Boca Grande Entrance Rear Range Lighthouse, Florida at Lighthousefriends.com

	Boca Grande Entrance Rear Range, FL

Description: Pyramidal skeleton towers became popular in the late 1800s as they could be built at roughly half the cost of a stone, or brick tower of the same height. Another advantage they had was that since they were constructed of prefabricated sections, it was possible to disassemble and move them. Such was the case for the Boca Grande Rear Range Light. This hexagonal tower was built in 1881 by the Phoenix Iron Company of Trenton, New Jersey, and put into service at a station just north of Lewes, Delaware, where it served as the Delaware Breakwater Rear Range Light. The front range light was the Delaware Breakwater West End Lighthouse from November 1, 1881, when the rear range light was activated, until the end of 1902. Starting in 1903, the rear range light was paired with the Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse.

Boca Grande Rear Range Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
The range lights served to guide vessels past the tip of Cape Henlopen. However, the shifting shoreline on the cape resulted in the lights becoming ineffective, and the rear range light was discontinued in 1918. The tower stood inactive until it was dismantled and shipped by rail to Miami, Florida in 1921. The tower was later sent to Gasparilla Island, where in 1927 it was reassembled, painted white, and rechristened the Boca Grande Rear Range Lighthouse. The transplanted tower remained dark until it was finally lit in 1932.
The Boca Grande Rear Range Light worked in conjunction with a flashing light atop a 20-foot tall steel structure located offshore. When a captain positioned his vessel so that the light from the rear range was positioned directly above the flashing light of the front range, he knew he was in the middle of the shipping channel. The captain would continue north in the channel, until he reached a series of towers that marked the channel leading east to the safe harborage at Port Boca Grande.
The Boca Grande tower isn’t the only example of a tower being relocated to a different section of the country to continue its service. Just a few years after the tower was moved to Florida, a skeletal tower was moved from Delaware River in Pennsylvania to Michigan Island, one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. Likewise, a tower on Sapelo Island in Georgia was moved to Fox Island in Lake Michigan.
The Boca Grande Rear Range Light remains in operation at its new home today, guiding vessels safely through the Boca Grande Channel into the safe confines of Charlotte Harbor.
Photo Gallery: 1 2 3 4
References

Guiding Lights of the Delaware River & Bay, Jim Gowdy and Kim Ruth, 1999.
The Lighthouse Directory, Russ Rowlett.

Purchase prints and gifts featuring photographs on this page

Location: Located near the southern end of Gasparilla Island, which is near the entrance to Charlotte Harbor.
Latitude: 26.74203
Longitude: -82.26344

For a larger map of Boca Grande Entrance Rear Range Lighthouse, click the lighthouse in the above map or get a map from: Mapquest.

Travel Instructions: To get to Gasparilla Island, take the Boca Grande Causeway near the southern end of Highway 775 southwest of Port Charlotte. Once on the island, follow the main road towards the southern end of the island. The Boca Grande Range Light is 1.7 miles from the southern end of the island, alongside Gulf Boulevard.

The lighthouse is owned by the State of Florida. Tower closed.

Find the closest hotels to Boca Grande Entrance Rear Range Lighthouse

See our List of Lighthouses in Florida