History of lighthouses with demands, and to the loss of a number of ships, most notably the Dutch merchant ship Vreede in 1800 with the loss of 380 lives. After the reforms of the Lighthouse Act 1836, owners still managed to collect large dues, of which the largest were for the Smalls Lighthouse which collected £23,000 in 1852 and Trinity House was forced to spend over £1m in buying back leases, including £444,000 for the Skerries Lighthouse. The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, as lighthouse construction boomed in lockstep with burgeoning levels of transatlantic commerce. Advances
Apostle Islands Lighthouses Duluth-Superior grew, and with the opening of Ashland's first ore dock in 1886. The Apostle Islands lighthouses are popular among tourists. Lighthouse historian Terry Pepper has described them as "one of the more interesting geographically centered collection of [lighthouse] structures" in the United States. Another lighthouse historian, F. Ross Holland, has called them "the largest and finest single collection of lighthouses in the country." The following lighthouses were included in the 1977 National Register listing: Other lighthouses are in the area, but are not included in the Apostle Islands Lighthouses listing: Major restoration projects were initiated at several of the