California Lighthouses

Sailing along California's often forbidding coast was a risky venture before 1854, the year the state's first lighthouse was established. Eventually more than forty lighthouse stations were built to guide mariners along 1,200 miles of coastline from San Diego to the Redwood Coast, and through bays and inland waters.

Sharlene and Ted Nelson tell absorbing stories about each of these lighthouse stations, about the feats of their builders, and about the heroics of the men and women who tended t...