National Lighthouse Day Trivia Questions

The earliest lighthouses burned wood, coal, or candles. Whale oil became common only in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Lighthouses come in many colors and patterns, like the black-and-white of Cape Hatteras or the solid white of Portland Head. Stripes are not universal.

Congress established National Lighthouse Day on August 7, 1989, marking the 200th anniversary of the 1789 Lighthouse Act, which placed lighthouses under federal control.

Over 700 lighthouses still exist in the US, and about 400 remain active aids to navigation, though most are automated and unmanned.

The first US lighthouse was Boston Light in Massachusetts, built in 1716, not Maine in 1790.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, North Carolina, is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States, standing 210 feet tall. It was first lit in 1870 and famously moved inland in 1999 to save it from erosion.

From 1886 to 1902, the Statue of Liberty functioned as a lighthouse under the US Lighthouse Board, with its torch visible for 24 miles.

Most lighthouse keepers were phased out by the 1950s due to automation. The last civilian keeper left Boston Light in 1998, but families rarely lived on-site after the 1960s.