Legendary Lighthouses

This is the area where lighthouses began in America. The first lighthouses were built to foster the growing maritime economy of the colonies and many precede the birth of the nation. This region ranges from the rocky coast of Massachusetts to the barrier islands of the North Carolina coast.

Maine has more than 60 lighthouses marking its shoreline. West Quoddy Lighthouse, the eastern most lighthouse in the United States, marks the point where the sun first rises each day in this country. Cape Neddick Lighthouse, better known as "Nubble Light," and Portland Head Lighthouse are two of America’s best-known and most visited lighthouses. The majestic rocky coast of Maine provides a visual backdrop. The stories of the keepers and other inhabitants of the region make history come alive.

Lighthouses in this area were often built to warn mariners away from the dangerous shoreline that stretches from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the Lands End of Key West. These lighthouses stand as centerpieces of a varied and dynamic region, rich in character, culture and history. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the most famous lighthouse in the region, but the stories of the "Wreckers" and "Mooncussers" and of Blackbeard’s hideout on Ocracoke Island show the other rich history of the region.

The shorelines of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan once included hundreds of lighthouses. The wild and remote coastlines of Isle Royal National Park and those of the slightly more accessible Apostle Islands National Park are just two examples of the rigors of lighthouse keeping on the Great Lakes. The waters of the lakes can become almost as vicious as the waters of the open ocean, and have caused many shipwrecks; the most famous of which is the Edmund Fitzgerald.

California lighthouses dot a coastline that is rugged, forbidding, beautiful, often fog bound and frequently deadly. Lighthouses on the western coast were built later in the nation’s development, driven partly by the discovery of gold. The lighthouses of San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as more remote regions of the state, such as beautiful Big Sur, are interwoven with the history of this region. The stories of keepers and their families who lived in the lighthouses show how life at a lighthouse was both rich and harsh.

The lighthouses of the beautiful and dangerous wilderness coasts of Washington and Oregon are some of the greatest engineering stories of the late 1800’s. Building lighthouses here required extraordinary ingenuity, courage and strength - this is an area of huge waves, high winds, towering cliff faces, rolling sand dunes and pounding surf. Whaling and fishing were major industries and provided some of the impetus for lighthouse building.