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Cape San Blas

Cape San Blas

Photo courtesy of the Internet Public Library.

    Built in 1847, the first Cape San Blas Lighthouse lasted only four years. Immediately after reconstruction was completed in 1856, tides 14 feet above normal in the Great Storm of 1856 caused it to collapse. A third tower built in 1859 was burned by Confederate troops. It was relighted in 1865, only to crash in an 1882 hurricane. The fourth lighthouse was a movable iron tower whose base was washed out by waves only nine years later. A fifth tower was never completed. The sixth lighthouse, an iron pile structure placed near the original lighthouse site, had to be moved 1,850 feet from the water’s edge in 1918. In 1996, this lighthouse was discontinued as an active aid to navigation and its lens removed. Although the tower is not open, the grounds may be visited.



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