Episode 76 - Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse Restoration with Ralph Krugler

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Hi, everybody. I'm Emily. And I'm Vince. And

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this is The Lighthouse Lowdown. This is a fun

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episode. If you didn't read our title, we are

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doing an interview with Ralph Kugler today, and

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we're going to hear all about his life and the

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Hillsborough Inlet Lighthouse, where he is the

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historian. And also about the restoration that's

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coming up. And we need all of you to listen in

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and to donate your hard -earned cash. Okay? Yep.

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We had a lot of fun with Ralph. Yeah. Let's get

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into it. It's a really good one. It's long and

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it's worth it. So you're welcome and enjoy. Hey,

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can you hear us? I can hear you now. Great. Hey,

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what's up, Ralph? How you doing? Good. How are

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you? Doing good. Thanks. Trying to get our audio

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all set up. We don't often do interviews. Usually

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we just sit here and stare at each other. So

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this is better. Well, how's your week been so

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far? Don't ask. Oh, no. Lighthouse related? Oh,

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yeah. Oh, man. Something's good. Something's

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not so good. Yeah. Well, I guess we can hear

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all about it during the recording. Some of the

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stuff I can't talk about, but there's other stuff

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I can. Okay. Yeah, just divulge what you're able

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to and we'll count those good enough. That's

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an extra cool factor in the Lighthouse world.

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Yeah. Covert operations. Yeah. It was pretty

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funny. I'm listening to the episode. I'm walking

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into my office and I go, oh, cool. It was so

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weird because I'm walking around and you're talking

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about different things. I'm like, this is so

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weird. That's awesome. Have you been discussed

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or had interviews with other Lighthouse folks

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recently? I talked to a bunch of people. I figured

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as much. Emily's more plugged in than I am. I'm

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the talent that sits across the table. Well,

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I guess we can start off, if you just want to

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introduce yourself to our listeners and kind

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of tell us how you got involved with Hillsboro

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Inlet and the USLHS as well. Okay. Hi, my name

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is Ralph Krugler. I'm the historian for the Hillsboro

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Lighthouse Preservation Society, and I work for

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the Coast Guard as technically what's called

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a, I can't even think of my job title, lodge

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host. Because we are an MWR facility, which is

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morale, well -being, and recreation. So if you're

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a certain level in the military, you can be active

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or retired. Our cottages are available for rental.

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And so I help take care of the cottages, grounds,

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and things like that. I'm there pretty much all

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the time. Nice. That sounds like a full -time

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gig for sure. Yeah. So what's your history first

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getting involved with Hillsborough Inlet Lighthouse?

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What was the first contact and then the growth

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of that? So I moved down here in 2000. I can't

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even remember. I own history. It sucks. 2002

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or three. I can't, I can't remember. And I had

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no clue when I first moved to this location that

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there was a lighthouse seven miles away. And

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as soon as I did, like everybody else, I want

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to go there, but it's. on private property behind

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a club, so there's no direct access. So it took

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a while to figure out how to get over there.

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So my first tour there was in 2008, but I was

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working a lot of Saturdays, so I couldn't help

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on tours at the time. As soon as I got a different

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job in 2014, I went right there and started volunteering.

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So what's your standing with Hillsborough Inlet?

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I know that you're kind of spearheading. Bad.

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The red list. You're like spearheading this restoration

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process or at least posting about it on Instagram

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and everything. So what, how are you involved

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with the lighthouse for our listeners? Okay,

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so I'm part of the historian for the Hillsborough

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Lighthouse Preservation Society. We have the

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contract and have had the contract for quite

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a while with District 7 of the Coast Guard to

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actually maintain the lighthouse, keep it running.

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We do all the fundraising for it. Coast Guard

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doesn't put any money into the lighthouse except

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for the light itself. The last money they put

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in was when we switched to LED a few years ago.

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That was it. We raised the funds for everything

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else. ed dietrich who's our vice president is

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former coast guard so he's got we've been lucky

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since the inception we've had all the right people

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that we needed in locally here that want to be

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part of the organization that helped us get things

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going from the very start and ed like i said

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he's former coast guard he's His family are pioneers

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to the area. They've been here forever. And so

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he knows all the technical jargon. He knows who

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to call at CEU. He knows how to present things.

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And so, like, we just got the clearance from

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Coast Guard CEU this week, civil engineering,

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that our plans to restore the lighthouse are

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a full go. Now we just have to raise the funds

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for it. Okay. So the Coast Guard, I think that's

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typical of what we had heard. The Coast Guard

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will maintain the beacon itself. And then anything

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surrounding that typically is not Coast Guard,

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right? True. That's very true. But what's funny

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is they used to be very strict with that here.

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But over time, Ken Herman, who's our president,

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he lives literally a stone's throw across the

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inlet from the lighthouse. I'm just down the

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road. And with our webcam. Before we switched

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to LED, it's like you just turn on the webcam

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at night just to make sure the light's on. If

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not, drive down there, switch the bulb out, put

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it in. Report to District 7, hey, we were discrepancy

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for this amount of time. Light went back on them.

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If you have any questions, just let us know.

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We'll answer everything. And it got to the point

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where they're just like, you know what? You guys

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just take care of it. So when we clean the lens

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now, we invite... District 7 guys to come up

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here who are in the ACE navigation, and we actually

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teach them how to clean the lens. Oh, wow. Yeah,

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so when we switched to LED, Ray Coleman, who

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was in charge of the ACE navigation team there,

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was the point person for the Coast Guard, and

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they had subcontracted a company to come in and

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actually do the install. And they're looking

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at Ray, and Ray's like, talk to these guys. Talk

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to these guys. Yes. I want to know, but it was

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like, if anything happens, they're going to beat

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me to it. So, and these guys refused to talk

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to us until about maybe half hour before they

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were finished. And it was like, yeah. And it

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was like running down. We were just almost at

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sunset and they just got it done in time. Oh

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my goodness. Yeah. They're waiting for the civilians

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and the retirees to get trained last, huh? Pretty

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much. So what is that? You said district seven.

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What does that district look like? Because I'm

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not familiar with the area too much. And your

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involvement with the local Coast Guard and really

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the community. Okay. Well, the Coast Guard splits

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the country into districts. We're District 7.

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And I think we run from Virginia to Alabama,

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maybe. Okay. I think so. Just along the coastline

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there. And then we also have Puerto Rico and

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I'm not sure, Virgin Islands and a couple of

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places like that. So that's District 7. And each

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district has its own rear admiral, and they swap

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out every three years. Just like everybody in

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the Coast Guard pretty much swaps out every three

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years. So it's like you just get a good relationship

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going. You hope it's going great. All of a sudden

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they leave and just like. You know, a good note

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for us, you know, going with the next people.

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And we've been very fortunate that every time

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they do a change of watch, they pump us up. So

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it's like, thank you. That's awesome. Yeah. Sounds

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like a load of good people. We are very, very

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lucky. Yes. You know, you notice in the Lighthouse

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community, most of the people are very nice,

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very friendly, very helpful. Every now and then

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you'll get that one person who's got an ego.

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Either they're like on the way out because they're

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like the old timers or they don't last very long

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because it's like nobody wants you around if

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you're going to have an ego and think you're

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running the show because not one person is running

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the show anywhere. You have to have other people.

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You have to work with each other and you have

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to keep a good morale. Otherwise, see you later.

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There they go. Challenging to, I mean, I was

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thinking about history, about the different,

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mostly men's names that we've heard come and

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go. from engineers that have worked with lighthouses

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to USLHE personnel to people that have been named

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after or claimed different inventions. It's funny

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that any one individual kind of can get locked

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in, and it's not necessarily the good stories

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that have one name tied to them. Usually it's

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the groups of folks that work together. So interesting

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to see that still working today. Pretty much.

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So tell us, you're saying right before we started

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today that your week has been tough. What would

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you prefer to talk about or not? Well, OK, so

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the things I can't talk about is. Just OK, so

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here's a little sidebar. Ken, our president,

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he's also he's the most world famous martial

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artist that you've never heard of. He likes it

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that way. He's a guy who climbed Kilimanjaro.

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He's cycled across India. Right now, he's cycling

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across America. Certified badass. Without him

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here, a lot of stuff falls in my lap. It's like,

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Ken, get back here now. The ship is sinking.

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Yeah, unfortunately, one of our people, our good

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people, is retiring this week. So our museum

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gift shop area is under changing. We have had

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a couple incidents at our last tour that I had

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to take care of. There's just a whole lot of

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stuff. It's just like, he's like, Ken, come on

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back. Come on. This is too much. It's not too

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much. He's like, I just don't want to do it.

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Yeah. You can take care of it. Does he have a...

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Is he heading somewhere specific or is this just

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like a bucket list item that he's... Every year

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he does something crazy like this. Whether it's

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taking a canoe down the Whitewater Rapids through

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the Rockies or he cycled from Canada to Mexico

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through the Rockies. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Anything

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he can do to push himself. He did something in

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Alaska a year or two ago and I can't remember.

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That's wild. And we're just trying to visit a

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lighthouse once a year. I can't even imagine.

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Left behind in the dust. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't

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make it a mile. So you mentioned that you listened

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to some of the episode, our last episode. Oh,

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yeah. Number 75. Talked about. Yeah, I listened

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to the whole thing. Yep. All right. What did

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we miss? I mean, I'm sure there's a ton that

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we didn't cover. Or is there anything that we

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just got horribly wrong that you were like, oh,

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my gosh, these people. Well, to answer your question

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about why Thomas Knight was gone for a year,

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it was actually only six months. Okay. So what

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happened was they had four children and they

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wanted to get a good education for the kids.

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So the keeper at Jupiter was retiring. So he

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put in for a transfer. They moved up there. Found

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out the grass wasn't greener. They weren't getting

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a better education. So he came back down and

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met with Charles Seabrook, who replaced him and

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who also had kids and said, hey, you want to

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swap? We want to come back. So he went up there,

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looked, thought it was great. They did a swap.

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Seabrook stayed there for this entire career.

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He was there for a long time through World War

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Two. I mean, he was I can't remember, but like

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he's one of the mainstays in Jupiter. So if you

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ever interviewed Josh Liller, who was the historian

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for Jupiter, he can tell you tons and tons of

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stories about him. So Knight came back and there

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was Barrier Island. There was no bridges. The

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only school was in the village of Pompano, which

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they could have got to, you know, the old. saying

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your parents said, you know, we had to go to

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school, you know, uphill. Yes. Point two miles.

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Well, these guys actually would have to go quite

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a ways in order to go to school. So what he did

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as soon as he got back, he converted part of

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his storehouse into a one room schoolhouse. Oh,

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yeah. He put some more windows in, built the

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tables, built benches. And then he went to Fort

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Lauderdale to the Department of Education superintendent

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there and said. He had to have nine children.

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He goes, between us, other keepers, and there's

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a transient fishing community right inside the

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inlet, we've got more than nine kids. By state

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law, you had to provide a teacher. So he sent

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a teacher. So imagine this. You go to school

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in your backyard. You come back inside, and your

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teacher follows you because she's living with

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you for the entire term. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So

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she lived with them. The terms were, what, five

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months, I think? Between four and six months,

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what the school terms were. And then she would

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depart and they would get in somebody else. Now,

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one of the teachers that they brought in was

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a woman named Lola Saunders. And I can't imagine

00:13:57.570 --> 00:14:00.690
what she was like as a teacher because, you remember,

00:14:00.789 --> 00:14:03.970
Cap Knight, he wound up marrying her. He was

00:14:03.970 --> 00:14:07.049
like 40 years older than her. Oh, my gosh. Yeah,

00:14:07.110 --> 00:14:11.600
and she was as mean as a rattlesnake. So I can't

00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:15.600
imagine what she must have been like as a teacher.

00:14:15.700 --> 00:14:19.080
It must have been crazy. Very, very strict. But

00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:25.139
Cap and Lola, they ran casino games out of Cap's

00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:27.440
place for a while. He called it the Club Unique.

