Few symbols better represent the Maritimes than the lighthouse, but many are falling into disrepair.

Once an integral part of marine travel, several across the region are being left in the past. Now a community group is working to preserve the historic landmarks.

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse is an iconic piece of Maritime history. Every year, thousands of tourists flock to the rocks to watch waves crash upon the shore. But it’s is just one of hundreds across the region.

Lighthouses stand from the rugged coastline of Cape Breton to the sandy beaches of Prince Edward Island and the changing tides of the Fundy Islands.

In communities both big and small, lighthouses have guided travelers home for decades. Though their lights shine brightly their futures seem dim.

In the rural community of Terrence Bay in Nova Scotia, the lighthouse bears the marks of time. Wind and salt water have weakened the structure.

Larry Peyton has visited the lighthouse as part of his goal to photograph all of Nova Scotia’s lighthouses.

“Some look very similar, and some have such individual characteristics and that's the adventure,” he says. “It’s not that I’ve gone to 123 structures that look the same, they don't. They’ve all got their little idiosyncrasies so it's an adventure to find each one.”

Of the 180 lighthouse sites around the province, Peyton has confirmed that 22 of them are no longer standing.

Peyton says he’s on a mission to visit them all by the end of this year and help preserve their memory.  He’s working with the Sambro Island Lighthouse Heritage Preservation Society.

The society wants the lighthouse in Terrence Bay to be moved under the banner of Parks Canada to allow benefit from federal funding and maintenance.

Joe Flemming from the preservation society says it takes political will.

“If we were to get the right people, whether it be the prime minister or otherwise to just visit that light once and see what it represents and really see its history, I don't think there would be any question,” Flemming says.

Sue Paul founded the Sambro Island Society in 2012. She says without t history there wouldn’t be culture.

“It’s time for Canada to wake up and start preserving our history because how can we say we have a Canadian culture, and look back and have nothing left?” says Paul.

Sambro Island boasts the oldest continuously operated lighthouse in North America. Now the community group has a special connection to the behemoth tower.

“It’s been witness to the growth of these communities and to the city and the country. Its seen soldiers coming to and from war, people that were emigrating here from other countries, it’s been a signal of hope,” Flemming says.  

The fight at Sambro Island has been going on since Ottawa announced plans to divest itself of all federally owned lighthouses in 2010. Groups across the Maritimes say they were left scrambling to take the helm.

The lighthouse in Cape George in Antigonish County, once faced an uncertain future, but a grassroots effort by residents has resulted in permanent community ownership over the historic structure.

The Cape Bear Lighthouse in eastern P.E.I. has faced more natural challenges. The lighthouse was built in 1881, but erosion has moved it closer to the waters it helped protect.

Three years ago, local fundraising and government grants helped pay for a move of that lighthouse, saving it from an eventual watery grave.

As he looks out at the Terrence Bay lighthouse, Peyton says he thinks about its future as much as its past.

“There are so many mariners out there that still use these things,” Peyton says. “It represents the coast; it represents the hardships of living out here. it represents the tight bonds of family, of your children growing up on rocks like these. It is about as Maritimes, Atlantic Canadian as you can get.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Emily Baron Cadloff.