North Carolina Lighthouses

The Stories Behind the Beacons from Cape Fear to Currituck Beach

Revised and Expanded Edition

By Cheryl Shelton-Roberts, Bruce Roberts

with a New Foreword by Ray Jones

264 pp., 7 x 9, 87 color plates, 55 halftones, 1 map, appends., bibl., index

  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-4149-2
    Published: March 2019
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-4148-5
    Published: April 2019
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-5626-5
    Published: March 2019

Buy this Book

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Of the over four dozen lighthouses that once marked the jagged shoreline of North Carolina, only nine still stand, watching over 300 miles of coast. These beacons are cherished monuments of North Carolina history. In addition to warning ships to safer waters, they now draw thousands of visitors each year. With this book, cofounders of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society Cheryl Shelton-Roberts and Bruce Roberts provide a well-researched, human-centered, and beautifully illustrated history of these towering structures. The authors offer stories—including the misadventures of Civil War spies and the threat of looming German U-boats off the North Carolina coast—that provide important context and meaning to the history of North Carolina’s lighthouses. From Cape Fear to Currituck Beach, every still-standing lighthouse is lovingly described alongside their architects, builders, and keepers and the sailors who depended on the lighthouses to keep them from harm.

About the Authors

Cheryl Shelton-Roberts is a historian, author, and former teacher.
For more information about Cheryl Shelton-Roberts, visit the Author Page.

Bruce Roberts is a photographer and the author of Plantation Homes of the James River. Together, they have authored several books on lighthouses in North Carolina.
For more information about Bruce Roberts, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

“A treasure trove of information. . . . A useful guide for anyone who wants to include a visit to a lighthouse (or several) in a trip to [North Carolina’s] coast.” —Greensboro News & Record

"A well-researched and creatively written history of the lighthouses along the North Carolina coast. A wonderful update to a wonderful book." —Dawson Carr, author of NC 12: Gateway to the Outer Banks

Multimedia & Links

authors Cheryl Shelton-Roberts and Bruce Roberts sit at the end of a boardwalk with a lighthouse in the distance behind them

Cheryl Shelton-Roberts and Bruce Roberts