A rusty, abandoned light tower off the North Carolina coast is for sale and the online federal auction has attracted two mystery bidders dueling at more than $500,000 for the relic.
The Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower is nearly 35 miles off the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The former Coast Guard outpost and weather station has been replaced by buoys.
Two bidders who go by the names “hunley” and “Big Gun” have raised their offers daily. The federal auction will continue as long as one raises their bid by $3,000 each day.
The Coast Guard and state officials have explored the idea of tearing down the tower and dropping it in the ocean as an artificial reef, but that would cost more than $3 million.
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A South Carolina company that does dive charters and fishery research is the high bidder for a dilapidated light tower located 35 miles from the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
The Star-News of Wilmington reported Thursday that Shipwrecks Inc. bid $515,000 for the Frying Pan Shoals light tower. The tower includes 5,000 square feet of living space and has its own helipad.
Lee Spence, 1 of the owners, says the company plans to use the prime fishing spot for a sport fishing group, a dive charter business and probably will do fisheries and oceanographic research with two or three universities.
Spence says the company also plans to use part of the tower for a commercial diving school that will be run by the International Diving Institute in Charleston.
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