Frying Pan Tower, a hulking, 80-foot-tall lighthouse 32 miles off the coast of North Carolina, has taken on a second life as a marine outpost and eco-lodge
Frying Pan is the only one at least somewhat accessible to the public. In 2010, Neal bought the tower at auction from the U.S. government for $85,000, but he has since divested his ownership, and now runs aVolunteers willing to help with restoration work can join Neal at Frying Pan. They must cover their own transportation costs—usually a few hundred dollars to hitch a bouncy, two-hour boat ride with fishermen . In exchange they receive free room and board.
Frying Pan exists completely off the grid, powered by solar panels . There are two modern bathrooms with several flushing toilets, large sinks, and hot-water showers, from which wastewater is deposited deep into the ocean. The eight bedrooms, each one named for a different North Carolina lighthouse, are far from fully renovated, but are comfortable and sparingly decorated with nautical pieces from the tower’s past—dusty life preservers, old maps, and analog weather instruments and radios.
“We all have GPS,” Neal says, “but it will bring a level of reassurance for boaters to say, ‘There’s the tower. I see it.’” Now Neal dedicates himself full-time to the restoration project. He opened the tower’s doors to volunteers—many of whom, a guest book on the coffee table shows, were drawn to the project for similarly personal reasons. “You see this thing out there in the middle of the ocean and you think, I can never get on there,” says Dirk Swart, a volunteer who has come on 13 work trips over the past year and a half. “And then you do, and you’re okay.
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