Kraig Anderson is the owner and webmaster of one of the most popular lighthouse-related websites on the internet, lighthousefriends.com. Kraig grew up in the landlocked state of Utah and didn’t move to a state with lighthouses until he attended graduate school at the University of California Santa Barbara. After earning his PhD in 1995, he worked for a few years at a high-tech company in the Bay Area, and it was while on an extended assignment from this job to the Raleigh/Durham area that he became interested in lighthouses following a day trip to Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island on the Outer Banks.

After returning to California, Kraig planned a few trips with friends to explore lighthouses on the West Coast, and in 2001, he launched lighthousefriends.com to chronicle these journeys and help others discover lighthouses. Over the next decade or so, he managed to visit every lighthouse in the United States and a good portion of those in Canada. Using historic records and photographs gathered in his travels, Kraig compiled a history of each lighthouse in the United States and Canada to complement his photography.

Kraig co-authored a book on the lighthouses of New Brunswick in 2012, and in 2016, he received the “Modern Day Light Keeper Award” from the National Lighthouse Museum. During 2018 and 2019, Kraig compiled an inventory of keepers and other lighthouse personnel for the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s research catalog that includes over 25,000 individuals. He currently serves on the board of directors for the U.S. Lighthouse Society.

U.S. Lighthouse Society Executive Director Jeff Gales takes part in this discussion with Kraig Anderson and Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont. This episode is also available in a video version on the USLHS YouTube channel.