By June 1920, it appeared the battle lines over Barnegat Lighthouse had been drawn. On one side was the Washington, D.C.-based Lighthouse Bureau, on the other, the growing cries of citizens.

The issue was a tall brick tower known by many as “old Barney.” Winter storms had brought the ocean to within feet of the tower’s base, and the response of the Lighthouse Bureau was to let the structure fall and replace it with a modern, smaller tower and an offshore lightship.

Starting with support from a Toms River newspaper editor and the people of Long Beach Island, cries of “save the light”…