A history of America as reflected by the nation's lighthouses combines maritime lore with original details to trace coastal political, military, and technological expansions, citing the roles of key contributors.

"In 1865, Caroline has tended the Windmill Point Lighthouse in Michigan since her father's death, but her home and livelihood are threatened when a wounded Civil War veteran arrives to take her place"--

Sporting the second-longest coastline in the United States, Florida has over 8,000 miles of sparkling beaches and waterfront property. This valuable landscape 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. When commerce and traffic began to...