HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
South Carolina's oldest active lighthouse (1812 brick tower) on a restricted island in Winyah Bay, where mariners have reported seeing the ghost of Annie — a keeper's daughter who drowned — rowing a small boat as a storm warning.
North Island, Winyah Bay, Georgetown, SC 29440
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Rover Boat Tours tickets required for Winyah Bay tours with North Island access. Day tours include beachcombing on North Island. See roverboattours.com for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Island accessible by boat only. Beach terrain on North Island. Lighthouse exterior visible but interior access is controlled by Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1812 · South Carolina's oldest active lighthouse (station established 1801, current tower 1812) · Active U.S. Coast Guard navigational aid · Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center (SCDNR) land — undeveloped barrier island research reserve · Georgetown was SC's second-largest 19th-century city due to Winyah Bay rice trade
North Island sits at the entrance to Winyah Bay, the estuary where the Black, Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Sampit rivers converge before reaching the Atlantic. The bay was a major colonial and antebellum commercial waterway — Georgetown was South Carolina's second-largest city in the early 19th century, its economy built on rice and indigo plantations along the Waccamaw Neck.
The first lighthouse at the bay entrance was authorized by the federal government and established in 1801, making it one of the earliest lighthouse stations in the Southeast. The original structure was a wooden tower. The current brick lighthouse, 87 feet tall, was built in 1812 and is the structure that stands today — one of the oldest surviving lighthouse towers on the East Coast. It remains an active U.S. Coast Guard aid to navigation.
North Island is now owned and managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources as part of the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center, a research reserve established on the bequest of baseball owner Tom Yawkey. The island is largely undeveloped. Public access is limited and controlled; Rover Boat Tours, operating out of Georgetown's waterfront, offers Winyah Bay boat tours that pass the lighthouse and include a beachcombing stop on North Island.
The South Carolina Maritime Museum in Georgetown documents the lighthouse's history and maintains interpretive materials on the surrounding waterway.
Sources
The paranormal legend tied to Georgetown Light centers on a figure known simply as Annie. The legend, documented by the South Carolina Maritime Museum and South Carolina haunted-places sources, involves a widower who was the lighthouse keeper at North Island. He had sole care of his daughter Annie, and when the supply boat bringing provisions to the isolated island ran into trouble — the legend specifies the boat capsizing in a storm — the keeper strapped Annie to his back to swim to safety. Both drowned in Winyah Bay.
The reported phenomenon that follows from this legend is unusual: mariners navigating Winyah Bay have described seeing a young girl rowing a small boat alone on the bay, particularly in the period before weather turns. In the folk interpretation, Annie's apparition functions as a storm warning — she appears before bad weather arrives, as if trying to alert vessels in the bay.
The legend is categorized as well-established South Carolina maritime folklore rather than recent paranormal-investigation product. The SC Maritime Museum's documentation of the North Island lighthouse includes the Annie story, framing it as part of the historical and cultural record of the site. The southcarolinahauntedhouses.com entry provides a second independent account of the keeper-and-daughter legend and the mariner sightings pattern.
Notable Entities
Rover Boat Tours' Winyah Bay cruise departs Georgetown and travels past the North Island lighthouse — South Carolina's oldest active lighthouse — with a stop for beachcombing on North Island. The tour covers the waterway's history, wildlife, and the Annie legend.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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