Being a lighthouse keeper in the 20th-century might not be the same job that it was 150 years ago, but Meghan Agresto isn’t exactly starving for work in her role as custodian of the beacon at Currituck Beach in Corolla, North Carolina.

Part historian, part events coordinator, part problem solver, Meghan manages not only the lighthouse but also a one-room charter school in this tiny town of just five hundred permanent residents.

Chatting with Seabird’s John Herlig, Meghan talks about all of these things as well as exciting tales of the drama, death, and destruction that was part and parcel of lighthouse life in the late 1800s.