It's tarpon season, so it's not unusual to find plenty of fishermen out in the water at Boca Grande Pass, looking for that next big catch. Decades ago, you would have seen big cargo ships passing through the same area. Those days are gone, but there is still one tie to the past. My photojournalist Dal Kalsi and I took a daytrip to Gasparilla Island State Park to see the old Boca Grande lighthouse.

Sharon McKenzie tells us, "Years ago, this is where all the action was. In 1890, when this lighthouse was built, there was a little fishing village at the north end and the lighthouse and that was pretty much it."

As shipping demands increased for Port Boca Grande, The U.S. Coast Guard commissioned the lighthouse to guide boats into to Charlotte Harbor.

The Boca Grand lighthouse is unique in its construction. It's built in the style of a home, and the lighthouse keepers and their families actually lived here.

In the 1950s the lighthouse was automated and that made a lighthouse keeper obsolete. In the late 1960s, the Coast Guard decided to shut it down completely. Suddenly, the once grand structure on the southern tip of Gasparilla Island sat abandoned and was about to disappear. But island locals decided it should be saved.
McKenzie says, "A lot of local citizens in the community felt that it was a historic structure, actually the oldest structure on the island, and they didn't want to lose it." McKenzie's organization, the Barrier Islands Parks Society took over the lighthouse and restored it. Beach erosion threatened to wash the lighthouse away, but a reconstructed shoreline now protects it. Then, in 1986, the Coast Guard even re-commissioned it as a working lighthouse.

Unfortunately, because this is an active lighthouse, visitors are not allowed into the light tower. The inside of the lighthouse now houses a museum of Boca Grande history. You'll learn about the resort community of Boca Grande and Gasparilla Island through the years.

You shouldn't have to worry about any big crowds when you go either. It was a quiet weekday when we visited, but McKenzie says the lighthouse is still the best kept secret on the island. "We're still shocked to hear that people will go into downtown and have lunch and go around to the shops, and they don't even realize the lighthouse is down here," she explains.

To not visit the southern tip of the island would be a shame. The view from the porch of the lighthouse over the pass and out into the Gulf of Mexico is stunning.

If you are a lighthouse aficionado, and want to check out all the open lighthouse museums in the state of Florida, you've got six to visit. The Boca Grande lighthouse is the only one that is only a daytrip away. It's the only one of the six on the west coast of Florida.

The lighthouse is actually inside the Gasparilla Island State Park on the southern tip of the island.

The lighthouse museum is open Daily
10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Mon-Sat.
12:00 pm to 4:00 pm, Sundays

Starting June 1st, the park will be open Wednesday through Sunday only.

Admission: $2 per vehicle, 8 people

Boca Grande Causeway toll: $4