Light Houses Galore

Ohio Lighthouses reveals a multitude of stories about the structures along Lake Erie. It chronicles make overs, such as the transformation of the 1821 Marblehead Lighthouse from ugly duckling to beautiful swan...

Jutting out of Wisconsin into the blue waters of Lake Michigan, the scenic peninsula of Door County is endowed with the longest coastline of any county in the nation. Since the mid-1800s, the region has boasted a strong maritime industry, dependent on the constant vigilance and efforts of U...

Boasting one of the oldest lighthouses in North America and the most working lighthouses today, South Carolina has a long seafaring history. In 1767, the Morris Island Lighthouse was built at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, and before 1860, there were lighthouses in Georgetown, Cape Romain, Bull's Bay, and Hunting Island...

The 1848 discovery of gold in the hills of California brought prospectors and adventurers west; many came across the country on the treacherous western trails, while others came by sea. The rugged coast of California and the dangers of the San Francisco Bay waters claimed many ships and their passengers...

The Ventura County coast has been illuminated for more than a century by three distinctive lighthouses, united in their mission of warning mariners of coastal hazards and guiding ships to safe passage...

In Colonial times, as the Chesapeake Bay and larger rivers became vital shipping channels, the need arose to mark Maryland’s dangerous shoals and waterways. Lighthouses sprang up throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, including wood-framed cottages placed upon screw pile foundations that stood offshore in the unforgiving waters...

Sporting the second-longest coastline in the United States, Florida has over 8,000 miles of sparkling beaches and waterfront property. This valuablelandscape and the region's position between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico made Florida key in the early expansion of American trade routes, but the state's several capes and dangerous reefs, rocks, and shoals made travel quite perilous to unwary mariners...

The Cana Island Lighthouse is one of the most picturesque of any lighthouses still operating on the Great Lakes today. The beautiful peninsula of Door County has a long and bountiful tradition of maritime history, including its many lighthouses...

When British general James Oglethorpe landed on Georgia's coast in 1733, he realized that the success of his new colony, Savannah, depended largely on its establishment and development as a commercial port...

As his ship rounded the high point off Point Loma, San Diego, in 1859, Richard Henry Dana wrote, "We were greeted by the cheering presence of a light-house." In reality, beams from San Diego's first lighthouse were repeatedly lost in cloud and fog, and all too soon came agitation for a more effective light at a lower elevation...