In 1884, on the inhospitable Isla de los Estados, a place swept by wind and rain, separated from Tierra del Fuego by a rough and stormy strait, the San Juan de Salvamento Lighthouse and a Subprefecture that had the function of salvage station. The lighthouse received the name of "Lighthouse of the End of the World" due to the novel that Jules Verne wrote (Le Phare du Boute du Monde. Dc.1905). It was the only light that sailors had in the southern sea. As Mr. Vairo says "The island was Cape Canaveral at the time. Beyond was the unknown, Antarctica." Ships from various countries would arrive, prepare for departure, and set out on an expedition.
Thus, in the middle of last year, Rear Admiral Horacio Fisher raised the idea of the lighthouse and summoned two specialists in historical pieces: the director of the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia, Carlos Pedro Vairo, and his colleague from the Museum of the End of the World, Oscar Zanola.
In a decisive meeting, Vairo and Zanola forged the idea of going to the rescue of the lighthouse, bringing its remains and erecting a replica in Ushuaia, so that it would be visible to all.
Thus, in 1995 an agreement was signed between the Ushuaia Maritime Museum, the Museo del Fin del Mundo and the Argentine Navy to carry out the Human Historical Survey of San Juan de Salvamento. The works are carried out in the cemetery, the dock, the Sub-prefecture and the Lighthouse.
It was not in the spirit of either of them to rescue the lighthouse just because Verne had mentioned it. In fact, more than literary merits, the lighthouse itself has remarkable historical value.
The lighthouse was a guide for infinite ships that, from its location, by Ensign Augusto Lasserre, saw their way to the Pacific Ocean facilitated. Still, boats often capsized, victims of huge waves and treacherous rocks. But immediately the keepers and sailors from the naval subprefecture, located a few meters away, came to the rescue.
In February 1997, the remains of the lighthouse finally reached Ushuaia, aboard the icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, which was returning from Antarctica and previously passed through the Isla de los Estados.
Based on the plans (front view - roof plan and middle front view-radial section-lighting system) prepared by Civil Engineer Mirón Gonik, and thanks to the archaeological survey, carried out on the original remains of the lighthouse and especially on its foundations, a 1/1 scale model was built several months later.
The replica was inaugurated in the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia, on October 3, 1997. Not much was known about the original lighthouse. The little information that was available came mostly from a bunch of old photos and the detailed accounts of Roberto Payró, who traveled through these lands as a journalist for La Nación.
Inside the lighthouse the archaeological work carried out in San Juan de Salvamento and Isla de los Estados is shown and the life of the lighthouse keepers, also known as "torreros", is recreated. The six men in charge of running the lighthouse spent long months on the island, willing to live with their backs to the world, wrapped in the mist and cruel desolation of the island.
Now, with the things we found, we're sure how they lived, ”Vairo says. We know what uniforms they wore, what drinks they drank, what dishes they ate and even what publications they read. "The keepers were no longer needed when the Lighthouse at the End of the World stopped shining, in 1902. By the way, his real name was San Juan de Salvamento , and was replaced in a nearby islet, Observatory Island, by another light, younger, perhaps more vigorous, but certainly less daring than he, witness of a thousand exploits.
The Maritime Museum of Ushuaia published a book on "The Island of the States and the Lighthouse at the End of the World" where you can find everything related to the subject in detail.
In February 2002 the Lighthouse at the End of the World was repaired and the crosses in the cemetery were replaced.