For more than 2,000 years, lighthouses have marked important approaches to land and warned mariners of rocks, shoals, and other hazards along the coastlines of the world.  

Alaska’s first lighthouse, which lasted for only a few years, was erected by Russia near New Archangel (now Sitka) in the early 1800s.  Later, the glass-enclosed cupola on the roof of the Russian governor’s mansion on Castle Hill functioned as a lighthouse, its light source consisting of an oil lamp and reflector. 

The United States government placed and maintained a number of navigational buoys here during the late 1800s, but it was not until 1900 that Congress authorized funds for construction of lighthouses in Alaska.

Sixteen light stations were commissioned in Alaska, the first in 1902, the last in 1932.   All were built, manned, and maintained by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, a civilian government agency.  In 1939, responsibility for all U.S. lighthouses was transferred to the Coast Guard, and the Lighthouse Service ceased to exist.

Over the years, most of the Alaska lighthouses were rebuilt, and a few were reduced to minor lights.  By the 1960s, improvements in navigation systems, such as LORAN, radar, etc., coupled with the ever-increasing cost of maintaining and manning remote light stations, led the Coast Guard to institute a nationwide program of lighthouse.  By 1984, all of Alaska’s lighthouses had been “unmanned.”