Here, for the first time, is the story of the lighthouses and lightships of Texas, told by historian T. Lindsay Baker and illustrated with watercolors by artist Harold Phenix.
The overview in the first chapter places the history of Texas light stations in the perspectives of both regional history and the evolution of navigational aids in the United States. It also introduces the people who operated the Texas lights; the engineers, inspectors, keepers, and keepers' families. The story of the lighthouses is a story with a human face.
Each of the subsequent chapters focuses on the history of one of the ten Texas light stations that survive today, intact or in part, as well as the two lightships that formerly served the Texas coast. These chapters describe how the stations came into being, their construction and subsequent repairs, their use as navigational aids, any role in the Civil War or other historical episodes, their general operation, and the lives of the keepers and their families. Finally, they chronicle the fate of the lights in the mid-twentieth century, when the majority of the Texas lights were discontinued.
Historical photographs of each of the light stations supplement the illustrations painted by Harold Phenix, which depict the structures as they appeared during their operational histories.
Careful use of the extensive primary documents and the few secondary sources that exist have made Baker's text an important work for all those interested in the history of American navigational aids. Moreover, since the Texas light stations are representative of most of the major types used along the nation's eastern coasts, the importance of this research extends far beyond the Lone Star State.

T. Lindsay Baker is director of the Texas Heritage Museum at Hill County College in Hillsboro, Texas.