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Florida's Cape St. George Lighthouse on St. George Island is not only standing tall and proud again, it is also now an aid to navigation sporting a brand new VLB-44 LED beacon from Vega Industries Limited in New Zealand.
The lighthouse was relit, appropriately on Halloween night, October 31.
The light station has a storied history. It was first established in 1833, rebuilt in 1848, rebuilt again in 1852. In 1857 a third order Fresnel lens was installed. The lens was removed during the Civil War and reinstalled in 1866. It was removed in 1889 and replaced by a different third order lens.
Eventually, the Coast Guard removed the lens before the tower became endangered. Its location remains a mystery to this day, however some believe the lens was sent to New Orleans.
In October 2005 the lighthouse was toppled by a hurricane. In one of the most amazing rebuilding feats in history, the lighthouse was rebuilt in 2008 using many of the original bricks. Since the St. George Lighthouse Association opened the rebuilt lighthouse to the public on December 1, 2008, over 17,000 people have climbed the tower.
This all proves, you just can't keep a good lighthouse down.
This story appeared in the
December 2009 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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