel skeletal tower. In late 2003 the Coast Guard was in the process of nominating the site for the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, the Coast Guard has declared the light station to be excess property and the General Services Administration is in the process of transferring it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which owns the rest of the island as the Buck Island National Wildlife Refuge. For a long time there were no photos of this light station on the Internet. I'd like to thank Joost Keesing for his long-distance photo at right and Kebby Kelley of the USCG Environmental Management Division for the closeup photo at the bottom of the page, taken in September 2003. Based on the latter photo Lighthouse Digest added Buck Island Light to its Doomsday List in April 2004. |
![]() Photo copyright Joost Keesing. Used by permission. |
U.S. Coast Guard Historian photo, undated |
Ms. Kelley has also provided the following historical information:
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Finally, here's what the site looks like today:
USCG photo, September 2003, courtesy of Kebby Kelley
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Revised and updated February 1, 2025. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.