Today, virtually all of Maine's working lights have been mechanized and many lighthouse keeper's cottages have become privately owned.

But it's still possible to enjoy the heritage of a keeper's life - many lights are open to visitors as museums, offering memorabilia and accounts of the "wicking" life.

Maine's 3,500-mile coastline includes thousands of islands and granite-topped ledges, many with lights of their own. Boat rides to islands such as Vinalhaven, Islesboro or Monhegan guarantee a lighthouse, or even two. But some of the most scenic lights are those that beckon from uninhabited rocks far out to sea.

The advent of global-positioning systems has meant the destruction of dozens of lights across the nation, but Maine continues to lead the cause of lighthouse preservation. Under a Maine Lights program, signed into law by President Clinton, 35 Maine lighthouses have been given away by the Coast Guard to be maintained and restored for public use by municipalities and

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