Crooked River Lighthouse

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The Crooked River Lighthouse was built in 1895 to replace the Dog Island light, which a hurricane had destroyed in 1875. It guided timber ships and local fishing boats through the pass between Dog Island and St. George Island. The tower is an iron skeleton 100 feet tall, and since 1901 it has carried its daymark of white on the lower half, red on the upper half and a black lantern room, which is how mariners told it from other lights in daylight. Its fourth-order Fresnel lens was made in Paris in 1894, an unusual one-third open bivalve type thought to have been the first of its kind installed in the United States. Keeper James A. Williams first lit the lamp on October 28, 1895. The light was electrified in 1933, automated in 1952, and taken out of service in 1995. The lens was removed in 1976 because it was leaking mercury; it came back to the lighthouse on February 19, 2020. The Carrabelle Lighthouse Association formed in 1999 to save the place, and the tower was deeded to the city of Carrabelle in August 2001. It stands at 1975 Highway 98 West and works as a museum and as an aid to navigation