About Every Lighthouse

Every Lighthouse is a directory of America's standing lighthouses, built entirely from United States federal records — no scraped fan databases, no copied guidebooks.

Method

A light is counted here when a federal record documents a standing lighthouse structure: it appears as a named tower, dwelling, caisson, or station-building aid in the current U.S. Coast Guard aids-to-navigation file (the machine-readable Light List); or it is a light-station property listed on the National Register of Historic Places; or a U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office fact sheet documents it as standing. Numbered channel and harbor aids, buoys, daybeacons, and lights documented as destroyed are not counted.

The active-aid data comes from the U.S. Coast Guard's aids-to-navigation file (the machine-readable Light List), distributed by NOAA's MarineCadastre. Historic and decommissioned lights come from the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places database, with positions from the NPS National Register GIS. A small number of standing lights that appear in neither machine-readable set are documented individually from U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office fact sheets, and those pages say so. State and place assignments use the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder.

Access verification

For every published light, the federal record was checked on 2026-11-12. Most federal records publish no visitor-access information at all; those lights are labeled "No access information published," with the checked records named on the page. A light's tier is upgraded only when an owner, operator, or federal custodian publishes access information — each upgraded page names that source and links to it. Hours and fees appear only when they are check-dated and season-labeled from the owner's own page.

Known limits

Federal data has gaps: a few well-known standing lights (Admiralty Head in Washington is one) appear in no machine-readable federal dataset we could use, and some National Register listings name a historic district rather than the light itself. Lights we could not document from a federal record are not published rather than guessed. If you hold a federal record for a standing light that is missing here, send it through the contact page.

Disclaimer

Every Lighthouse republishes lighthouse data from U.S. federal records — principally the U.S. Coast Guard’s aids-to-navigation (Light List) data and the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places database — for general information and trip planning only. It is NOT FOR NAVIGATION: positions and light characteristics here are copies of federal data that may lag corrections, and mariners must use the current official Light List, NOAA charts, and Local Notices to Mariners. Access information is shown only where an owner, operator, or federal custodian publishes it; where no access information is published, this site says so rather than guessing. Access, hours, and fees change without notice — confirm them with the owner or operator before traveling, and never enter a lighthouse, grounds, or aid-to-navigation site that is not open to the public.

Published by Cabin Fever Media.