The Last Lighthouse Keeper
tells of the extraordinary life of Bill Owens, a keeper with the United States Lighthouse Service on California's coast for thirty-two years. While raising six daughters with wife Isabel, Owens experienced the Depression, World War II, plane crashes, storms, and Japanese subs. At Point Conception, he encountered shipwrecks and rum runners. At Point Sur, isolation and hardship. At Point Arena, joy and heartbreak. And at Point Cabrillo, a stormy conclusion to a career threatened by the coming of automated lighthouses. Drawing from days of face-to-face interviews with Bill and Isabel in the 1980s, McDowell crafts a riveting portrait of a man, a family, and an era of lighthouse men never to be seen again.