00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:30.019
He's the only person that called it that. Everybody

00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:31.799
else called it Cap's place, and that's the name

00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:35.500
that stuck. So they ran, they had a Wheel of

00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:37.480
Fortune. They ran card games. They had table

00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:41.120
games there. In order to keep doing it, he had

00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:42.840
to pay off the mob. So I don't know if you know

00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:45.419
the name Meyer Lansky. Meyer Lansky would come

00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:48.519
through every so often to get his pay. And they

00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:50.159
never had any trouble with the mob because they,

00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:53.139
here's your cut. Cap never paid taxes because

00:14:53.139 --> 00:14:55.220
he said, I'm not paying taxes to the government.

00:14:56.139 --> 00:15:00.039
Screw that. The other mob. Yeah, so he paid off

00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:01.899
the mob, didn't pay off the government taxes.

00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:05.139
So after he passed away, it created some problems.

00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:08.120
The place almost closed down. Oh, yikes. Yeah,

00:15:08.179 --> 00:15:11.690
so. And they kept those table games behind curtains

00:15:11.690 --> 00:15:14.490
for years and years, hoping that gambling would

00:15:14.490 --> 00:15:18.389
be allowed again, but it never was. I can't remember.

00:15:18.629 --> 00:15:21.549
Estes Keefe Hoffer, when he shut down gambling,

00:15:21.889 --> 00:15:24.389
it's like they had to put everything away. It

00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:26.389
was just like, let's keep it there just in case.

00:15:26.610 --> 00:15:31.090
Yeah, so there was that. What else was there?

00:15:31.149 --> 00:15:32.850
There was something else that you had a question

00:15:32.850 --> 00:15:38.289
on. I can't think of it right now. Okay. Yeah,

00:15:38.490 --> 00:15:40.730
there's so many instances where I'm like, he

00:15:40.730 --> 00:15:42.730
asks a good question and I'm like, I don't know.

00:15:42.789 --> 00:15:47.090
Why do you ask me when I don't know? It's so

00:15:47.090 --> 00:15:51.629
hard to find accurate resources that, you know,

00:15:51.629 --> 00:15:55.029
a lot of our content, we don't state that it's

00:15:55.029 --> 00:15:57.029
education, but we try to learn and we try to

00:15:57.029 --> 00:15:58.590
teach some other people who might be listening.

00:15:59.029 --> 00:16:01.870
Right. But there's so many good stories. There's

00:16:01.870 --> 00:16:06.009
so many almost unbelievable. happenstances here

00:16:06.009 --> 00:16:08.970
and there so did you do you think of one that

00:16:08.970 --> 00:16:12.029
we might have missed uh that that tickles your

00:16:12.029 --> 00:16:16.070
brain okay one i didn't share it with you guys

00:16:16.070 --> 00:16:23.070
uh 1960 hurricane donna hits and the it was obviously

00:16:23.070 --> 00:16:25.929
coast guard run at that time uh the guy who was

00:16:25.929 --> 00:16:30.070
in charge was john evil kim on kim i can't even

00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:33.409
pronounce the name evo kim'd off his stepson

00:16:33.409 --> 00:16:36.710
tim was in school he was only 10 years old at

00:16:36.710 --> 00:16:41.509
the time and the bus comes back and it there

00:16:41.509 --> 00:16:43.590
to get across the island there's a drawbridge

00:16:43.590 --> 00:16:47.389
and the old drawbridge went halfway down and

00:16:47.389 --> 00:16:49.490
then they made him jump over and his dad caught

00:16:49.490 --> 00:16:53.970
him and mom was away visiting people so it's

00:16:53.970 --> 00:16:56.690
just tim and his stepfather on the entire island

00:16:56.690 --> 00:17:01.490
for this hurricane so at the time there was a

00:17:01.490 --> 00:17:02.870
weather station at the top of the lighthouse

00:17:03.789 --> 00:17:05.950
And they fed all the information down to Miami.

00:17:07.269 --> 00:17:09.250
And what they did was from the back door of the

00:17:09.250 --> 00:17:13.130
cottage to the radio building where I work out

00:17:13.130 --> 00:17:15.809
of, they tied a rope and then from that door

00:17:15.809 --> 00:17:18.329
all the way to the lighthouse. And there was

00:17:18.329 --> 00:17:20.630
from the ocean to the grounds, there was like

00:17:20.630 --> 00:17:23.490
now we have sea grape to help with erosion and

00:17:23.490 --> 00:17:25.750
block winds. There was nothing like that then.

00:17:27.230 --> 00:17:29.930
So at some point, John looks at Tim and goes,

00:17:30.009 --> 00:17:31.309
you know what? I think this cottage is going

00:17:31.309 --> 00:17:34.859
to blow down. Let's go to the building. So they

00:17:34.859 --> 00:17:38.720
did. And then the phone call comes from Miami.

00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:41.339
Hey, we need you to go in the lighthouse because

00:17:41.339 --> 00:17:44.460
the weather station is down. We need you to fix

00:17:44.460 --> 00:17:48.339
it. Oh, my gosh. During a hurricane. Now? Yeah.

00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:53.779
So John was fearless. He wasn't a people person.

00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:57.619
He wanted to be on boats. And from his stepson,

00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:00.720
he said, all the guys who ran the boats that

00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:03.970
he was on. They loved him because he was so quick,

00:18:04.009 --> 00:18:06.549
so smart that he could pretty much create anything,

00:18:06.809 --> 00:18:09.690
fix anything, get you out of any trouble. So

00:18:09.690 --> 00:18:14.470
they always delayed coming back to port when

00:18:14.470 --> 00:18:16.869
his term was up so that he had to stand for another

00:18:16.869 --> 00:18:19.369
term until they finally said, you know, they

00:18:19.369 --> 00:18:21.549
found out you have to come in. He has to go to

00:18:21.549 --> 00:18:23.710
the next station. So this guy didn't care. I

00:18:23.710 --> 00:18:25.029
mean, he was totally fearless. Like he was on

00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:27.210
the icebreakers working off the edge of boats,

00:18:27.309 --> 00:18:31.200
you know, doing stuff. Wow. Fearless. So. They

00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:33.400
go outside the radio room. They grab the rope.

00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:35.759
And Tim said, you know, I got completely sandblasted

00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:38.019
because my shirt got ripped up. I was bleeding

00:18:38.019 --> 00:18:41.579
because just the wind's coming up off. We just

00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:44.420
got pelted with sand the entire walk up to the

00:18:44.420 --> 00:18:47.619
lighthouse. We got in, secured the door, walked

00:18:47.619 --> 00:18:50.599
to the top. And fortunately, the wind was coming

00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:54.779
off the ocean at the time. So the door to the

00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:58.720
observation deck is on the western side. So they

00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:02.150
open the door. turn right, you go north a little

00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:05.329
bit, there's a little ladder that goes up to

00:19:05.329 --> 00:19:09.329
the upper observation deck, which is right where

00:19:09.329 --> 00:19:12.230
the glass is. And then if you go around that

00:19:12.230 --> 00:19:14.289
to the south, that's where the weather station

00:19:14.289 --> 00:19:16.930
was. So they were protected by the winds somewhat.

00:19:17.430 --> 00:19:20.089
So John went up there. He would get what he needed.

00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:23.140
figure out what he needed, go back, yell down,

00:19:23.339 --> 00:19:25.960
and Tim would climb halfway up the ladder, hand

00:19:25.960 --> 00:19:27.819
him tools, climb back down, and then huddle inside

00:19:27.819 --> 00:19:30.480
until he came back. No, I need this. No, I need

00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:32.240
this. And they just kept doing that until they

00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:34.460
fixed the thing, and they stayed inside there

00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:38.460
for the rest of the hurricane. Now, they had

00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:41.079
built some houses right across the inlet. They

00:19:41.079 --> 00:19:42.720
were supposed to be hurricane -proof. Oh, no.

00:19:42.859 --> 00:19:45.759
Those things, they just blew right away. But

00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:49.319
the 1906 houses that his stepfather thought were

00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:52.529
going to blow down, Did just fine. The testament

00:19:52.529 --> 00:19:56.269
to old construction. Yeah. It's like I heard

00:19:56.269 --> 00:19:58.609
like a lot of the houses in Key West, the reason

00:19:58.609 --> 00:20:01.630
why they fare so well, they're made by shipbuilders

00:20:01.630 --> 00:20:03.710
who knew how to put all this stuff together.

00:20:04.109 --> 00:20:05.890
Is that true? I don't know. But that's what I've

00:20:05.890 --> 00:20:08.250
heard from several people. And that would be

00:20:08.250 --> 00:20:10.230
a good reason why they've stood the test of time

00:20:10.230 --> 00:20:13.170
so long. Yeah, this lighthouse went through a

00:20:13.170 --> 00:20:15.990
lot of notable hurricanes in its lifetime. We

00:20:15.990 --> 00:20:18.970
talked about just the ones, 1920s. We talked

00:20:18.970 --> 00:20:21.569
about those. Yeah, 26, 28. Yeah, but I'm sure

00:20:21.569 --> 00:20:23.410
there's a lot of other ones that we didn't end

00:20:23.410 --> 00:20:26.890
up talking about. But it's held the test of time,

00:20:26.970 --> 00:20:31.450
so pretty cool. Oh, yeah. I can't imagine being

00:20:31.450 --> 00:20:33.769
in that environment. Okay, now I remember what

00:20:33.769 --> 00:20:37.450
you asked. Oh, good. How did they know the coral

00:20:37.450 --> 00:20:40.819
was underneath? Oh, yes. Okay, so. Before they

00:20:40.819 --> 00:20:42.759
picked the site, they went to four different

00:20:42.759 --> 00:20:45.019
sites and they had this long iron rod. They would

00:20:45.019 --> 00:20:47.940
do boring tests to see how far down it was until

00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:50.680
they got an actual hard substrate. So this was

00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.460
picked because there actually was coral. So when

00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:59.259
they put the footers in, they dug down to the

00:20:59.259 --> 00:21:03.599
coral. They made the forms around that, and then

00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:07.880
they put three super long iron pegs that were

00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:09.819
threaded at the end. So when they actually put

00:21:09.819 --> 00:21:11.500
the footers on top of there, they actually screwed

00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:14.079
into those, into the concrete, which is on top

00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:18.259
of the foundation, the coral. Okay. So that's

00:21:18.259 --> 00:21:20.019
why they picked that, and that's why they knew

00:21:20.019 --> 00:21:21.900
there was something underneath there. Okay, that

00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:24.259
makes sense. Clearly it worked. Yeah. Yeah. It

00:21:24.259 --> 00:21:27.380
worked really well. Yeah. We've had erosion on

00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:30.740
our southern side so bad. couple times that you

00:21:30.740 --> 00:21:32.700
could actually walk between the footers you know

00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:36.799
the concrete base oh yeah oh no it's pretty bad

00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:38.700
with hurricanes depending on what side of the

00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:40.920
state if they go on the west side of the state

00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:43.599
because they're counterclockwise we get hit because

00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:46.759
it comes right up the inlet there so we constantly

00:21:46.759 --> 00:21:50.599
lose that but then if they go the other way that

00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:52.599
the inlet side is fine but we lose our Atlantic

00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:57.099
side a bit so okay but I've actually found some

00:21:57.099 --> 00:22:01.890
pretty cool machinery down there. They left some

00:22:01.890 --> 00:22:04.390
stuff down there after they got done. You can't

00:22:04.390 --> 00:22:06.130
tell what it is because it's so corroded and

00:22:06.130 --> 00:22:08.490
it's so heavy. We just leave it. I'll just bury

00:22:08.490 --> 00:22:12.670
it in under sand. Saltwater and sand will do

00:22:12.670 --> 00:22:18.009
hell to the metal. That's cool. I forgot what

00:22:18.009 --> 00:22:21.009
I was going to say. You mentioned there's some

00:22:21.009 --> 00:22:23.190
vegetation that's planted around to help with

00:22:23.190 --> 00:22:26.490
erosion. What does that effort look like? It's

00:22:26.490 --> 00:22:30.730
called sea grape. grow in the sand it's loves

00:22:30.730 --> 00:22:36.950
the ocean and it's basically like a bush that

00:22:36.950 --> 00:22:39.190
grows into a giant tree the more you let it go

00:22:39.190 --> 00:22:42.410
out and you can't really kill the things you

00:22:42.410 --> 00:22:45.230
can trim them off anywhere and they'll just keep

00:22:45.230 --> 00:22:48.250
shooting out all over the place so we got to

00:22:48.250 --> 00:22:50.730
keep them you know trimmed down a bit but it

00:22:50.730 --> 00:22:53.130
does wonders for blocking the wind and it does

00:22:53.130 --> 00:22:56.869
the root system is so strong it really holds

00:22:56.869 --> 00:23:00.029
the beach Very, very well. Interesting. I've

00:23:00.029 --> 00:23:02.049
never had that before. I hadn't either. Yeah.

