Digest>Archives> Mar/Apr 2017

Utah Lighthouse Waiting for Earthquake

By Timothy Harrison

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You can see an enlarged version of this picture by clicking here.
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The Providence Lighthouse in Cedar City, Utah is ...
Photo by: Debra Baldwin

Standing at 88 feet tall, developers claimed that, when it was built in Cedar City, Utah, the Providence Center Lighthouse was the tallest inland lighthouse in the United States.

You can see an enlarged version of this picture by clicking here.
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Photo by: Debra Baldwin

It does not stand near any body of water, it has never guided any ships, nor has it ever had any lighthouse keepers - at least, not yet.

In 2001 it was voted by Salt Lake Magazine as one of the top 100 landmarks in the state of Utah, which is pretty amazing because it had only been built in 2000, one year before the declaration was made.

There are a number of strange stories on the Internet that claim to know why or how the lighthouse was built. One story says that it was originally a lighthouse in Europe that was disassembled and transported to Utah and rebuilt at its current location. Another site claims it is, or was, a church. None of those stories are true.

Although it was originally built to be an icon that would set the Providence Center apart from other developments in Utah, there was also an underlying reason for its construction. According to Thomas A. Pugh, a managing partner of the Providence Center and CEO of Quantum Construction, it was built in preparation for the big earthquake when California drops off into the ocean, at which time the lighthouse in Cedar City, Utah will be the only lighthouse standing on the “new” Pacific Coast of the United States.

This story appeared in the Mar/Apr 2017 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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