Author Terrance Zepke has collected stories of how lighthouses were built in the 1700s and 1800s, how light keepers lived, and how lighthouses have weathered hurricanes, erosion, and neglect. Traveling from North Carolina's Currituck Lighthouse near the Virginia border to South Carolina's Haig Point Lighthouse near the border of Georgia, Zepke weaves tales of light tower builders, Civil War soldiers, and even pirates.

Today, eighteen of these majestic towers still stand. Some have been renovated—complete with period furnishings—and are open to visitors. Others have nearly succumbed to the sea, encroaching vegetation, and time. All are visible from some vantage point along the coast or on a passing boat, and all are close to towns with museums, festivals, inns, and wildlife refuges. Discover history, nature, and legend in this book and in your own wanderings to the lighthouses of the Carolinas.

• The first of Haig Point Lighthouse's three keepers earned $560 a year. The assistant keeper, his wife, earned $400 a year.

• Ocracoke Island, home to the second oldest lighthouse in the United States still in continuous service, is believed to be the site where Blackbeard the Pirate stored some of the treasure from his many murderous lootings.

• Adventurers seeking a unique experience can sign on for a three-month stint as caretaker of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

• Morris Island Lighthouse, built in 1767 by order of King George III of England, survived until the Civil War. The replacement tower has survived a hurricane, an earthquake, and erosion.

• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, at 198 feet high, is America's tallest. One hundred years after it was rebuilt and reinforced, its foundation was as sturdy as the day it was constructed.