The Turks and Caicos National Museum in the British West Indies is assisting in the restoration to service of the lighthouse on Grand Turk. The 60 foot high iron tower, designed by Alexander Gordon on a British Board of Trade contract, and manufactured by Chance Brothers Ltd. of Crawley England was erected in 1852. It was originally equipped with a set of Argand lamps with reflectors.

In 1942, Chance Brothers installed a fourth order lens turned by a weight-driven clockwork with the light source being a 55 mm Autoform kerosene burner. This lasted until 1972 when the beacon was electrified and automated.

The government of the British West Indies now wants to replace the inoperative light with a Pharos solar-powered one. However, they have agreed that the National Museum can restore the lighthouse to its 1942 status, if they can find the equipment. It is believed that this would make it the fourth kerosene burning lighthouse left in the world. The museum believes it can maintain the light since they have the clockwork, which is being reconditioned, and the lens. The pedestal with mercury bearing is still in place, although it will need some work. The problem is that the 55 mm Autoform burner has vanished, as have the pressure tanks. In a pinch, they can probably rig the tanks, but the burner is essential.

The lighthouse was erected to warn ships of the treacherous Northeast Reef, which stretches several miles to sea and was the cause of hundreds of wrecks. The lighthouse is located on the north end of the six mile long island which is the site of the capital of the Turks & Caicos, a British dependent territory and Crown Colony, located on the southern end of the Bahamas archipelago. The lighthouse is important, as Grand Turk has only the Museum as an historic site open to visitors.

The islands' earliest inhabitants were Tainos (also called Lucayans), descendants of South American Arawaks who arrived by canoe from Hispaniola and Cuba nearly 200 years before Columbus. There are theories that it was Grand Turk - not San Salvador in the Bahamas - where Columbus first set foot in the New World. However, most history books credit Ponce de Leon as being the first European to sight the island (he did so in 1512). During the 16th and 17th centuries, pirates frequented the islands and used them as a base for raiding treasure ships returning to Europe. Many ships also wrecked on the treacherous Caicos Banks, the area where the deep waters of the Turks Island Passage suddenly become very shallow. The few permanent settlers, many from Bermuda, came for whaling and salt production.