00:23:02.230 --> 00:23:04.670
And they, they do actually make little grapes

00:23:04.670 --> 00:23:08.150
that you can turn into a sea grape jelly, which

00:23:08.150 --> 00:23:10.630
used to be a delicacy down here. Yeah. Are they,

00:23:10.650 --> 00:23:12.269
do they just taste like regular grapes or are

00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:14.970
they kind of. No, no, they're a little more sour,

00:23:15.029 --> 00:23:17.329
but you, you take them and you really don't eat

00:23:17.329 --> 00:23:18.869
the berries. You boil them down and you make

00:23:18.869 --> 00:23:22.210
a jelly out of them. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Throw

00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:24.049
some sugar in. I bet it helps. Yeah. Oh yeah.

00:23:24.250 --> 00:23:27.920
Yeah. I'm sure you do. Well, you also told us

00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:29.859
about, I haven't told Vince any of the extra

00:23:29.859 --> 00:23:32.579
stories that you sent over email. So you could

00:23:32.579 --> 00:23:36.420
tell him maybe the one with the barefoot mailman

00:23:36.420 --> 00:23:38.319
was an interesting story. And I know that you

00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:40.299
guys have like a statue and everything that we

00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:42.519
didn't get to cover. So if you want to tell us

00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:45.200
about the history of that one. Okay, so this

00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:50.380
is pre -Lighthouse. So in 18, well, okay, let's

00:23:50.380 --> 00:23:54.609
put it this way. And again, there was nothing

00:23:54.609 --> 00:23:57.190
here. The Everglades hadn't been shut down yet,

00:23:57.230 --> 00:23:59.869
so a lot of the area was still marshland. There

00:23:59.869 --> 00:24:02.170
was no trains. There was no roads. There was

00:24:02.170 --> 00:24:04.549
no telephone, no telegraph, no nothing at the

00:24:04.549 --> 00:24:08.630
time. So if you lived in Palm Beach, which is

00:24:08.630 --> 00:24:10.910
to the north of us, and you had a friend who

00:24:10.910 --> 00:24:13.250
lived in Fort Dallas, which is now Miami, to

00:24:13.250 --> 00:24:17.839
the south of us, you would write a letter. Put

00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:20.740
it in either a train or stagecoach and go up

00:24:20.740 --> 00:24:22.519
to Titusville. From there, it would go up to

00:24:22.519 --> 00:24:27.680
New York, get on a boat, go to the Bahamas, go

00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:31.880
to Havana, Cuba, go to Key West, then over to

00:24:31.880 --> 00:24:35.380
Miami. What? So it could take anywhere from six

00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:38.579
weeks to several months, depending on hurricanes,

00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:42.039
shipping problems, things like that. So people

00:24:42.039 --> 00:24:45.460
said, you know what? We want some faster communication.

00:24:46.910 --> 00:24:49.609
think about now i want now now now well imagine

00:24:49.609 --> 00:24:52.609
waiting that long for a letter so the people

00:24:52.609 --> 00:24:54.890
petitioned the government well they petitioned

00:24:54.890 --> 00:24:57.329
the post office um this side of the state and

00:24:57.329 --> 00:24:59.250
the opposite side of the state and they said

00:24:59.250 --> 00:25:02.529
we want a mail route and the post office said

00:25:02.529 --> 00:25:07.130
that's fine we will hire somebody be like but

00:25:07.130 --> 00:25:10.150
you got to create your own kind of subcontracting

00:25:10.150 --> 00:25:13.549
business So somebody did and they opened up a

00:25:13.549 --> 00:25:15.329
couple of different routes on both sides of the

00:25:15.329 --> 00:25:19.029
state. So this one actually went from Lake Worth

00:25:19.029 --> 00:25:22.089
to the north of us. So imagine you're hired.

00:25:22.170 --> 00:25:24.250
These people who did it did it maybe for a year

00:25:24.250 --> 00:25:27.549
or so and often did it like with a son or a brother.

00:25:27.670 --> 00:25:31.089
And you kind of trade off because Monday morning

00:25:31.089 --> 00:25:34.549
you went to the post postmaster in Lake Worth,

00:25:34.690 --> 00:25:39.519
got your mail. You would either walk or. When

00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:41.359
you got to water row or if you have wind you

00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:43.960
would sail But you would go all the way down

00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:46.200
to what was called the Orange Grove House of

00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:49.079
Refuge Which is now Delray, which is a suburb

00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:52.319
to the north of us You would spend the night

00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:54.180
in the House of Refuge. It was run by a keeper

00:25:54.180 --> 00:25:57.019
and his family and What these were these were

00:25:57.019 --> 00:25:59.539
for shipwrecked sailors and in the southern states

00:25:59.539 --> 00:26:03.700
where you're on the coast Where you think shipwrecked

00:26:03.700 --> 00:26:05.460
victims might actually survive and make it to

00:26:05.460 --> 00:26:08.539
shore. They set these things up And so, like,

00:26:08.539 --> 00:26:10.039
imagine you're on a ship. You get shipwrecked.

00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:12.359
You make this shore. All you know is I have to

00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:13.940
go either one way or the other. I'm going to

00:26:13.940 --> 00:26:17.180
run into one of these things. And you knew which

00:26:17.180 --> 00:26:19.660
way it was because there were signs. It would

00:26:19.660 --> 00:26:21.720
tell you how far it was, like how many miles.

00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:24.359
But if you couldn't read, well, they made them

00:26:24.359 --> 00:26:27.319
in the shape. The sign was a long shape of an

00:26:27.319 --> 00:26:29.819
arm with a finger pointing. So you knew which

00:26:29.819 --> 00:26:32.220
way to go. So it's like, hey, I'm going the right

00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:33.539
way. Or, oh, crap, I'm going to go this way.

00:26:34.940 --> 00:26:39.200
So. um they were all the same keeper and stand

00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:40.539
living in the first floor they had a kitchen

00:26:40.539 --> 00:26:45.079
second floor was just like 25 or 30 cots just

00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:46.559
for shipwreck setups and they had enough provisions

00:26:46.559 --> 00:26:50.859
for a couple weeks so they made they worked out

00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:52.420
an agreement so that they were going to get paid

00:26:52.420 --> 00:26:57.079
and all that for the for the mail route so you

00:26:57.079 --> 00:27:00.599
would walk to that on monday or yeah monday spend

00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:02.319
the night there tuesday you would leave there

00:27:03.170 --> 00:27:05.869
Get to Fort Lauderdale House of Refuge, spend

00:27:05.869 --> 00:27:08.109
the night there. Wednesday, you would make it

00:27:08.109 --> 00:27:10.990
to Miami. Thursday, you would start the trip

00:27:10.990 --> 00:27:15.289
back. Oh, my God. Sunday was your day off. So

00:27:15.289 --> 00:27:18.569
I can't remember how many miles you would walk

00:27:18.569 --> 00:27:23.210
or row, but it was ridiculous. So there was a

00:27:23.210 --> 00:27:26.960
guy named Ed Hamilton. From my research, I found

00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.519
out that he and his buddies moved down from Trick

00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:31.980
County, Kentucky. They settled on the opposite

00:27:31.980 --> 00:27:35.019
side of the state to become farmers. Didn't really

00:27:35.019 --> 00:27:36.559
work for them, so they moved to this side of

00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:39.579
the state, brought three Jason plots on Lake

00:27:39.579 --> 00:27:42.420
Worth to farm, built one shack for the three

00:27:42.420 --> 00:27:47.980
of them. And Ed was six foot two, very strong,

00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:52.319
very athletic, and typically very healthy. But

00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:54.720
this October morning, he wakes up and he's...

00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:59.619
very very sick and it was his buddies were like

00:27:59.619 --> 00:28:01.559
you know don't go he's like no i got a job to

00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:05.339
do nobody else wanted to do it so he actually

00:28:05.339 --> 00:28:07.980
did it so he gets to orange grove first night

00:28:07.980 --> 00:28:12.319
sick comes down to hillsborough inlet second

00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:19.119
day nobody hears from him again oh no so his

00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:25.279
buddies go to on friday sorry saturday they go

00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:28.579
to uh the orange grove house of refuge because

00:28:28.579 --> 00:28:30.140
they want to meet with him and walk him back

00:28:30.140 --> 00:28:31.799
to see if he's still sick maybe they can carry

00:28:31.799 --> 00:28:34.299
the mail for him or you know help him back one

00:28:34.299 --> 00:28:38.819
way or the other keeper like him he never came

00:28:38.819 --> 00:28:41.359
you're like what are you talking about he hadn't

00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:46.599
showed up so they went back home told the postmaster

00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:50.180
what it that never got there so they went to

00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:54.890
go look for him so They get to Hillsboro Inlet.

00:28:54.930 --> 00:28:57.130
Now, remember, I said it was on the higher ground

00:28:57.130 --> 00:29:00.690
where the lighthouse is. And so where you walk.

00:29:01.250 --> 00:29:03.930
OK, so let me let me back up a little bit here.

00:29:04.009 --> 00:29:07.450
They're called barefoot mailmen because. You're

00:29:07.450 --> 00:29:10.809
the the post office issued them a machete, a

00:29:10.809 --> 00:29:13.650
hat and a mailbag. You supply your own rifle

00:29:13.650 --> 00:29:17.009
gun. whatever else. And the machete was to hack

00:29:17.009 --> 00:29:19.289
out a path. Well, the first guy who did is like,

00:29:19.369 --> 00:29:21.029
why should I do that? I can just take off my

00:29:21.029 --> 00:29:24.089
shoes, roll up my pants, walk in the hard pack

00:29:24.089 --> 00:29:26.849
of the beach, make it nice and easy. There were

00:29:26.849 --> 00:29:28.930
caves there in case it rained. You could hop

00:29:28.930 --> 00:29:32.609
in there and just, it was a much easier path.

00:29:32.650 --> 00:29:35.609
Plus the house of refuge is right on the beach.

00:29:35.750 --> 00:29:41.410
Okay. Why hack a path? Yeah. So, so when his

00:29:41.410 --> 00:29:45.009
buddies got down to Hillsboro, The closer they

00:29:45.009 --> 00:29:47.509
got, it had been raining for the past couple

00:29:47.509 --> 00:29:50.490
of weeks. Water level was high. The Everglades

00:29:50.490 --> 00:29:53.849
were overflowing. What's in the Everglades? Alligators.

00:29:54.349 --> 00:29:59.289
What's in saltwater? Crocodiles. The inlet was

00:29:59.289 --> 00:30:06.150
ringed by mangroves at the time. And so the closer

00:30:06.150 --> 00:30:08.210
they got, they actually started seeing gators

00:30:08.210 --> 00:30:10.130
up on the high ground sunning themselves. They

00:30:10.130 --> 00:30:14.539
saw crocs on the beach. you know saw tracks everywhere

00:30:14.539 --> 00:30:18.079
they get to the mangroves they look they see

00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:20.539
the boat is on the opposite side of the inlet

00:30:20.539 --> 00:30:25.019
they see all the beds closed mailbag hat machete

00:30:25.019 --> 00:30:27.799
rifle everything hanging in the mangroves oh

00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:31.500
no so obviously they figured out somebody had

00:30:31.500 --> 00:30:33.700
took the boat gone the opposite side he tried

00:30:33.700 --> 00:30:38.119
to swim across and he was eaten alive so what

00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:40.579
they did was They would clear the mangroves.

