BOCA GRANDE
REAR RANGE LIGHT
Boca Grande, Florida
Going north from Sanibel Island, you have to go around the Charlotte Harbor, Come down to Placida and cross over to the island on the Boca Grande Causeway. You'll run into a toll for the bridge. So pay up, you get to see two lighthouses on Gasparilla Island.
This light was built in 1927, just under 40 years after the Old Port Boca Lighthouse was constructed down at the end of the island. They didn't light the 4th order lens until 1932 however when the tower officially became active. But you know, actually, if I read the NPS website correctly, the tower was first built in 1881 for somewhere else in the same function, and eventually disassembled and relocated to its present location. The whitewashed iron skeleton tower sits right beside the road and right off the beach. Erosion could take this still active light someday. As it is now, it has a focal plane of 105 feet. So I'd say the tower is around 80-90 feet high itself.
Here's how I saw it:
OF THE MOUNTAINS
John B Caddell
Copyright 2001