The Lost Light solves what has been described as "one of the great-unsolved mysteries of American lighthouse history." Called the holy grail of American lighthouse history, the 6,000 pound bronze and glass first-order Fresnel lens from the 1803 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been lost for 140 years. On the eve of the Civil War, the apparatus, produced in France of more than 1,000 hand-polished, crown -crystal prisms, was removed from the top of the first Hatteras tower in a desperate act to prevent the beacon from aiding the Union Navy's blockade. The lens was later hidden in a good storehouse in an obscure farming community, 200 miles inland. Throughout the war, the location eluded its former owners and even 28,000 men of Sherman's army. As years passed the magnificent artifact simply vanished into the mists of time. It is a mystery no more. Solved by the author, Kevin Duffus, the story of the Hatteras lens's extraordinary odyssey is an astonishing tale of plot twists, ironies, redemption and dishonor, spanning 200 years of American history.
