Cape San Blas, Florida, Lighthouse, Florida Poster

"Cape San Blas Lighthouse, Florida" by Catherine Sherman The Cape San Blas Light stands near the marina in the historic area of Port St. Joe, Florida, under a bright blue clear sky, waiting to serve when the night skies turn dark and stormy. Visitors may buy a ticket in the Keeper's House Museum next door to climb to the top of the lighthouse. There were four Cape San Blas lighthouses built between 1849 and 1885. The lighthouse was originally located at Cape San Blas in the northwestern part of the state. Due to beach erosion and weather damage over the decades, it was moved in 2014 to its current location in Port St. Joe, along with two Keeper's houses and a shed. The lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The first Cape San Blas lighthouse, built in 1847, collapsed during a gale on August 23–24 of 1851. Congress appropriated $12,000 for a second brick tower lighthouse for the cape which was finally finished in November 1855, but it was destroyed on August 30, 1856, when another hurricane struck Cape San Blas. On May 1, 1858 a third lighthouse was completed. During the Civil War the lighthouse was not in commission but resumed operations July 23, 1865. Over the years, erosion began eating away at the third lighthouse. In 1883 the fourth iron frame lighthouse was constructed. Cape San Blas is part of a peninsula in Gulf County, Florida, extending westward from the mainland of Florida, separating St. Joseph Bay to the north from the Gulf Of Mexico to the south. The St. Joseph Peninsula extends northward from the west end of Cape San Blas. It is approximately 10 miles south-southwest of the town of Port St. Joe.