How Social Media Will Save Historic Lighthouses

The continental United States is bookended by lighthouses. In Maine, the West Quoddy Head Light sits at the country’s easternmost tip. The Cape Blanco Lighthouse in Oregon marks its westernmost point. “Lighthouses have a direct connection to the development of the United States,” says Jeff Gales, executive director of the United States Lighthouse Society (USLHS), enabling the country’s sprawl from sea to shining sea.

In the early 20th century, there were approximately 1,500 light stations in the United States. The first electric lighthouse in Dover, Kent, modified in 1875, thrust lighthouses and their keepers into modernity. However, soon the keepers themselves became obsolete—and, with the onset of GPS, vessels had little need for the beacons at all. Those 1,500 lighthouses now amount to 600 historical preservation sites—including adjacent places like light towers and and range lights. Their financial need is ongoing even if their functions are not.