Three Sisters Lit the Way

The Three Sisters were three lighthouses in the Nauset Beach Light Station, originally standing a quarter mile away overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and from 1838 to 1911 their trio of lights served as a landmark for sailors traveling along the Outer Cape. Part of a network along the treacherous and busy Cape Cod coast, they replaced original brick towers and signaled that sailors had reached the Cape's mid-point, while ships approaching the southern Cape saw the stationary beams of the twin Chatham Lighthouses and those nearing the Cape's tip recognized the single flashing beam of Highland Light. Changing lighthouse technology and the steady erosion of the Nauset cliffs eventually forced the removal of the lights from their post, and they were reunited here in 1989 as a rare surviving example of a triple lighthouse configuration. Although they no longer guide ships at sea, Nauset Light continues that tradition today.

Eastham, Massachusetts · United States