00:30:40.579 --> 00:30:42.660
One guy would shoot them, and they gutted them.

00:30:43.500 --> 00:30:46.680
I thought he was a bachelor. Well, a couple years

00:30:46.680 --> 00:30:50.680
ago, I got an email. Hi, I am Tony blah, blah,

00:30:50.700 --> 00:30:53.140
blah. I am Ed Hamilton's great, great, great,

00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:56.319
great, great grandson. Oh, my gosh. Exactly.

00:30:57.119 --> 00:30:58.859
I'm like, wait a minute, what? He was married?

00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:03.410
He had a kid? I'm like, okay, so. He had never

00:31:03.410 --> 00:31:05.890
been on site before, so I let him on site and

00:31:05.890 --> 00:31:09.369
met with him and everything. So he told me that

00:31:09.369 --> 00:31:13.769
through family lore that they gutted around 30

00:31:13.769 --> 00:31:15.990
crocs and gators trying to find his remains,

00:31:16.130 --> 00:31:20.609
and they didn't find him. But the Hamilton family

00:31:20.609 --> 00:31:23.789
kept all of his stuff, and what survived was

00:31:23.789 --> 00:31:27.549
the hat, the mailbag, the machete, which the

00:31:27.549 --> 00:31:30.940
family had donated to the Smithsonian. He still

00:31:30.940 --> 00:31:33.619
had the rifle, but the wood had rotted away and

00:31:33.619 --> 00:31:36.220
it was in two pieces. And he's like, you know,

00:31:36.279 --> 00:31:38.680
I think I'm going to get it restored and put

00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:44.299
in the Smithsonian. So end of last year, he shows

00:31:44.299 --> 00:31:46.740
up one day and I'm at work and I get a call from

00:31:46.740 --> 00:31:50.440
the guard gate. I'm like, yeah, let him in. And

00:31:50.440 --> 00:31:53.319
so he brought his wife with this time. So telling

00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:55.160
some stories. And I'm like, so did you ever get

00:31:55.160 --> 00:32:01.069
that rifle restored? He's like, no. I swear I'm

00:32:01.069 --> 00:32:02.589
going to do it this time, and I'm going to donate

00:32:02.589 --> 00:32:06.910
it to a Smithsonian, too. Okay, cool. So now

00:32:06.910 --> 00:32:11.690
back to the saga of Ed. In the Old West, what

00:32:11.690 --> 00:32:13.730
happened if you stole cattle? What happened if

00:32:13.730 --> 00:32:16.490
you stole a horse? They would hang you. Yeah,

00:32:16.529 --> 00:32:19.450
not good. Same thing with these boats. If you

00:32:19.450 --> 00:32:23.230
steal one of these, they could hang you. So on

00:32:23.230 --> 00:32:25.769
the Tuesday when Ed was supposed to show up in

00:32:25.769 --> 00:32:29.369
Fort Lauderdale, the Keeper of the House of Refuge...

00:32:29.549 --> 00:32:32.390
saw somebody wandering around. There's nobody

00:32:32.390 --> 00:32:35.869
here. And anybody that is here, I know. So he

00:32:35.869 --> 00:32:38.630
went up and approached them. And he was acting

00:32:38.630 --> 00:32:41.730
very jittery and didn't want to answer questions.

00:32:41.829 --> 00:32:44.069
And he said, oh, no, no, I got across the inlet

00:32:44.069 --> 00:32:47.130
with some fishermen. So he's like, well, I had

00:32:47.130 --> 00:32:50.250
no reason to keep them, so let them go. They

00:32:50.250 --> 00:32:52.990
actually found him, arrested him, took him up

00:32:52.990 --> 00:32:56.410
to Tallahassee to put him on trial. Excuse me.

00:32:58.089 --> 00:33:00.240
Unfortunately, they had... Not enough evidence

00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:03.940
to convict him. He got off with it. Yeah, so

00:33:03.940 --> 00:33:07.940
that's the story of Ed. So the pioneers of Lake

00:33:07.940 --> 00:33:11.119
Worth put a monument up to him, just a small

00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:13.660
one. And it's funny because one of the guys who

00:33:13.660 --> 00:33:16.819
put it there wound up being the husband of one

00:33:16.819 --> 00:33:19.839
of the lighthouse keeper's daughters, who has

00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:23.240
a son who is still one of our volunteers. Oh,

00:33:23.240 --> 00:33:24.599
my gosh. That's incredible. Yeah, it's pretty

00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:28.910
cool. And so the Barefoot Mailman. was never

00:33:28.910 --> 00:33:31.410
actually called that until there was a guy named

00:33:31.410 --> 00:33:34.549
edward pratt who wrote a book and became a movie

00:33:34.549 --> 00:33:37.529
called the barefoot mailman so he's the one who

00:33:37.529 --> 00:33:39.509
coined the phrase but then there was a barefoot

00:33:39.509 --> 00:33:43.069
mailman hotel down here and all barefoot mailman

00:33:43.069 --> 00:33:45.930
everything blah blah caught on so yeah so they

00:33:45.930 --> 00:33:49.430
had a commissioned a statue for the hotel made

00:33:49.430 --> 00:33:53.190
out of stone that went from the ground to the

00:33:53.190 --> 00:33:55.130
roof back to the ground to the roof there's a

00:33:55.130 --> 00:33:57.839
fire in the building they took it down Moved

00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:01.779
it to, when the hotel shut down, they moved it

00:34:01.779 --> 00:34:06.400
to Hillsborough Beach Town Hall. The woman who

00:34:06.400 --> 00:34:08.460
was the mayor of Hillsborough Beach at the time

00:34:08.460 --> 00:34:10.900
was also president of the Hillsborough Lighthouse

00:34:10.900 --> 00:34:15.119
Preservation Society. When they wanted to move

00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:18.900
that out and put a brass one there, or bronze,

00:34:18.940 --> 00:34:22.340
sorry, a bronze one there, she spearheaded the

00:34:22.340 --> 00:34:24.179
effort to move it to Hillsborough Lighthouse.

00:34:24.920 --> 00:34:27.869
Got it passed. And then we just kept updating

00:34:27.869 --> 00:34:30.809
it until it just, it fell apart. We sold it to

00:34:30.809 --> 00:34:33.670
a dive company for a dollar. They went out and

00:34:33.670 --> 00:34:36.789
sunk it as an artificial reef. We got a bronze

00:34:36.789 --> 00:34:39.929
one, replace it. So that's the picture that you

00:34:39.929 --> 00:34:44.309
see that I sent you. Very cool. It's so funny.

00:34:44.389 --> 00:34:46.610
The stuff that happens around a lighthouse. Like

00:34:46.610 --> 00:34:49.289
we talk a lot about like even caps place, how

00:34:49.289 --> 00:34:52.130
it's related, but not like directly to the lighthouse.

00:34:52.170 --> 00:34:54.409
So many very interesting stories that happen.

00:34:55.059 --> 00:35:01.519
Oh, okay. Here's another one. In 1941, I think,

00:35:01.539 --> 00:35:09.539
or 1940, January 1940, our keeper was Warren

00:35:09.539 --> 00:35:14.440
Bennett. Right before he got the position, he

00:35:14.440 --> 00:35:16.340
was in the hospital. He was recovering from some

00:35:16.340 --> 00:35:19.400
illnesses. One of the vice admirals asked him,

00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:21.199
because he knew him, came to visit him and goes,

00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:24.239
hey, how would you like an easy duty? Lighthouse

00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:26.340
duty. He's like, I can live with my family on

00:35:26.340 --> 00:35:30.219
site. Easy recovery place, blah, blah. Great.

00:35:31.099 --> 00:35:34.300
Well, shortly thereafter, World War II breaks

00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:38.360
out. Easiest job in the world becomes the hardest

00:35:38.360 --> 00:35:44.559
eight years of his life. So right before we entered

00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:47.340
the war, though, or was it right after? Whatever.

00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:53.039
He had to run security detail. There was no Secret

00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:56.900
Service yet. Churchill flew from England to D

00:35:56.900 --> 00:36:01.940
.C., from D .C. down to Palm Beach. Palm Beach

00:36:01.940 --> 00:36:04.960
got in a car, drove down to the Hillsborough

00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:08.300
Mile to stay in the Secretary of State's house.

00:36:08.380 --> 00:36:10.960
He had a house on the Hillsborough Mile. There

00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:15.760
he met up with FDR, Bull Halsey, and a couple

00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:19.199
other important people. So Warren Bennett had

00:36:19.199 --> 00:36:22.679
actually met FDR years before. He remembered

00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:24.519
him, asked him to run security because he owns

00:36:24.519 --> 00:36:27.599
Coast Garden. So he actually ran security detail

00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:29.619
for the week that they were down there, which

00:36:29.619 --> 00:36:31.940
was just, you know, a stone's throw from the

00:36:31.940 --> 00:36:36.679
lighthouse. And so Caps Place provided all the

00:36:36.679 --> 00:36:38.980
food for those guys. So they had the courier

00:36:38.980 --> 00:36:41.599
going over. And to get to Caps Place at the time,

00:36:41.619 --> 00:36:46.320
there was a road which is now A1A. You would

00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:49.260
park across, you'd flash your lights, and somebody

00:36:49.260 --> 00:36:51.119
would throw a boat over, get you, and take you

00:36:51.119 --> 00:36:55.699
back. So this one day, this little kid who's

00:36:55.699 --> 00:36:58.820
rowing the boat is told, hey, okay, we got some

00:36:58.820 --> 00:37:02.579
VIPs coming today. Take the boat, stay on the

00:37:02.579 --> 00:37:05.559
other side. Don't come back over unless you see

00:37:05.559 --> 00:37:09.579
me waving to you and flashing. And the kid didn't

00:37:09.579 --> 00:37:12.840
know who these people were. Turns out it's, you

00:37:12.840 --> 00:37:16.139
know, FDR, Churchill and all those guys. So he

00:37:16.139 --> 00:37:19.789
rows them over, rows them back. That kid. was

00:37:19.789 --> 00:37:23.989
the grandson of Thomas Knight. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

00:37:24.570 --> 00:37:28.289
So his father, Burnham, was actually one of the

00:37:28.289 --> 00:37:32.570
first charter fishing captains in our area. He

00:37:32.570 --> 00:37:34.889
took his first charter out at 12 years old. Oh,

00:37:34.909 --> 00:37:37.389
my. His father went with him, of course. But

00:37:37.389 --> 00:37:40.789
he knew how to boat. He knew where all the fishing

00:37:40.789 --> 00:37:43.110
spots were. Of course, fish were abundant at

00:37:43.110 --> 00:37:45.849
the time. And he became a charter fisherman.

00:37:46.090 --> 00:37:48.750
And so, yeah, his son actually kind of took over.

