Point Retreat Lighthouse is situated at the northern tip of ninety-mile-long Admiralty Island, bordered by Stephens Passage on the east and Chatham Straight on the west. South of Haines or a hop skip of a boat ride north out of Juneau, Alaska. Thousands of tourists view the lighthouse each year from the comfort of their cruise ships that visit the capital during the temperate summer months. Few visitors actually set foot on the expansive island and home of the village Angoon.

Known for its 2 to 1 ratio of bears to people, the island is called Kootznahoo – the Bear Fortress. The place was named Admiralty Island by the English when it was mapped in 1794 by Captain George Vancouver during an exploration voyage on the H.M.S. Discovery. The lieutenant Joseph Whidbey, a seaman and former naval engineer for the Royal English Navy was the first to retreat to the northern tip of the Island after meeting local Lingit.

In 1901, President McKinley set aside 1,505 acres for a lighthouse reserve in an executive order to protect the marine highway given its prominent position along an inside passage between Haines and Juneau, Alaska. When Point Retreat Lighthouse was finally lit on September 15, 1904, it became the tenth light station to be constructed by the U.S. Government in the Alaskan Territory.

The stations small boat launch is named Hard Luck Charlie, after the son of the first keeper Charles E. McLeod. A Scottish and New York immigrant, Charles found his way to Alaska where he worked as an engineer and assistant lighthouse keeper. He worked between Glasgow and the Point Retreat Lighthouse, becoming one of the first keepers. His son Charles Jr. was disabled after a fall from the dock railing at the age of two and passed away from pneumonia at the age of four in 1929.

In the 1950s, the increase of commercial flights to Alaska created a need for aeronautical beacons to be placed along the coastline. The lantern room at Point Retreat was removed and replaced by an eight-foot-tall concrete block supporting a double-ended airways beacon. This new beacon produced alternating red and white flashes, serving now both captains and pilots. As the station moved towards automation, one of the two keeper’s dwellings was torn down in 1966 to make room for a helicopter landing pad. Then, in 1973, the station was downgraded to a minor light, and the remaining personnel were removed.

The lone dwelling stood vacant and the station received only an occasional checkup visit from the Coast Guard until a thirty-year lease on the property was granted to the Alaska Lighthouse Association in 1997. Five years later, the same group purchased the buildings and the 1,505-acres originally set aside for the station. The Alaska Lighthouse Associations plans to use the property to house a maritime museum and a small bed-and-breakfast. Stipulations in the transfer require that the property be accessible to the public.

In 2002, all the structures at Point Retreat received a fresh coat of paint, but the station seemed incomplete without the lantern room that was removed decades earlier. A search for the missing lantern room was unsuccessful so Seidelhuber Iron and Bronze Works of Seattle was contracted to build a steel replica using architectural drawings found in the National Archives. The new lantern room was installed atop the lighthouse in 2004, just in time for the centennial of the station. Point Retreat Lighthouse is now fit to start another century of service complete with short-term “keepers” residing in the dwelling.

Point Retreat Lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The marker for the National Register can be seen on the Juneau Harbor boardwalk, south of Marine Park. 252 Marine Way, Juneau, Alaska 99801.