Lighthouses of the Golden State: California's Majestic Beacons

With a population of about 200 people Yerba Buena was a sleepy little town in 1846. The following year, Yerba Buena would become San Francisco. With the discovery of gold at Sutter's mill by James Marshall in 1848, a rush to California began that would swell the population of San Francisco to more than 36 thousand by 1850. Risking their lives for the promise of fortune, men traveled from all over the world to this new prosperous land, at a time when the coast of California and the waters surrounding it were unexplored, dangerous and unprotected. Magnificent structures would rise in the decades to follow, built by brave and adventurous souls. At these isolated outposts, hearty individuals were stationed as light-keepers to protect the ships bringing commerce, supplies and the peoples that would build the west. Step back in time to an era of adventure, hardship, loneliness and isolation, when Lighthouses rose on the shores of the Golden State.