00:37:49.179 --> 00:37:53.400
that so yeah wow that's so interesting and cap's

00:37:53.400 --> 00:37:55.880
place is still there it's yes it is how would

00:37:55.880 --> 00:37:59.800
you describe it today awesome really yeah if

00:37:59.800 --> 00:38:03.340
you want rustic old pretty much all original

00:38:03.340 --> 00:38:05.639
other than you know air conditioning sure that's

00:38:05.639 --> 00:38:08.179
the place to go they've expanded on it over the

00:38:08.179 --> 00:38:10.559
years but the original section is still there

00:38:11.190 --> 00:38:13.090
on the barge but you really can't tell it's on

00:38:13.090 --> 00:38:16.489
the barge because you know they they filled landing

00:38:16.489 --> 00:38:18.889
around it and everything but yeah it's all still

00:38:18.889 --> 00:38:22.150
there that's super cool you know tons of old

00:38:22.150 --> 00:38:24.650
photographs in there which are really really

00:38:24.650 --> 00:38:26.869
awesome they have them like hung up on the walls

00:38:26.869 --> 00:38:30.670
yeah all over the place yeah that's neat and

00:38:30.670 --> 00:38:33.489
and you know it really you know kind of like

00:38:33.840 --> 00:38:37.000
cheesy you know walmart kind of frames it's like

00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:39.019
they didn't put any money it's like they wanted

00:38:39.019 --> 00:38:40.820
to keep the rustic feel because so they just

00:38:40.820 --> 00:38:42.599
whatever they got because they put it in a little

00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:45.800
cheesy frame and put it up yeah perfect but you

00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:47.619
know like wood frames but you know the glass

00:38:47.619 --> 00:38:51.400
isn't very clean anymore so authentic yeah it's

00:38:51.400 --> 00:38:55.000
very a real experience not an apple yes no no

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.880
and the people who run it are it's the daughter

00:38:59.880 --> 00:39:04.840
of cap's partner so cap Met a guy named Al Hasse.

00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:07.519
Depending on who you talk to, it's either Hase

00:39:07.519 --> 00:39:11.760
or Hasse. Okay. You know, he named his daughter

00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:16.079
Tally, like Tallahassee. She hates her name.

00:39:16.119 --> 00:39:19.239
I'm sure she'll love that. Yeah. And so she still

00:39:19.239 --> 00:39:22.860
runs it along with some other siblings and that.

00:39:23.019 --> 00:39:26.280
Yeah. Okay, cool. That's incredible. So we've

00:39:26.280 --> 00:39:28.500
never, at least I've never been down there. No.

00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:30.599
Hillsborough area. What's it like generally?

00:39:31.800 --> 00:39:39.519
Expensive. very expensive or everything um everything's

00:39:39.519 --> 00:39:41.179
gone off yeah since i moved down here at least

00:39:41.179 --> 00:39:45.079
um the hillborough mile it's called millionaire's

00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:51.679
mile for a reason um and so that's going north

00:39:51.679 --> 00:39:55.219
right across the inlet is now called lighthouse

00:39:55.219 --> 00:40:00.500
point very affluent then you have pompano or

00:40:00.500 --> 00:40:03.909
pompano beach And there you have sections from

00:40:03.909 --> 00:40:07.349
very low class to multimillion dollar homes.

00:40:07.849 --> 00:40:09.829
And, you know, obviously closer to the water,

00:40:09.909 --> 00:40:14.010
you get the multimillion dollar homes. Safe area,

00:40:14.210 --> 00:40:19.289
clean area. Unfortunately, you get a lot of people

00:40:19.289 --> 00:40:24.130
who feel entitled to do whatever they want. Sure.

00:40:24.269 --> 00:40:26.369
So we have a lot of that in the area because,

00:40:26.429 --> 00:40:29.409
you know, well, daddy's got money. Shut up. Of

00:40:29.409 --> 00:40:35.880
course. But the funniest thing is, this happens

00:40:35.880 --> 00:40:39.559
a lot at tours. So in 1930, off the base of the

00:40:39.559 --> 00:40:44.480
lighthouse, the district inspector got a granite

00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:46.679
jetty built out from the base of the lighthouse.

00:40:46.780 --> 00:40:50.739
They had tried some wood ones out along the shoreline

00:40:50.739 --> 00:40:53.679
to help prevent erosion. They just kept breaking

00:40:53.679 --> 00:40:56.730
apart. the district inspector always wanted this

00:40:56.730 --> 00:40:59.469
granite one and so he finally got his way and

00:40:59.469 --> 00:41:00.650
everybody's saying it's never going to work never

00:41:00.650 --> 00:41:04.670
going to work let's work perfectly and then it

00:41:04.670 --> 00:41:08.150
goes out to the dead reef and then in the 60s

00:41:08.150 --> 00:41:12.789
they added more of the the gravel or the gravel

00:41:12.789 --> 00:41:15.989
the granite blocks out at the end of the reef

00:41:15.989 --> 00:41:18.929
so now they control the flow of water so now

00:41:18.929 --> 00:41:21.289
it's a nice straight shot coming in because beforehand

00:41:21.289 --> 00:41:24.469
sand would go wherever it wanted to and it would

00:41:24.469 --> 00:41:27.150
either shut down the entire operation or the

00:41:27.150 --> 00:41:29.329
only navigable water was a little ring around

00:41:29.329 --> 00:41:32.690
the opposite side of the inlet so now there's

00:41:32.690 --> 00:41:36.949
this what we call a weir which is where the dead

00:41:36.949 --> 00:41:40.289
reef is exposed especially at low tide But at

00:41:40.289 --> 00:41:42.570
high tide, sometimes you can make it over with

00:41:42.570 --> 00:41:46.190
your boat. Oh, no. Sometimes you can't. So the

00:41:46.190 --> 00:41:49.610
channel is clearly marked. And you should know

00:41:49.610 --> 00:41:51.710
what you're doing just like you drive a car.

00:41:52.329 --> 00:41:55.349
Most people, if you can afford a boat, if you're

00:41:55.349 --> 00:41:59.230
under 18 or 20, you don't have to take a class.

00:41:59.570 --> 00:42:02.489
Really? Boating safety. No. If you have enough

00:42:02.489 --> 00:42:05.570
money to buy a boat, here's the key. Don't blow

00:42:05.570 --> 00:42:08.570
yourself up. Oh, no. Yeah. Seriously. It's just

00:42:08.570 --> 00:42:13.190
like. Before you turn it on, vent out the fuel

00:42:13.190 --> 00:42:15.750
area because otherwise you're going to blow yourself

00:42:15.750 --> 00:42:19.190
up. That's pretty much all they tell you. Gosh.

00:42:19.789 --> 00:42:22.269
So if you don't know what you're doing, like

00:42:22.269 --> 00:42:24.130
a lot of these kids take daddy's boat out to

00:42:24.130 --> 00:42:28.050
show off their kids, their friends. Bam, they

00:42:28.050 --> 00:42:30.789
hit that weir and now they're stuck there. No.

00:42:31.449 --> 00:42:34.969
And what's beautiful is like if you wait till

00:42:34.969 --> 00:42:37.570
high tide, you'll probably just float off. But

00:42:37.570 --> 00:42:40.079
we have what's called sea tow. There's Tow Boat

00:42:40.079 --> 00:42:43.059
U .S. and there's one other company. And they

00:42:43.059 --> 00:42:45.320
pretty much have a boat that anchors right off

00:42:45.320 --> 00:42:48.059
there. Oh, my gosh. And they just wait for people

00:42:48.059 --> 00:42:50.900
and wait for calls from boat users in distress.

00:42:51.059 --> 00:42:54.199
Because if you buy a boat and you buy a contract

00:42:54.199 --> 00:42:55.800
with one of these companies, they'll come out

00:42:55.800 --> 00:42:59.019
and tell you for free. If you don't have a contract

00:42:59.019 --> 00:43:00.980
with them and they come out and offer assistance,

00:43:01.340 --> 00:43:04.340
you have to pay them before they do anything.

00:43:04.780 --> 00:43:07.219
Because if they throw you a line. and you grab

00:43:07.219 --> 00:43:10.840
onto it and tie it to your boat, legally, maritime

00:43:10.840 --> 00:43:14.940
salvage laws, they own your boat. Oh. And a lot

00:43:14.940 --> 00:43:16.699
of people don't know that. And they'd say, you

00:43:16.699 --> 00:43:18.420
know, you have to pay us beforehand because otherwise

00:43:18.420 --> 00:43:20.360
we can confiscate your boat from you because

00:43:20.360 --> 00:43:22.820
of maritime salvage. Well, some people just don't.

00:43:22.820 --> 00:43:24.460
They're in such a panic. They don't listen. Oh,

00:43:24.579 --> 00:43:27.820
whatever. Okay, I'll do it. Then they don't want

00:43:27.820 --> 00:43:31.360
to pay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, guess what? The cops

00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:33.280
don't mess around. Did you sign it? Did you pay?

00:43:33.380 --> 00:43:36.159
No. It's all right. Now we can do. Oh, shoot.

00:43:36.559 --> 00:43:39.119
That sounds like an expensive hobby. Yes, it

00:43:39.119 --> 00:43:43.460
is. I can see if you're not educated in it, then

00:43:43.460 --> 00:43:48.480
it's bound to happen at some point. They go inside

00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:52.880
the swim buoys all the time. Swim buoys for swimmers,

00:43:52.960 --> 00:43:57.719
not for boaters. You get it all the time. You

00:43:57.719 --> 00:43:59.980
get all sorts of people everywhere, I'm sure.

00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:05.349
The same type of people everywhere you go. So

00:44:05.349 --> 00:44:08.250
speaking of expensive, let's talk about the restoration

00:44:08.250 --> 00:44:12.929
a little. What made you decide to start doing

00:44:12.929 --> 00:44:16.329
the restoration process? Or like what kind of

00:44:16.329 --> 00:44:18.030
did you find out about the lighthouse that required

00:44:18.030 --> 00:44:21.869
the start of a restoration idea? So this is actually

00:44:21.869 --> 00:44:26.349
something that's been ongoing for at least five

00:44:26.349 --> 00:44:30.190
years now. Oh, wow. Yeah, so the last time the

00:44:30.190 --> 00:44:32.030
lighthouse got painted, it was done incorrectly.

00:44:32.369 --> 00:44:36.320
Oh, no. It looked beautiful for about a month.

00:44:36.920 --> 00:44:39.300
And then the rust started showing through. And

00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:41.820
then the quote -unquote contract we had with

00:44:41.820 --> 00:44:44.980
the painter, they never honored because they

00:44:44.980 --> 00:44:46.139
were supposed to come back and do touch -ups.

00:44:46.139 --> 00:44:54.980
They never did. Yeah. So the horizontal struts,

00:44:55.199 --> 00:45:01.519
they're iron bars. They're probably 8 to 10 inches

00:45:01.519 --> 00:45:06.250
across in diameter. And they go from all the

00:45:06.250 --> 00:45:10.349
footers and then from the footer to the base

00:45:10.349 --> 00:45:13.469
of the actual center cylinder. Those are buried

00:45:13.469 --> 00:45:19.630
under sand from probably early 60s till 1997,

00:45:20.150 --> 00:45:27.789
98. So all that sand shortened the lifespan and

00:45:27.789 --> 00:45:30.769
it just rubbing under the friction, the salt

00:45:30.769 --> 00:45:33.190
and everything. And so instead of being nice

00:45:33.190 --> 00:45:38.519
and... cylinder cylindrical they've broken down

00:45:38.519 --> 00:45:40.980
some some of them have to be completely replaced

00:45:40.980 --> 00:45:48.559
some of them can be salvaged so we we also um

00:45:48.559 --> 00:45:51.360
incorrectly well i can't say incorrectly but

00:45:51.360 --> 00:45:55.199
we got a bunch of the turnbuckles and sway bars

00:45:55.199 --> 00:45:59.840
replaced in 2017 right before we painted and

00:45:59.840 --> 00:46:04.639
were encoded properly And so a bunch of them

00:46:04.639 --> 00:46:06.579
have to be replaced again. Plus a bunch of them

00:46:06.579 --> 00:46:08.519
at the bottom were never replaced. They have

00:46:08.519 --> 00:46:12.539
to be replaced. So functionally, it's still fine.

