A lighthouse can run without a person inside it. Boston Light went automatic in 1998. Yet a keeper stayed on the island until 2023. It was the last lighthouse in the country to be automated, but it remained staffed because Congress authorized it in 1989, according to the National Park Service's official Boston Light record. The United States lost its last official lighthouse keeper when Sally Snowman retired. This is the story of a job that stayed alive by law.
A harbor that swallowed ships
