A Platinum Lighthouse?

Ever wondered if your local light beacon was one of the best lighthouses in America? Well, LighthouseRatings.com is the place to find out. On the site, they rate U.S. lighthouses (no international ones up yet) on a scale of 1-5 for seven different features: History, Majesty, Preservation, Surrounding Area, Water View, Accessibility, and Beacon Type. The sum of all its features gives each lighthouse a score, with the max score being 35 points. Anything above 30 the site considers a platinum lighthouse (25-30 is gold and 20-24 is ranked silver).

Even if you view lighthouses more as essential safety beacons instead of tourist attractions, you may be persuaded to the latter after reading the Web site’s lighthouse histories. Click the light and peruse the tales of odd shipwrecks (such as the December 24th, 1886 wreck of the Annie C. Maguire at Portland Head Light in Maine where the shipwrecked sailors put up a plank and climbed over the frigid Christmas time waters to safety) or even murder (see St. Simons Island Light in Georgia).

With items like heights, directions, and even contact numbers the website does a fine job at bringing mariners closer to the lights that guide them than they ever should get from the water.

Leave a Light(house) on

Stamp collectors and lighthouse lovers are about to have something in common: Next week the U.S. Postal Service is issuing a series of stamps featuring famous Pacific lighthouses.


Specifically, you’ll get a chance to admire Diamond Head Light in Hawaii, Five Finger Light in Alaska, Grays Harbor Light in Washington, Umpqua River Light in Oregon, and St. George Reef Light in California. Why these? Because each played a historic role in guiding vessels through hazardous water. For example, while St. George Reef Light stands on an exposed rock off the coast of northern California, there’s a hazardous reef beneath the surface. Due to the actions of the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society, the light is now on the National Register of Historic Places and received a new lens in 2002. And Grays Harbor Light, a.k.a. the Westport Lighthouse, is the tallest lighthouse in the state of Washington and among the tallest on the Pacific Coast.

In fact, Westport is where the stamps will be issued, on June 21. To get yours, visit your local post office or order them via the postal service’s Web site.