00:46:13.159 --> 00:46:16.179
Everything still has enough on it. But you have

00:46:16.179 --> 00:46:18.400
to stop it at some point because at some point

00:46:18.400 --> 00:46:21.980
something's going to fail. So we've been trying

00:46:21.980 --> 00:46:24.000
to come up with different ideas what to do. So

00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:25.300
we've had a bunch of different companies come

00:46:25.300 --> 00:46:29.280
in and give us bids. International Chimney Corporation,

00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:32.530
the ones who moved Cape Hatteras. They're pretty

00:46:32.530 --> 00:46:35.250
much the industry leader right now in doing lighthouse

00:46:35.250 --> 00:46:39.690
restoration. They came out and they gave us different

00:46:39.690 --> 00:46:43.510
quotes and everything. And they gave us a solution,

00:46:43.730 --> 00:46:50.510
the most low -cost solution, to fix or replace

00:46:50.510 --> 00:46:55.889
the bottom struts. So the Coast Guard Civil Engineering,

00:46:56.110 --> 00:46:58.110
like I told you earlier, gave us approval this

00:46:58.110 --> 00:47:03.760
week to do the restoration. We decided we don't

00:47:03.760 --> 00:47:07.739
have $2 million. Yeah. We just had our annual

00:47:07.739 --> 00:47:11.500
fundraising gala. We cleared $64 ,000, which

00:47:11.500 --> 00:47:15.500
is our best fundraising gala ever. We got a grant

00:47:15.500 --> 00:47:17.320
from Florida Lighthouse Association. I can't

00:47:17.320 --> 00:47:19.219
remember how much that's for. We do have money

00:47:19.219 --> 00:47:21.760
in the bank. So it looks like we are going to

00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:24.360
get close to, by the end of this year, getting

00:47:24.360 --> 00:47:28.480
enough money to redo just the base. Okay. And

00:47:28.480 --> 00:47:31.570
get that. And what we're hoping is that. And

00:47:31.570 --> 00:47:33.710
people who like to donate, they like to see what

00:47:33.710 --> 00:47:35.449
their donations are going to. So we can go say,

00:47:35.550 --> 00:47:38.949
hey, here's a before, here's an after. You can

00:47:38.949 --> 00:47:41.670
see we're actually trying to do this. And we're

00:47:41.670 --> 00:47:43.050
hoping that it's going to help us generate more

00:47:43.050 --> 00:47:47.449
funds. So everybody's always talking about doing

00:47:47.449 --> 00:47:50.750
the external. When I had ICC here, I said, OK,

00:47:50.849 --> 00:47:53.630
you know, that's great. Let's go internal. There's

00:47:53.630 --> 00:47:55.750
some things I want to show you. And so I showed

00:47:55.750 --> 00:47:57.929
them and it's going to come nowhere near two

00:47:57.929 --> 00:48:00.960
million to. to fix a couple of things inside.

00:48:01.079 --> 00:48:02.940
He goes, yeah, but you know, I can see at some

00:48:02.940 --> 00:48:04.699
points it's going to be critical. I'd see, you

00:48:04.699 --> 00:48:06.619
know, you had water leakage through the old windows.

00:48:06.719 --> 00:48:10.619
One of the windows, I'm not kidding. It's just

00:48:10.619 --> 00:48:12.679
the bottom part that moves up and down. You put

00:48:12.679 --> 00:48:14.639
it down, you can actually take your fingers and

00:48:14.639 --> 00:48:19.079
go outside. Oh no. And it's like, gee, I wonder

00:48:19.079 --> 00:48:21.199
why we're getting water coming in here when the

00:48:21.199 --> 00:48:23.480
wind is blowing from the south, you know, straight

00:48:23.480 --> 00:48:28.139
on, it's coming up and over through. Art McKinnon,

00:48:28.199 --> 00:48:33.320
who, He headed HLPS for a number of years, and

00:48:33.320 --> 00:48:38.199
he was the chief liaison to the Coast Guard during

00:48:38.199 --> 00:48:43.239
the initial restoration back in the early 98s,

00:48:43.239 --> 00:48:48.219
that era when the lens broke down. He at one

00:48:48.219 --> 00:48:51.340
point replaced not all of the windows in the

00:48:51.340 --> 00:48:54.779
Lantern, but all the ones that weren't. Because

00:48:54.779 --> 00:48:57.340
over years, people shot at them or, of course,

00:48:57.480 --> 00:48:59.780
birds hit them and broke. Yeah, exactly. I hate

00:48:59.780 --> 00:49:01.599
that. You love that. Oh, I know. It drives me

00:49:01.599 --> 00:49:04.340
nuts. So they just used whatever they had. Some

00:49:04.340 --> 00:49:06.860
were plexiglass. Some actually had chicken wire

00:49:06.860 --> 00:49:09.579
in them. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Some of them just

00:49:09.579 --> 00:49:11.420
weren't the right thickness. So he went around

00:49:11.420 --> 00:49:14.019
and figured out which ones needed replaced and

00:49:14.019 --> 00:49:18.099
did it. Unfortunately, what they used to glaze

00:49:18.099 --> 00:49:22.289
it and secure it is broken down. before it's

00:49:22.289 --> 00:49:24.409
time so we were getting a lot of water intrusion

00:49:24.409 --> 00:49:27.030
there so that was causing a lot of water at the

00:49:27.030 --> 00:49:29.010
top and of course water is going to run down

00:49:29.010 --> 00:49:32.309
so damage here damage here damage here all the

00:49:32.309 --> 00:49:35.170
way on down the line so like i said it's going

00:49:35.170 --> 00:49:37.469
on at least for five years and it's just like

00:49:37.469 --> 00:49:39.570
you know what we have to act now because if we

00:49:39.570 --> 00:49:41.989
don't it's not going to be around for another

00:49:41.989 --> 00:49:48.289
100 years so yeah to answer your question it

00:49:48.289 --> 00:49:52.119
just needs to be done yeah for sure yeah So you

00:49:52.119 --> 00:49:55.340
guys are kind of focusing on like the things

00:49:55.340 --> 00:49:57.719
that could be a catastrophic failure before you

00:49:57.719 --> 00:50:00.760
start branching out and okay. Yeah. So we want

00:50:00.760 --> 00:50:02.239
to get the base done and then we're going to

00:50:02.239 --> 00:50:06.179
work from our top down. Okay. And then if you

00:50:06.179 --> 00:50:09.019
look at, you know, if you look at the picture

00:50:09.019 --> 00:50:12.300
behind me, you can see half and half, half black,

00:50:12.340 --> 00:50:18.039
half white. In 1969, it used to be a different.

00:50:19.389 --> 00:50:22.429
what's called a day mark. So top two thirds of

00:50:22.429 --> 00:50:24.409
it was black. The bottom one third was white

00:50:24.409 --> 00:50:28.150
to show off the background versus the sky. So

00:50:28.150 --> 00:50:30.449
the white would show off trees. The black would

00:50:30.449 --> 00:50:32.869
show off sky. Well, we had Australian pines had

00:50:32.869 --> 00:50:36.309
grown up and obliterated the entire white section.

00:50:36.510 --> 00:50:39.170
So in 69, they switched the middle black section

00:50:39.170 --> 00:50:44.489
to a white section. So we were hosting our Admiral

00:50:44.489 --> 00:50:48.210
at the time, we were Admiral McPherson and he,

00:50:48.539 --> 00:50:50.500
He's very interested in preserving history. He's

00:50:50.500 --> 00:50:53.559
very proactive with, you know, Coast Guard things.

00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:57.239
And he's a huge friend of ours. His wife actually

00:50:57.239 --> 00:51:00.460
became a lifetime member of our society. You

00:51:00.460 --> 00:51:03.960
would never know that this guy, most of the rear

00:51:03.960 --> 00:51:06.579
admirals, you would never know that they're that

00:51:06.579 --> 00:51:08.460
high up in the Coast Guard because they're the

00:51:08.460 --> 00:51:11.019
most normal down -to -earth people. They don't

00:51:11.019 --> 00:51:14.079
show off. They don't talk about themselves. Tell

00:51:14.079 --> 00:51:16.519
me about you. What do you do for a living? are

00:51:16.519 --> 00:51:18.099
you married do you have kids tell me about that

00:51:18.099 --> 00:51:20.400
they don't talk about themselves yeah these are

00:51:20.400 --> 00:51:24.820
the nicest people and so when we had him in he

00:51:24.820 --> 00:51:27.300
goes you know you're the historian you know tell

00:51:27.300 --> 00:51:28.980
me some things that you would like to do and

00:51:28.980 --> 00:51:30.539
so i said well i'd like to actually go back to

00:51:30.539 --> 00:51:32.820
the original day mark now the australian pines

00:51:32.820 --> 00:51:35.420
are gone he goes well he goes it can be done

00:51:35.420 --> 00:51:39.760
but uh we have to change all the legal descriptions

00:51:39.760 --> 00:51:42.320
and you know it's all electronic now so it's

00:51:42.320 --> 00:51:44.219
not that big of a deal but it's going to take

00:51:44.219 --> 00:51:47.780
some doing Well, it was a week or so later, he

00:51:47.780 --> 00:51:49.519
reaches out to us. He goes, hey, I'm looking

00:51:49.519 --> 00:51:52.199
at the legal description. Because they never

00:51:52.199 --> 00:51:55.739
change it. So technically, you're fixing a mistake.

00:51:56.179 --> 00:51:59.360
No paperwork. Have at it. There you go. Oh, my

00:51:59.360 --> 00:52:01.539
gosh. That's amazing. Yeah. So when we actually

00:52:01.539 --> 00:52:03.059
do repaint, it's going back to the original day

00:52:03.059 --> 00:52:06.900
mark. That's so great. Yeah. That's so fun. I

00:52:06.900 --> 00:52:08.699
actually didn't even know that it had changed

00:52:08.699 --> 00:52:11.579
to half and half. Most people don't. Yeah. It's

00:52:11.579 --> 00:52:13.059
such a subtle change. It's so subtle that most

00:52:13.059 --> 00:52:15.900
people don't pick it up. Yeah. Back to two -thirds.

00:52:16.019 --> 00:52:20.219
That's exciting. I wanted to ask, the base repairs

00:52:20.219 --> 00:52:23.400
are based on corrosion in the sand, with the

00:52:23.400 --> 00:52:27.340
saltwater, and of course with time. What does

00:52:27.340 --> 00:52:29.539
that look like? Do they physically replace members

00:52:29.539 --> 00:52:31.960
one at a time? Do they do coatings? Do they do

00:52:31.960 --> 00:52:37.280
epoxies, casting? One of the ideas was to sleeve

00:52:37.280 --> 00:52:39.780
it, fill it with, you know, sandblast it down

00:52:39.780 --> 00:52:43.269
to... base metal sleeve it put an inert substance

00:52:43.269 --> 00:52:48.630
in there that's one of the options but the option

00:52:48.630 --> 00:52:50.730
we're going to go with is that they're at the

00:52:50.730 --> 00:52:52.429
ends where they go into the footers they still

00:52:52.429 --> 00:52:54.550
have keys on them so you can actually hammer

00:52:54.550 --> 00:52:58.170
those out and jostle them out so what we're going

00:52:58.170 --> 00:53:00.849
to the ones that can be salvaged we haven't completely

00:53:00.849 --> 00:53:02.809
come up with the idea but we know we are going

00:53:02.809 --> 00:53:05.570
to do something with an inert substance to surround

00:53:05.570 --> 00:53:07.889
them and we'll get them sanded and they'll look

00:53:07.889 --> 00:53:10.820
brand new But the ones that have to be replaced

00:53:10.820 --> 00:53:14.780
will hammer the keys out, cut them, slide them

00:53:14.780 --> 00:53:18.019
out, put a new one in, probably in two sections,

00:53:18.139 --> 00:53:21.420
and then weld it into place. So like a center

00:53:21.420 --> 00:53:26.179
weld, and then you won't be able to tell. It's

00:53:26.179 --> 00:53:28.659
going to be one at a time. With anchors, and

00:53:28.659 --> 00:53:31.059
the anchors are still good to use. Yes. Oh, the

00:53:31.059 --> 00:53:33.579
footers are just perfect. Yeah. Not a problem.

