PORT ST. JOE — Moving the Cape San Blas Lighthouse was only the beginning.
The next phase is what will be filling in the canvas around the lighthouse.
The lighthouse, moved last year from Cape San Blas to George Core Park, already has proved quite the hit with visitors and locals alike.
From September through Jan. 31, typically a relatively slow tourist season, more than 1,100 people have climbed the tower, more than climbed the tower during its final summer on the Cape. The visitors will be building through the spring, including three large groups that will visit the lighthouse in March alone.
A school group out of Bay County and the U.S. Lighthouse Society are scheduled to pay visits. The classroom trip is being sparked by the class’s teacher, whose family once served as keepers at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse when out on the Cape. The Lighthouse Society is undertaking a coastal tour along North Florida and will take in the Cape San Blas Lighthouse. The final group will be Bike Florida, which will bring 800-900 bike riders to Gulf County the last week of March and has booked tours of the lighthouse.
“They are not coming just for the lighthouse, but this is because of the greater awareness of the lighthouse and where it is,” said Charlotte Pierce of the St. Joseph Historical Society. “People are aware of it and want to come see it.”
The city of Port St. Joe, which owns the lighthouse which is leased by the Historical Society, has submitted a proposal to Duke Energy to provide power to the complex.
The power will be critical for several ventures, including creating a museum in one of the two keepers’ quarters, installation of bathrooms and installing a light in the tower.
Since early in the process, Pierce said, regional federal officials have indicated some type of light in the tower would be acceptable.
The U.S. Coast Guard, however, said that light could not be the lens that was removed from the tower. That lens may ultimately be displayed in the museum.
Currently, a solar light is operating in the tower, a donation of effort, time and resources of local residents Jon Hooper and Tim Nelson.
What type of light may eventually be installed remains an unknown.
“Until we have power over there and understand what we can and cannot do, that is undecided,” Pierce said. “From early on we were told it would be no problem to have a light up there.”
The city of Port St. Joe has submitted a grant application to the Florida Division of Historical Preservation for funding to upgrade the keepers’ quarters and oil shed.
The grant, for $125,000, was ranked for full funding by the division, but still must be funded from a pot of $12 million worth of projects by the Florida Legislature during the upcoming session. That money would be used for electrical work, painting, wood work, window replacement and the necessary work to bring the keepers’ quarters up to snuff to begin work inside the structures.
The Historical Society, during its recent monthly meeting, discussed plans for the museum as well as pricing for climbs. For groups or individuals, the cost to climb will remain $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12. Children must be at least 44 inches tall to climb the tower.
In part, the decision to formalize pricing has come about due to the demand from groups to visit and climb the tower.
“That is good thing,” Pierce said as receipts from tower climbs underwrite operational expenses for opening the tower.
“I think we have very reasonable rates,” said Mary Yon of the Historical Society board.