Amid a 90-mile stretch of northwest Florida’s Gulf shoreline, four classic lighthouses — including the one at Cape San Blas – offer a glimpse into a disappearing chapter of history. They illuminate the mystique and serenity of a time when timber ships, fishing boats and other vessels sailing for port or cargo to and from the coast needed help navigating the shoals that dotted the waters.
The lighthouses, maintained by the Gulf County Board of Commissioners and Pensacola Lighthouse Association, are open to visitors and offer a look back at many eras of this area’s rich and diverse heritage.
They have survived lightning strikes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and an earthquake. But it was erosion that almost took this lighthouse, built on the site of an earlier structure in 1824, to the sea. Rather than build a new lighthouse on the beach, which would have been expensive and difficult to maintain, Congress decided to erect a skeletal tower about a mile inland from the beach (view photo). This type of lighthouse has eight cast iron legs that support a watch room and lantern. Its design allows the structure to be lighter than traditional, conical brick towers, reducing its resistance to wind-and-wave action and making it easier to climb.
When the Times visited Lighthouse, a private, nonprofit home for troubled girls in Apalachicola, five former residents spoke of being confined for weeks or even months at a time with little limit on their seclusion by the home’s director, Steve Cookston. A few girls also said that other residents used children as monitors and restrainers.
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