00:53:33.719 --> 00:53:37.429
Nice. Yeah. You can see the concrete has been

00:53:37.429 --> 00:53:39.349
restored several times over the years, but the

00:53:39.349 --> 00:53:41.610
footers, I mean, they're rock solid. They have

00:53:41.610 --> 00:53:45.409
huge nuts on the ends of these things. I mean,

00:53:45.449 --> 00:53:50.190
it's like the threading on these things was just

00:53:50.190 --> 00:53:53.230
monstrous. And so to hold these things in place,

00:53:53.230 --> 00:53:57.769
you obviously figure. The crazy thing is those

00:53:57.769 --> 00:54:01.469
have held up. If you look really close at some

00:54:01.469 --> 00:54:06.219
of the. turnbuckles if they're rounded they're

00:54:06.219 --> 00:54:09.260
original and a lot of those are still there they

00:54:09.260 --> 00:54:12.639
look fantastic if you look at the ones that have

00:54:12.639 --> 00:54:16.800
squared section squared off sections those are

00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:21.239
falling apart it's like original is holding up

00:54:21.239 --> 00:54:23.460
the ones that we replaced are already falling

00:54:23.460 --> 00:54:27.309
apart it's like what is going on here So the

00:54:27.309 --> 00:54:29.429
ICC guys actually said, you know, if they had

00:54:29.429 --> 00:54:31.429
stainless steel back then, they probably would

00:54:31.429 --> 00:54:32.809
have built these completely out of stainless

00:54:32.809 --> 00:54:35.030
steel and never had an issue with any of that

00:54:35.030 --> 00:54:38.050
stuff. So when we redo it, we might be doing

00:54:38.050 --> 00:54:41.050
parts in stainless steel. Okay. Yeah. But the

00:54:41.050 --> 00:54:43.110
only problem is now you have to coat them in

00:54:43.110 --> 00:54:46.550
a certain way because metals can't touch other

00:54:46.550 --> 00:54:49.590
metals because it'll enhance the corrosion and,

00:54:49.690 --> 00:54:52.610
you know, break things down faster. But they

00:54:52.610 --> 00:54:55.030
have a way to do all that stuff. Yeah, for sure.

00:54:55.389 --> 00:54:58.750
We even do that in piping systems. Not quite

00:54:58.750 --> 00:55:03.650
as cool, but same concept. So you mentioned over

00:55:03.650 --> 00:55:05.949
email too that maybe the oil house would need

00:55:05.949 --> 00:55:09.070
a restoration. Did you say something like? Yeah,

00:55:09.090 --> 00:55:13.130
so we were electrified in 32. By 37, it needed

00:55:13.130 --> 00:55:15.849
repairs. So the lighthouse service just told

00:55:15.849 --> 00:55:19.650
the keeper, Ben Stone, just tear it apart. So

00:55:19.650 --> 00:55:24.190
him and the assistant, Joe Gisler, who's another

00:55:24.190 --> 00:55:27.219
character, Alfred Bregel, our first keeper, Thomas

00:55:27.219 --> 00:55:31.059
Knight, our second keeper, Judge Isler, Ben Stone,

00:55:31.260 --> 00:55:34.719
you could do a full -length feature movie on

00:55:34.719 --> 00:55:37.239
their lives, each one of them separately, and

00:55:37.239 --> 00:55:39.179
you wouldn't have to embellish any of them. Oh,

00:55:39.199 --> 00:55:40.599
my goodness. And you'd be like, oh, my God, these

00:55:40.599 --> 00:55:43.400
people are crazy. These people are such crazy

00:55:43.400 --> 00:55:46.139
lives. But one of the things that these guys

00:55:46.139 --> 00:55:49.000
had to do is they dismantled the oil house. So

00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.320
what did they do? They just broke it apart, took

00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:54.400
it in wheelbarrows, dumped it in the inlet. Oh,

00:55:54.440 --> 00:55:57.429
my gosh. So when we get the sand erosion, we

00:55:57.429 --> 00:55:59.949
find bricks, and I'll just pull them up. We have

00:55:59.949 --> 00:56:04.469
a little brick wall. Earlier this year, we had

00:56:04.469 --> 00:56:07.570
so much erosion that entire sections of the lower

00:56:07.570 --> 00:56:11.190
parts of the wall had been exposed. So we have

00:56:11.190 --> 00:56:13.610
a dredge that's permanently anchored inside our

00:56:13.610 --> 00:56:16.449
inlet. They rent the property from the Coast

00:56:16.449 --> 00:56:19.369
Guard for like a dollar for 100 years. It's a

00:56:19.369 --> 00:56:24.280
great system. And what they did was they had

00:56:24.280 --> 00:56:26.539
this huge cranes. And I went to the guy in charge.

00:56:26.659 --> 00:56:28.079
I'm like, hey, Woody, you think you can help

00:56:28.079 --> 00:56:30.139
us out? He's like, what do you want? I go, well,

00:56:30.179 --> 00:56:31.719
we'd like to get these sections of brick wall

00:56:31.719 --> 00:56:34.340
taken off the beach, which is going to be covered

00:56:34.340 --> 00:56:37.880
up with sand, put back on the grounds. No problem.

00:56:37.980 --> 00:56:39.619
So they did it. They put it right in place for

00:56:39.619 --> 00:56:43.400
us. And the guy is a wizard. Knew how to lift

00:56:43.400 --> 00:56:46.179
these brick walls sections up without having

00:56:46.179 --> 00:56:48.579
them break in two. I mean, he just had it down

00:56:48.579 --> 00:56:50.860
perfect. Yeah, the guy was a genius. And what

00:56:50.860 --> 00:56:54.119
I didn't realize. The walls along the sides,

00:56:54.199 --> 00:56:57.000
they were four bricks thick. Okay. Back to another

00:56:57.000 --> 00:56:59.019
question that you brought up. Oh, good. About

00:56:59.019 --> 00:57:02.360
the fire. The lighthouse would have survived.

00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:05.360
The houses, storehouses would have burned down.

00:57:05.519 --> 00:57:08.059
The oil house probably would have blown up. Oh,

00:57:08.059 --> 00:57:11.000
gosh. Yeah. Because there were 100 -gallon butts

00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:13.420
of kerosene in there. So, yeah, that thing would

00:57:13.420 --> 00:57:17.360
have blown up. So, don't know what happened.

00:57:17.420 --> 00:57:19.760
They obviously just got rid of the oil butts,

00:57:19.920 --> 00:57:23.360
unfortunately. They're awesome. I would love

00:57:23.360 --> 00:57:27.099
to have them. So after we get the restoration

00:57:27.099 --> 00:57:30.460
done, I have to go through a process of petitioning

00:57:30.460 --> 00:57:33.739
the Coast Guard and SHPO, which is the State

00:57:33.739 --> 00:57:36.260
Historic Preservation Association, because we

00:57:36.260 --> 00:57:38.739
are the National Trust of Historic Places or

00:57:38.739 --> 00:57:43.940
Landmarks. So we're going to petition them. This

00:57:43.940 --> 00:57:46.780
is where the oil house was. We want to rebuild

00:57:46.780 --> 00:57:50.619
it, not in the same place, but in a more... advantageous

00:57:50.619 --> 00:57:53.260
spot with as much original material as we can

00:57:53.260 --> 00:57:57.179
because uh we have granite from the gables that

00:57:57.179 --> 00:57:59.960
we can reuse tons of bricks there's more bricks

00:57:59.960 --> 00:58:02.659
buried underneath there that we can still use

00:58:02.659 --> 00:58:04.639
we just have to get a new foundation and then

00:58:04.639 --> 00:58:08.039
find there we actually found a company that does

00:58:08.039 --> 00:58:11.860
historical brick work and uh and not necessarily

00:58:11.860 --> 00:58:14.679
they're gonna do it for free but at a much reduced

00:58:14.679 --> 00:58:17.780
price because of what it is yeah yeah so we want

00:58:17.780 --> 00:58:21.519
to get that rebuilt all original as much as we

00:58:21.519 --> 00:58:24.780
can and then turn it into a little miniature

00:58:24.780 --> 00:58:28.199
museum so we'll get actual museum placards because

00:58:28.199 --> 00:58:31.860
i've got i got more photos of the place from

00:58:31.860 --> 00:58:33.780
throughout the years that we can do a timeline

00:58:33.780 --> 00:58:36.619
with keepers photos and just i want to do a timeline

00:58:36.619 --> 00:58:38.599
throughout the whole thing that would be so and

00:58:38.599 --> 00:58:41.179
then so it'll be storage for like our tents and

00:58:41.179 --> 00:58:43.679
stuff that we use for tours pull that stuff out

00:58:43.679 --> 00:58:46.920
and then have another amenity for people coming

00:58:46.920 --> 00:58:49.489
on tour days That's a great idea. That's a great

00:58:49.489 --> 00:58:51.670
idea. And how cool that it survived all that

00:58:51.670 --> 00:58:55.949
time. Just big chunks. Discarded and refused

00:58:55.949 --> 00:58:58.889
to go away. So what's interesting is we got those

00:58:58.889 --> 00:59:04.349
pulled out end of last year. Maybe October or

00:59:04.349 --> 00:59:07.050
last year. I can't remember now. And just the

00:59:07.050 --> 00:59:09.610
other day I noticed the bricks are starting to

00:59:09.610 --> 00:59:13.230
leach salt out of them. Oh, yeah. So I'm like,

00:59:13.269 --> 00:59:15.980
I didn't put. Didn't take that into consideration

00:59:15.980 --> 00:59:18.099
that the bricks are porous and they were salt.

00:59:18.199 --> 00:59:20.699
So now you'd go out there and wash them off to

00:59:20.699 --> 00:59:23.139
get, make sure as much salt comes out of them

00:59:23.139 --> 00:59:25.519
as they possibly can. Yeah. So like the individual

00:59:25.519 --> 00:59:29.280
bricks, they're fine. I haven't seen any salt,

00:59:29.340 --> 00:59:31.579
but the actual sections of a wall, if you sit

00:59:31.579 --> 00:59:34.300
on them, you'll get up here all chalky. That's

00:59:34.300 --> 00:59:37.159
so interesting. Yeah. That's really cool. I would

00:59:37.159 --> 00:59:40.260
not have thought of that. Well, cool. So I guess

00:59:40.260 --> 00:59:41.599
another big question. I don't know if you'd have

00:59:41.599 --> 00:59:44.719
an answer to this at this point, but. When do

00:59:44.719 --> 00:59:47.460
you think, if you were able to do all of the

00:59:47.460 --> 00:59:49.380
restoration projects you want on the lighthouse,

00:59:49.579 --> 00:59:51.579
how long do you think that it would take you

00:59:51.579 --> 00:59:54.940
guys? I'm going to say probably five years. Okay.

00:59:55.039 --> 00:59:57.519
Wow. Yeah, because you can't work during hurricane

00:59:57.519 --> 01:00:01.739
season. You have to raise the funds. And once

01:00:01.739 --> 01:00:03.639
you have the funds, the actual work part of it

01:00:03.639 --> 01:00:06.219
won't take that long to do. It's just you have

01:00:06.219 --> 01:00:10.159
to juggle hurricane season with us. I never considered

01:00:10.159 --> 01:00:12.699
that. Is that like a rule or is it just like

01:00:12.699 --> 01:00:15.679
people won't? set up scaffolding and do all this

01:00:15.679 --> 01:00:18.320
work if it's hurricanes. Well, they will, but

01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:19.579
now it's going to cost you more because they

01:00:19.579 --> 01:00:20.880
have to take it down if they know a hurricane's

01:00:20.880 --> 01:00:23.119
coming. So now you just double your cost. Oh,

01:00:23.119 --> 01:00:25.380
my gosh. Yeah. We're in the middle of Kansas,

01:00:25.420 --> 01:00:27.820
so we don't have that problem. Hey, tornadoes,

01:00:27.820 --> 01:00:30.840
though. That's true. We sure do. Oh, you forget

01:00:30.840 --> 01:00:35.940
about those. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, Ralph, you're

01:00:35.940 --> 01:00:38.739
the historian. We've talked to a couple of historians,

01:00:38.980 --> 01:00:40.539
and it's always a pleasure because you're such

01:00:40.539 --> 01:00:45.309
good storytellers. You know, it's fun that you

01:00:45.309 --> 01:00:47.750
have the story in mind and then also the passion

01:00:47.750 --> 01:00:50.090
behind it, right? You can go press play on your

01:00:50.090 --> 01:00:51.829
YouTube video and it's usually not that way,

01:00:51.869 --> 01:00:53.869
but good people usually have those stories with

01:00:53.869 --> 01:00:56.349
them. What was your life like before getting

01:00:56.349 --> 01:00:58.730
involved with the Lighthouse? I mean, is this

01:00:58.730 --> 01:01:01.150
just you and then here you are at the Lighthouse

01:01:01.150 --> 01:01:03.909
or did you kind of fall into this all at once?

