 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2014) |
 1948 photograph of Hog Island Light (1896 tower) (USCG) | |
 | |
| Location | Hog Island, SE of Exmore, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°23′38″N 75°42′04″W / 37.394°N 75.701°W (approx.) |
| Tower | |
| Construction | brick (first) cast iron (second) |
| Height | 72 feet (first) 194 feet (second) |
| Shape | conical (first) Octagonal pyramidal skeleton (second) |
| Light | |
| First lit | 1853 (first) 1896 (second) |
| Deactivated | 1896 (first) 1948 (second) |
| Lens | (first) fourth-order Fresnel Lens first-order Fresnel Lens (second) |
| Range | 19 miles (17 nmi; 31 km) (second) |
| Characteristic | fixed white light (first) flashing white every 45 seconds (second) |
The Hog Island Light was a lighthouse roughly marking its eponymous island, and thus the north side of the Great Machipongo Inlet on the Virginia coast. Originally, no light existed between Cape Henlopen, Delaware and Cape Charles. In 1830 the United States Congress appropriated money for a coastal beacon in the general vicinity of Chincoteague Island. The following year, the Collector of Customs in Norfolk selected Assateague Island.
In 1827 the first shipment of sweet potatoes from farmers on the Eastern Shore was sent to New York City aboard the schooner Providence under the command of Captain Lewis Matthews from Thomas's Wharf on the Machipongo River. One of the few deep-water ports on the sea side of the Delmarva Peninsula, vessels traveling between Norfolk and New York City began frequenting Thomas's Wharf to load produce during the growing season.[1] So in 1853 another lighthouse was erected twenty miles north of Cape Charles at Hog Island to light the remaining section of coastline between the Assateague Light and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and guide ships to the Great Machipongo Inlet.