#8 - Lighthouse

You have now reached the parking lot at the St. Marks Lighthouse, looking out on Apalachee Bay. The original lighthouse was built in 1831. The current lighthouse, built in 1842, is now a National Historic Site. It is still an active light and has shone out over the Bay through hurricanes, pirate attacks, and a federal gun boat blockade during the Civil War. The St. Marks Lighthouse remains one of the few active lighthouses in the country that is so accessible to the public.

The beautiful Apalachee Bay is a rich habitat for fish, shellfish, sea turtles, dolphins and manatees. Most marine life here is dependent on the fragile grass beds that are seen as dark green blotches on the sandy bottom. In the winter, shoalgrass is the preferred food of redhead ducks. Loons and horned grebes, along with many species of diving ducks, are also seen in the bay during the winter. At low tides, the exposed mud flats are carefully combed by herons, egrets, and shorebirds for small crabs, snails and fish. Thirty-two thousand acres of Apalachee Bay is protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from migratory bird hunting. This Executive Closing Boundary is denoted by bouys set out in the Bay, that range between 1 and 2 miles from shore.

The pilings to the right of the Lighthouse next to the shore are the remnants of the lighthouse keeper's boathouse. Since the road was so terrible some 40 years ago, it was easier for the keeper's family to get supplies by boat from up the river in the town of St. Marks than by land.