To guide ships through the pass, the first Horn Island Light was erected in 1874,[4] a wooden house on a screwpile foundation.

[3] It too was moved in 1900 (the old abandoned light having succumbed to a storm in 1893), and was utterly destroyed by the 1906 Mississippi hurricane, killing keeper Charles Johnsson, his wife, and his daughter.

[4] Johnsson had been offered a ride with his family to safety but had refused, citing his duty to keep the beacon lit; his body was found after the storm, but those of his wife and daughter were never recovered.

[4] A new light was not constructed until 1908, and at a new location in the sound at the west end of Petit Bois Island.

[4] It was another small house, this time on a platform of piles, equipped with a fourth order Fresnel lens.