The Cape Lookout Light Station was more than its 163-foot-tall lighthouse, because the light depended on an entire working system. Keepers were the most important part of that system, since only they could keep the light operating, and living quarters housed them. Fuel for the light and station was stored in separate buildings in case of fire, and boats, docks, and boathouses were needed to ferry people and supplies. The station itself was one part of a larger network of stations working together to guide sailors safely along America’s coastlines. John Quidley served as one of three uniformed keepers at Cape Lookout from 1905 to 1906 as Second Assistant Keeper, and a later photograph shows him wearing the collar insignia of a First Assistant Keeper and a lighthouse insignia on his cap. The Lighthouse Service was a uniformed service like the U.S. Coast Guard or U.S. Army.