Crazy For Lighthouses!

I was recently blessed to receive a literary contract for my historical fiction, Northern Light. The novel takes place at a "very real" historic lighthouse on the Texas Gulf Coast. I can attest to how much people love lighthouses by the number of sites devoted to them on the web. I'm guilty...I love lighthouses too! So to share that love with you, I've created something called...FRIDAY LIGHT DAY! Every Friday I will post a picture of a lighthouse and give a little blurb of information about the light. Since I started Friday Light Day on Facebook a few weeks ago, I've got some catching up to do. I'll post two lighthouses each Friday until I get caught up. 

The first lighthouse on the list is the Santa Cruz Breakwater Lighthouse at Santa Cruz, CA, also called the Walton Lighthouse. This is a very young lighthouse having only been in service since 2001. The light is called the Walton, because Charles Walton contributed a large amount toward the construction cost in memory of his late brother Derek. I visited Santa Cruz once while on a trip to the Mount Hermon Writers Conference. Me and three friends took a break from the conference and drove to the coast. What a gorgeous part of the country.

Walton Lighthouse

On week two the news was inundated with pictures of the frozen tundra up North from lake effect snow, brrr! So today I chose the Muskegon South Pierhead Lighthouse in Michigan. It stands guard over Muskegon Lake before emptying into Lake Michigan. Fun fact, in 1837 Muskegon Township was established and nicknamed the "Lumber Queen of the World." In the 1800s it was home to more millionaires than any other town in America and its lumber helped rebuild Chicago after the great fire of 1871. Either big or small, it seems there's a story behind every lighthouse.

                                        Muskegon South Pierhead Lighthouse