Bonfires and Beacons: Great Lakes Lighthouses

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

The idea for this book, says Patricia Wright in her introduction, began
when her husband discovered that many of the Great Lakes lighthouses he
had photographed early in his career had “been torn down, burned or
left to ruin” when he went back to re-photograph them 22 years later.
This wonderful book is a record of some of the more notable lighthouses
still in existence on this huge water system.

There are more 12,900 kilometres of Great Lakes coastline, which
encompasses 240,000 square kilometres of navigable water. To help guide
sailors around this huge and often treacherous inland sea, the British,
Canadian, and U.S. governments have built some 350 lighthouses since
1804.

Given that all Great Lake lighthouses perform the same basic function
under the same basic conditions, the variety of architectural styles
represented in the book’s 42 featured lighthouses (and one lightship)
is a surprising delight. Each lighthouse has a particular niche in
history. Some are haunted. Others have been the scene of rebellion,
murder, or naval disaster. And, then there are those that are just plain
beautiful. Patricia Wright’s text is thoroughly researched and highly
readable. Larry Wright’s photographs are pin-up perfect. Bonfire and
Beacons is a first-rate effort from beginning to end.