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In the late 1990s, there were two factions involved with opposing views of saving of North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, America’s tallest beacon. One faction wanted the lighthouse moved and the other did not. We are proud of the role that we took in spearheading a massive letter-writing campaign to support the move of the lighthouse and the coverage that we gave it. Finally, the battle was won when in June of 1999 the lighthouse was moved 2,900 feet inland. [Lighthouse Digest, August 1999]
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Keepers Descendants Homecoming, held on May 4-6, 2001, was the largest gathering of its type in world history that was organized through the auspices of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society. Under the leadership of the event organizers, Cheryl Shelton-Roberts and Lynn Jeannette, 1,200 descendants of the lighthouse keepers who once served at the lighthouse were brought together. Lighthouse Digest sent five employees to North Carolina to help with the Homecoming event which coincided with the rededication of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse that was held on evening of May 5, 2001. [Lighthouse Digest, June 2001]
Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, on October 2, 2001, Maine’s Little River Lighthouse was relit as a Beacon of Freedom to the World in an epic event that was filmed by national television and, up until that time, drew the largest crowd of any event in the local history of the area. The ceremony would not have taken place if it were not for the efforts and leadership of Timothy Harrison, editor of Lighthouse Digest, and the Lighthouse Digest employees who organized the volunteer efforts for the event. At that time, Harrison was also president of the American Lighthouse Foundation. [Lighthouse Digest, November 2001]
We are extremely proud of our role in 2002 that helped stop a North Carolina Congressman from bypassing the National Lighthouse Preservation Act in an attempt to get ownership of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse away from the Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC), the group that restored the lighthouse and rightfully deserved stewardship. It is highly probable that the OBC would not own the Currituck Beach Lighthouse today if it had not been for the initial efforts of Lighthouse Digest. [Lighthouse Digest, December 2002 and Lighthouse Digest, September 2003]
For many years, the first order Fresnel lens at Oregon’s Tillamook Rock Lighthouse was assumed to have been destroyed during the fierce October 1934 storm that ravaged the Pacific Coast; but Lighthouse Digest found documents proving the lens was intact and still in use until June 1935 before being removed and placed on display, as shown here, at the Pacific International Livestock Exhibition in Portland, Oregon in October of that year. [Lighthouse Digest, November/December 2017]
The story of the lighthouse keepers of the Statue of Liberty Lighthouse had never been told before in its 133-year history until Lighthouse Digest made a concerted effort to find their descendants and obtain the inherited photos and family stories. Additionally, it was found that assistant keeper, Charles N. Miller, had kept a daily journal of his experiences which gave a first-hand view of keeper-life at the Statue of Liberty in the early 1890s. If it had not been for Lighthouse Digest, the story, photos and memories of the lighthouse keepers of the Statue of Liberty, most likely, would never have been published. [Lighthouse Digest, January/February 2019 and March/April 2019]
In 2008, Lighthouse Digest researcher Colleen MacNeney discovered that the tower of Mayo’s Beach Lighthouse, previously thought to have been demolished, had actually been moved in 1925 an amazing 2,764 miles to eventually become the Point Montara Lighthouse in California. [Lighthouse Digest, June 2008]
Various photos of keeper Orlo E. Hayward of Oregon’s Tillamook Rock Lighthouse had been circulated over the past 50 years but they were unidentified, until his name was found in a labeled photo album stored in a shoebox up on a closet shelf. As a result of following Orlo’s trail, 500 photos emerged that told the story of the “Fearless Foursome” at Tillamook Rock Lighthouse in 1920 which led to Lighthouse Digest’s publication of the Images of America book Tillamook Rock Lighthouse in 2018 as well as multiple articles over the past four years. [Lighthouse Digest, July/August 2016]
A chance discovery of this 1928 original newspaper photo of Frederick P. Dillon arriving at the airport in Los Angeles after touring every lighthouse in the United States led Lighthouse Digest to the unearthing of Commodore Dillon’s unpublished manuscript, The Making of a Lighthouse Engineer. There have been excerpts published in every issue of Lighthouse Digest for the past four years from this unprecedented view of the inner workings of the U.S. Lighthouse Service from 1911 to Commodore Dillon’s retirement in 1946. [Lighthouse Digest, September/October 2016]
Throughout the past 275 issues of Lighthouse Digest, we are proud of the many lighthouse preservation causes that we have had an instrumental role in, or extensively reported on, as well as the numerous never-before-published historic photos of lighthouses, keepers and families that we have been privileged to publish and share with the world for the first time. In some instances, the events surrounding the story may have appeared in subsequent issues over time, but we have listed the issue where it was first reported. Following are just a few examples.
This story appeared in the
Sep/Oct 2020 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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