Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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It's National Lighthouse Day — August 7th — and Wisconsin has more than 50 lighthouses to celebrate. Lighthouse photographer Ken Wardius points to one standout: the Long Tail Point Lighthouse, the state's oldest original standing tower, built in 1848 on a sandbar in Green Bay.

Ken and his wife Barb share how rising waters nearly toppled it 20 years later — and how a crew hired to dismantle it couldn't finish the job. A surviving piece of Wisconsin's earliest maritime history, still standing today.

Watch the full episode, "Wisconsin Lighthouses": pbswisconsin.org/watch/university-place/university-place-wisconsin-lighthouses

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