Lighthouses Around the World - North America and South America

Few images are more evocative than a lighthouse on a craggy shoreline overlooking the relentless motion of the waves as they guide mariners and passengers through the currents, storms, and shifting shoals. Historically lighthouse keepers provided maintenance tasks like cleaning the lenses and windows, operating the fog signal, and maintaining the weather station. Because most lighthouses were located in remote areas lightkeepers and their families lived in them. Some of the more isolated lighthouses were operated solely by men. 

Sheffield Island Light, Norwalk, CT

Technological advances like electrification, GPS, batteries, and solar power, have made lighthouse keepers unnecessary. Today, the maintenance and preservation of working lighthouses are unique because most of them are unattended. Preventative maintenance includes scheduled inspections, tests, cleaning, adjustments, and lubrication. Most of the time these activities take place either quarterly or semi-annually. 

Working Lighthouses Around the World

North America

The United States has 779 lighthouses, with the state of Michigan claiming 130 lighthouses that are scattered along the many miles of the shoreline of the Great Lakes. At one time, Michigan had 250 staffed and active lighthouses!  Sandy Hook Lighthouse in Monmouth County New Jersey is America's oldest operating lighthouse whose light went on in 1764 and is still burning bright today. In the U.S., working lighthouses are maintained by the United States Coast Guard which was merged with the United States Lighthouse Service in 1939.  The last civilian keeper was Frank Schubert who passed away in 2003 and the last officially manned lighthouse was the Boston Light, manned by the Coast Guard until 1998. 

Boston Lighthouse  photo: MB Tafan

With the world's longest coastline and more lakes than the rest of the world combined, Canada has more than 750 lighthouses, of which more than 100 have been transferred to individuals, community groups, and municipalities. The first lighthouse built in Canada was the Louisbourg Lighthouse on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia in 1734.  The one seen today was built in 1923. The oldest surviving light in Canada was built in 1758 on Sambro Island. Today there are 51 staffed lighthouses manned by the Canadian Coast Guard. In 2022, the Canadian Coast Guard reported that there are 90 people employed as lighthouse keepers across the country and that 54 of them work out of British Columbia. There are also more than 100 designated heritage lighthouses that have met with the established historical, architectural, and community values as outlined by the Minister of Environment.

Louisbourg Lighthouse, Nova Scotia, Canada

South America

In Brazil, the first recorded lighthouse, the Barra, was constructed in 1697 in Santo Antonio, Bahia province. The first working lighthouse in the Americas' was Palacio das Torres located in Recife. It was built in 1639 by the Dutch and destroyed in 1787.  One of the most intriguing lighthouses is located on Snake Island populated with venomous golden lancehead pit vipers.  It was operated manually until 1909 when the island's residents made it too dangerous to maintain. Today, it is automated remotely. Brazil's 200 active lighthouses are overseen by the Navigational Aid Center and 33 are currently staffed by lightkeepers.

Barra Lighthouse photo: Paul Burley

Chile has 650 lighthouses as reported by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, of which 20 are staffed. Chile is home to one of the most remote lighthouses in the world on the northeast coast of the Isla Gonzalo, in the Diego Ramirez Islands. This particular lighthouse is staffed by the Chilean Navy which administers its meteorological station. The Cape Horn Lighthouse is part of Chile's Tierra del Fuego archipelago that overlooks the clipper route that connected New Zealand and Europe before the construction of the Panama Canal.  The area where the Cape Horn Lighthouse is located has claimed the record for the most ships lost at sea: over 800 and where more than 10,000 sailors drowned. In addition to this, the island is covered in unexploded ordinance from the 1978 Beagle conflict.

Cape Horn Lighthouse photo: W. Bulach

Peru has 56 lighthouses that span the country's 3,000 miles of coastline. In addition, six lighthouses offer navigational aid on Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America and the highest navigable lake in the world.  Peru also manages several lighthouses on the Amazon River. Lighthouses are owned by the Navy and managed by DHN. One of the most famous active lighthouses in the country is the La Marina Lighthouse set high above the Pacific Ocean in Lima. It was originally constructed in 1900 and moved to its current location in 1973. 

La Marina Lighthouse photo: Dan Gold

Argentina has more than 80 lighthouses along its long coastline. The Argentinian Navy is in charge of overseeing lighthouses. This country has the distinction of having built the San Juan de Salvamento Lighthouse which dates to 1884, making it the oldest lighthouse built on southern waters.  It is also known as "The Lighthouse at the End of the World" because of its location on the remote island of Isla De Los Estados.  It is sometimes confused with Les Eclaireurs built in 1920 in Ushuaia which is still in operation but not manned. Punta Delgada Lighthouse in Patagonia has not only been a trusted point of reference for mariners in the South Atlantic Ocean, but it also served as the headquarters of the Argentinean Post Office in Patagonia!

Punta Delgada Lighthouse photo: LBM

This is part one of a three-part series about Lighthouses around the world.  The next blog will feature Europe and will be followed by Asia and Oceania.