The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes (Great Lakes Books)

Poor editing, description of a lighthouse should be on the same page as the lighthouse. The pictures are not of the best quality. The person who wrote the book had an intended audience of graduate students. It was tedious to read.

I wish there were more books about Michigan's lighthouses. This is a beautiful book filled with excellent photos.

Well written book, very interesting, and educational.

The endpapers of this book feature an 1848 map of lighthouses on the Great Lakes. The evolution of the Lighthouse Board and the Fresnel lens are accompanied with historical photos as the book moves toward the 20th century. There are even some sequential photos of early training exercises for keepers and rescue workers. Readers then get to meet some of those keepers and their families, not in dry biographies, but in colorful accounts and memoirs. Once acquainted with these brave men and women, the tour of the Great Lakes lights begins, and sometimes I think that you see these lights today through their eyes. There is a pride in those that have been lovingly preserved, and a sadness for those in ruins. Each light covered has its historical significance and photo; some lights have more than one. A great many of the shots are aerial views, all in all a treat for any lighthouse buff.