DeWire Guide to Lighthouses of Alaska, Hawai’i, and U.S. Pacific Territories

The immense Pacific Ocean, rife with islands and rimmed by huge continents, has been a liquid highway for trade and travel for centuries. Its peaceful name masks a fickle character though-serene and idyllic at times but also turbulent and merciless. . Marking the shores of this largest ocean with lights and buoys presented enormous challenges. The DeWire Guide to Lighthouses of Alaska, Hawai'i and Pacific Territories details that struggle and offers travelers and armchair tourists a glimpse of some little-known sentinels in distant places. The U. S. territories of the Pacific are detailed, including two that eventually became our 49th and 50th states in 1959, along with Guam and the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, and a sprinkling of small, far-flung islands made famous by World War II battles and celebrities like Amelia Earhart. Profiles of the lighthouses are complemented by travel information and archival and contemporary images. Also included are the stories of lightkeepers, lighthouse optics, and the fleet of vessels that built and maintained the lights. A bonus section tells the little-known history of buoys-those faithful and colorful markers of waterways worldwide. . Author Bio-. Elinor DeWire has been researching, photographing, and writing about lighthouses since 1972. She is the author of seventeen lighthouse books and more than 150 articles on lighthouses and is the recipient of the Ben Franklin Book Award and the Coast Guard Book Award. Former Coast Guard Historian, Dr. Robert Scheina, calls her "America's most prolific lighthouse author. " She has been honored for her work by the U. S. Coast Guard, the National League of American Pen Women, the U. S. Lighthouse Society, and the American Lighthouse Foundation. . Reviews-. Everyone in the lighthouse community is familiar with Elinor DeWire's previous lighthouse books, but in my opinion, she has outdone herself with The DeWire Guide to Lighthouses of Alaska, Hawaii and the U. S. Pacific Territories. The book, with its mix of historic and modern images, provides an amazing insight to many of our nation's most rugged lighthouse outposts. As well as teaching the reader the basics of why and how the lighthouses were built, she has provided amazing stories of hardship, mystery, intrigue, and tragedy, as well as stories of the warmth and closeness of family lighthouse life that most of us could never imagine in this modern era. Couple that with the great layout and design of the book, and you have, what I call "A Good Read," one that you will not want to put down. Timothy Harrison, Editor & Publisher - Lighthouse Digest Magazine. . For nearly four decades, Elinor DeWire has been producing some of the finest published work on lighthouse history, and in the process she has become a seminal figure in the movement to preserve these symbols of maritime heritage. With The DeWire Guide to Lighthouses of Alaska, Hawai'i, and the U. S. Pacific Territories both perspectives are present, and she adds yet another volume to her impressive canon of published work on lighthouses. This latest edition provides the lighthouse enthusiast or student of maritime studies with a valuable reference work that underscores the importance of the lighthouses, and their keepers, in the development of these geographic areas that historically were largely dependent on maritime commerce for their economic existence. . Donald J. Terras, President - American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee. . Elinor DeWire's new book is a must-have for all lighthouse aficionados and curious travelers who want to explore the rich maritime history of Alaska, Hawaii, and America's territories in the Pacific. I love the rich detail and great stories of the lighthouses' construction and the lives of the keepers. And the stories about lighthouses on remote Pacific islands was a revelation to a history buff like myself. . Joe Follansbee - Author of The Fyddeye Guide to America's Lighthouses