This is the third in a series.

As Christmas of 1923 approached, the defenders of Barnegat Lighthouse were hoping for a miracle. While Congress had allocated $100,000 to protect the lighthouse from the encroaching tides, a bureaucrat, George Putnam, had blocked the spending of the money.

In September a conference had been held at the Engleside Hotel in Beach Haven. There the defenders provided expert testimony showing the lighthouse could be saved, but still Putnam would not budge from his pet project of lining the coast with…