Pensacola Lighthouse and Museum

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”

Anita Desai

While planning our Pensacola trip last April, Joe found a great military campground on the Pensacola Naval Air Station and lucky me, it is close to the lighthouse. He said, “How does this sound?” I said an enthusiastic, “Yes. Let's go.” He knows how much I love lighthouses and he knew how thrilled I'd be to be able to camp close to one. So he made the reservations and off we went.

When we pulled onto the Air Station and saw the campground and were thrilled. We were tent camping and the tent sites here are quite large and shaded. There was a nice path to the white sandy beach on the bay close to our site. As we set up our site, we met some very nice folks walking around. Later that night, we were invited to a camp fire at a nearby camp site and we enjoyed our new friends with the glow fire and the light from the lighthouse cutting through the night sky. It just couldn't have been more perfect.

Early the next day, we got on our bikes and headed to the lighthouse. It was a very short ride from the campground down a peaceful tree lined street. There she was, in all her majesty. The light house is painted white on the bottom and the top is painted black so it will be visible from the sky and not blend in with the clouds. The grounds are kept very nice and it was fun walking around and taking pictures. We paid to go into the lighthouses keepers home. The day we were there we couldn't go to the top as they were working on the stairs. The guide in the home was very interesting and told me the history of this lighthouse.

He said this is the second light house built on this air station. When the shorter one was being built there was a floating vessel Aurora Borealis that was used temporarily. When complaints came in saying the Pensacola light was too dim and not so visible through the trees, they decided to build another one on this site about a half a mile from the original lighthouse.

The new light was built in 1858 and stands 159 feet. This light has had some bad times in the past. During the Civil War, the Confederates took control of the lighthouse and took out the light. On November 22, 1861 a two day battle occurred where the tower got hit by about half a dozen rounds was taken by the Union troops. The light was again lite on December 20, 1862 with a fourth-order lens. The original Fresnel lens was later recovered and re-installed in1869, after the war. The light house was hit by lightning in 1874 and then struck a second time the following year. I guess lightning can strike twice on the same spot. The towers lightning rods were defective. Then on August 31, 1886 a rare earthquake shook the tower for three or four minutes. Fortunately, the old girl survived.

It is rumored the ghost of a lighthouse keeper of the past may be haunting the lighthouse. They do ghost tours and you can buy special tickets to the balcony at the top of the lighthouse to watch the Blue Angels practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. What an amazing place to witness the air show. I loved the lighthouse and homestead here. As a child, I wanted to live in a lighthouse. This one would have been perfect. Maybe in my next life. May God's light guide you, as a lighthouse guides a ship in a storm.