Active: Yes,
November through April (Off May through October to accommodate the nesting sea
turtles per the U. S. Coast Guard)
Characteristics: Flashing white every 6-seconds (1977-1994).
Reactivated November 1, 2009 by the U. S. Coast Guard.
Height: 74 feet
DayMark: White conical tower with black lantern
History: Constructed in 1852. First Lighted 1852. Deactivated in mid 1994. On National Register Listing.
Restored as a private aid to navigation by the Coast Guard on November 1, 2009
Lens:
Original: Fifteen fixed Lewis lamps with sixteen-inch reflectors; Winslow Lewis
(1843). Third-order fixed Fresnel lens;
Sautter et Cie (1857).
2009-Present: VLB-44 LED beacon manufactured by Vega
Industries Limited in New Zealand.
Focal Plane: 72 feet.
Range: 13
nautical miles.
Construction: Builder: Edward Bowden. Conical Brick tower constructed of brick and iron.
Visit Status:
The lighthouse was rebuilt on St. George Island and is easily accessible at the
end of the causeway.
Facilities: Gift shop and small museum.
Visitor Info:
Was listed as Florida’s most endangered and leaning lighthouse. Located on
Little St. George Island it was accessible only by boat. Was righted during the summer of 2000 with a new foundation,
but due to continuing erosion the lighthouse collapsed in October 2005.
The materials were salvaged and the lighthouse was rebuilt on St. George Island
and reopened to the public in the fall of 2008.Contact:
St. George Lighthouse Association
Dennis Barnell
201 Bradford Street
St. George Island, Fl. 32328
E-mail: dbarnell@mchsi.co
Web Site - http://www.stgeorgelight.org
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Special note: Despite a successful attempt to straighten the leaning tower, and plans to move it to a safer location, on October 21, 2005 St. George succumbed to the forces of nature and toppled into the Gulf of Mexico. However, the St. George Lighthouse Association
did not lose hope, they estimated 95% of the lighthouse and rebuilt the lighthouse
on St. George Island. The FLA donated $20,000 to this project.
The following is reprinted with permission from CoastLine Publications, Inc., PO Box 626, Apalachicola, FL 32329
Cape St. George Lighthouse Collapses Into The Gulf 10/21/2005
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| The rubble of the Cape St. George Lighthouse just before sunset Friday evening. |
by Ed Tiley
Publisher
The 153 year-old Cape St. George Lighthouse, recently declared to be the "most endangered" lighthouse in Florida by the Florida Lighthouse Association has fallen into the ocean.
At about 1:30 on Friday Oct. 21 George Watkins, an employee of the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve called Roy Ogles at the ANERR office to tell him the lighthouse had fallen. Nobody knows exactly when the lighthouse toppled, but there have been reports of people on St. George Island saying they heard a loud crashing noise about nine o'clock Thursday night. Whether the lighthouse falling would make that kind of noise is unclear, so the exact time the lighthouse fell will always remain a mystery.
Dennis Barnell, president of the St. George Lighthouse Association, described the scene as "pretty ugly." He said, "We’ve got a lot of stuff going on already. The Florida Lighthouse Association has promised they’ll help us raise money to salvage the pieces so they can be reassembled. We are still going to save this lighthouse. The FLA is going to do the best they can to raise all the money we need to hire a salvage barge to pick up the pieces before they get scattered and buried in the sand. We’re in emergency operation mode right now.
We have already been in contact with Fred Gaske, from the Division of Historical Preservation about the situation. The State has no provision for emergency grants. But, they will provide us with an architect to figure how to salvage this thing."
Terry Kemp, secretary of the St. George Lighthouse Association, was quoted by Barnell as saying, "If they can pull a dinosaur up out of the ground and reassemble it, we can pull this lighthouse out of the surf and reassemble it."
That will be a monumental task. It has been estimated that the lighthouse weighed as much as 1,500,00 pounds. How badly busted up the top of the lighthouse is has yet to be discovered. If it is intact, which is doubtful, the job might be easier.
"Maybe all is not lost," said Barnell, "Maybe this unfortunate incident will provide the push we need to get the help we need to rescue the light. We’re pulling out all the stops in trying to find the help we need to rescue the remaining parts of the lighthouse, bring them to shore, and reassemble this lighthouse."
Lighthouse
collapsed into the Gulf on October 21, 2005 most of us would have thrown in the
towel and considered it a lost cause. The SGLA, however, immediately
announced that they would rebuild the lighthouse. They were met with
laughter and skepticism and were told it would never happen. The group,
however, set about reclaiming as much of the old lighthouse as they could and
had it hauled to a storage area in East Point. Over the next year
and a half, with the help of volunteers, they cleaned 22,440 bricks to be reused
in rebuilding the lighthouse. Using the destroyed lamphouse as a pattern
they had a new one built. Seeing the progress the group was making, the
State of Florida granted them a special appropriation of $350,000.00 which would
cover most of the reconstruction costs. As can be seen in the photo to the
left taken on April 12, 2008 by FLA president Stan Farnham the tower brickwork
is complete and it is waiting for the stucco to be applied. It is planned when
the tower is complete later this year to open the tower to the public.
People may have laughed at the SGLA when they announced their seemingly
overambitious plans to rebuild St. George, but Dennis Barnell and his group from
the St. George Lighthouse Association definitely got in the last laugh.
St. George Lighthouse Association, we are proud of you!