Beavertail Lighthouse Webcam in Jamestown

Some buildings live up to their name, but the Beavertail Lighthouse doesn’t or at least not quite. The stately twenty metre high square tower looks nothing like a beaver’s tail. The land it stands on, Beavertail Point on Conanicut Island, an island in Narragansett Bay off the coast of Rhode Island, from an aerial view does so there is some logic in how the lighthouse came by its name.

Built from granite, a stone well-renowned for being able to withstand inclement weather conditions, the lighthouse has helped protect shipping from running aground on the rocks for over a hundred and seventy years. While decades ago it would have been the lighthouse keeper’s task to keep a bonfire burning atop the tower to warn ships of danger, not always highly effective on the days when gale force winds were blowing, that job is now done by a Fresnel lens.

There hasn’t been a keeper at Beavertail lighthouse since 1972. Now the light is maintained by the US Coast Guards and operates automatically. The old keeper’s accommodation has been converted into a museum and is part of the one-hundred and fifty-three acre Beavertail State Park. The park is a popular spot for hiking coastal trails and for the less energetic, picnicking while enjoying the sea views and watching the maritime traffic steer well clear of the rocks