01:01:05.530 --> 01:01:07.349
I'm going to say divine intervention because

01:01:07.349 --> 01:01:10.250
there's no way I could have planned this. I went

01:01:10.250 --> 01:01:12.820
to my first Lighthouse. I grew up in Chicago.

01:01:13.860 --> 01:01:16.360
And first lighthouse I went to was Chicago Harbor.

01:01:17.619 --> 01:01:19.539
I can't remember if it was Boy Scouts. I can't

01:01:19.539 --> 01:01:22.219
remember if it was a school. All that stuff escapes

01:01:22.219 --> 01:01:24.460
me. But I remember being on the boat. We actually

01:01:24.460 --> 01:01:27.260
pulled up to the Harbor Lighthouse, got out.

01:01:28.599 --> 01:01:34.840
I think they just recently, not didn't commission,

01:01:34.960 --> 01:01:36.400
but they sent everybody out. So it was automated.

01:01:37.519 --> 01:01:39.420
So there was still kitchen stuff in there. There

01:01:39.420 --> 01:01:42.039
were still bedrooms in there. And I'd walk in

01:01:42.039 --> 01:01:44.000
there and I'm like, oh my God, you can live in

01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:46.719
this place? And there's a kitchen? You can fish

01:01:46.719 --> 01:01:48.179
off? I'm like, can you have a dog here? Because

01:01:48.179 --> 01:01:49.920
I'm going to live here. And then you walk up

01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:52.300
and you see the light. I'm like, oh my God. Whoever

01:01:52.300 --> 01:01:56.039
was in charge of our group heading in with somebody

01:01:56.039 --> 01:01:59.340
to get us in there, I remember he was fascinated.

01:01:59.559 --> 01:02:01.300
I wish I could remember who it was, though. He

01:02:01.300 --> 01:02:03.059
was fascinated. I was fascinated with it. Everybody

01:02:03.059 --> 01:02:04.699
else was wanting to go out and throw rocks into

01:02:04.699 --> 01:02:07.619
the water. Yeah. And I'm like. I could live here.

01:02:07.699 --> 01:02:11.360
This is so cool. But growing up in the Midwest,

01:02:11.659 --> 01:02:16.559
not a whole lot of lighthouses. Went to school

01:02:16.559 --> 01:02:19.639
for athletic training at Eastern Illinois. Went

01:02:19.639 --> 01:02:22.880
to grad school at Syracuse as a graduate assistant

01:02:22.880 --> 01:02:26.619
athletic trainer. More access to lighthouses

01:02:26.619 --> 01:02:30.320
out there in New York. Got my first job working

01:02:30.320 --> 01:02:35.800
in minor pro hockey right in town. The plan was

01:02:35.800 --> 01:02:39.280
to try and work up to the NHL. Almost got there

01:02:39.280 --> 01:02:43.239
a couple of times, but I could also see things

01:02:43.239 --> 01:02:45.500
were happening where it wasn't going to happen

01:02:45.500 --> 01:02:47.780
within a certain time period. And I was going

01:02:47.780 --> 01:02:50.820
to lose my job because I could see contracts

01:02:50.820 --> 01:02:55.400
were changing. And the farm team I was working

01:02:55.400 --> 01:02:58.179
for, you know, they're franchises. Most of the

01:02:58.179 --> 01:03:01.630
parent clubs don't own the franchise. Whoever

01:03:01.630 --> 01:03:03.670
they sign a contract with is who goes. Like I

01:03:03.670 --> 01:03:05.829
originally started working there for Vancouver.

01:03:06.449 --> 01:03:09.449
They left. I wound up working for Columbus. Could

01:03:09.449 --> 01:03:11.730
see things weren't working out. Knew that they

01:03:11.730 --> 01:03:13.929
were going to leave. Kind of had a feeling Tampa

01:03:13.929 --> 01:03:16.110
was going to come in. They actually did. And

01:03:16.110 --> 01:03:19.949
when they did, they gassed everybody. The equipment

01:03:19.949 --> 01:03:21.909
guy, he'd been with them since they moved from

01:03:21.909 --> 01:03:24.730
Hamilton to Syracuse. Had over a thousand games.

01:03:24.849 --> 01:03:28.190
Didn't care. See you later. Oh, man. Yeah. Fortunately.

01:03:29.210 --> 01:03:31.170
Syracuse just started a women's hockey team,

01:03:31.329 --> 01:03:35.030
so he's one right there. Shorter season, less

01:03:35.030 --> 01:03:39.570
work. Yeah. Made in the shade. So he got very,

01:03:39.650 --> 01:03:43.730
very lucky. My parents still lived in Chicago.

01:03:44.409 --> 01:03:46.909
They spent the winters down here in Stewart,

01:03:47.010 --> 01:03:50.510
which is north of us. My sister. was in miami

01:03:50.510 --> 01:03:52.869
then she moved over to the naples area on the

01:03:52.869 --> 01:03:55.530
west coast she already had one kid another kid

01:03:55.530 --> 01:03:57.349
was coming on the way and i didn't want to be

01:03:57.349 --> 01:04:00.949
the uncle that nobody knew so i'm like you know

01:04:00.949 --> 01:04:05.070
i'm out came down here you know finding a job

01:04:05.070 --> 01:04:07.090
wasn't great uh wound up working in physical

01:04:07.090 --> 01:04:11.289
therapy centers stayed in medical became fascinated

01:04:11.289 --> 01:04:13.210
with south florida history there's a book that

01:04:13.210 --> 01:04:17.389
my wife gave me uh of course now i can't think

01:04:17.389 --> 01:04:22.420
of the name of it A Pioneer's Tale or something

01:04:22.420 --> 01:04:26.579
like that. It's fiction, but it's all based on

01:04:26.579 --> 01:04:29.880
South Florida history. Florida, I'll never remember.

01:04:30.039 --> 01:04:33.960
That's it. People who read it say it's one of

01:04:33.960 --> 01:04:36.079
the best books they've ever written. Wow. They've

01:04:36.079 --> 01:04:38.260
ever read. This guy wrote a bunch of books, but

01:04:38.260 --> 01:04:40.619
this is the best one by far. And I got hooked

01:04:40.619 --> 01:04:42.639
on Florida history. And I just started reading

01:04:42.639 --> 01:04:46.119
up everything I could. I was trying to find anything

01:04:46.119 --> 01:04:50.460
about Hillsborough's history. And anything you

01:04:50.460 --> 01:04:53.400
find online, what I eventually found out, most

01:04:53.400 --> 01:04:56.179
of it's wrong. Most of the information is completely

01:04:56.179 --> 01:05:00.420
wrong. And so when I started volunteering, there

01:05:00.420 --> 01:05:04.840
was a historian, Hib Castleberry. He's a pioneer

01:05:04.840 --> 01:05:07.820
in Florida lighthouse preservation. He was already

01:05:07.820 --> 01:05:10.719
up in his upper 80s. And I said, Hib, you know,

01:05:10.780 --> 01:05:13.199
if I'm working these tours, I'd like to be able

01:05:13.199 --> 01:05:16.260
to talk to people and give them the real answers.

01:05:16.519 --> 01:05:19.110
So he gave me this little. sheet of stuff i'm

01:05:19.110 --> 01:05:21.110
like well this is great but it doesn't answer

01:05:21.110 --> 01:05:23.570
a lot of questions because well you know at one

01:05:23.570 --> 01:05:24.949
point i went to the national archives and made

01:05:24.949 --> 01:05:26.789
some photocopies they're in our storage i'm like

01:05:26.789 --> 01:05:29.829
we have a storage facility yeah here's the combination

01:05:29.829 --> 01:05:32.650
going so i spent hours in there going through

01:05:32.650 --> 01:05:35.429
stuff and and i'm like finding some really cool

01:05:35.429 --> 01:05:38.349
documents and then i found some two that were

01:05:38.349 --> 01:05:43.349
legal size and i was like it was it was copies

01:05:43.349 --> 01:05:46.820
of handwritten writing i'm like I haven't read

01:05:46.820 --> 01:05:51.280
cursive writing in 20 years. I'm like, I'm trying

01:05:51.280 --> 01:05:53.440
to make head or tails out of it. All of a sudden,

01:05:53.519 --> 01:05:57.000
it comes back to me and I'm reading, oh, these

01:05:57.000 --> 01:05:58.340
go together. I'm like, oh, I'm reading across

01:05:58.340 --> 01:06:03.099
a book here. And it's the first two pages of

01:06:03.099 --> 01:06:05.980
the very first log book. Oh my gosh. And it's

01:06:05.980 --> 01:06:08.260
signed by Alpha Brigel at the bottom. So I call

01:06:08.260 --> 01:06:09.840
Hib up. I'm like, Hib, where's the rest of this?

01:06:09.900 --> 01:06:11.980
He goes, I only had a couple, you know, a handful

01:06:11.980 --> 01:06:15.400
of quarters. I only made, I'm like. Oh my. So,

01:06:16.079 --> 01:06:20.500
I contacted U .S. Lighthouse Society. They gave

01:06:20.500 --> 01:06:24.920
me Candace Clifford's information. She's like,

01:06:24.960 --> 01:06:27.199
I would love to do research for you here at the

01:06:27.199 --> 01:06:29.239
National Archives because I'm going to work for

01:06:29.239 --> 01:06:31.159
U .S. Lighthouse Society as a historian. I'm

01:06:31.159 --> 01:06:36.659
like, here's somebody that actually you can hire

01:06:36.659 --> 01:06:39.139
her to. So I started hiring this lady and she

01:06:39.139 --> 01:06:41.119
got me copies of everything from the archives.

01:06:41.420 --> 01:06:44.570
Cool. So then I was like, well, this is expensive.

01:06:44.789 --> 01:06:49.530
So yeah, so I contacted the Coast Guard. I read

01:06:49.530 --> 01:06:51.809
a museum that I could find that had stuff and

01:06:51.809 --> 01:06:54.389
they would send you stuff, no problem. Went to

01:06:54.389 --> 01:06:58.150
Miami, to Jupiter, and every spot in between

01:06:58.150 --> 01:07:02.409
that had historical society, museum, or a library

01:07:02.409 --> 01:07:04.989
that had old records, made copies of everything.

01:07:06.050 --> 01:07:09.409
And I just, once I started reading that logbook,

01:07:09.489 --> 01:07:13.500
it's like, the addiction just took hold and like

01:07:13.500 --> 01:07:16.260
this is what i'm gonna do now i don't know how

01:07:16.260 --> 01:07:18.400
i'm gonna do it but i'm somehow gonna do this

01:07:18.400 --> 01:07:21.659
for a living and when i got out of medical you

01:07:21.659 --> 01:07:24.780
know which is a long story i'm just so happy

01:07:24.780 --> 01:07:29.320
i'm out of that nonsense it's like now i have

01:07:29.320 --> 01:07:32.039
the opportunity here because i was they shut

01:07:32.039 --> 01:07:35.420
down our office and i had pay coming for six

01:07:35.420 --> 01:07:38.079
months i think it was so i can actually kind

01:07:38.079 --> 01:07:42.539
of create my own career now yeah so i started

01:07:42.539 --> 01:07:45.659
volunteering at pompano beach historical and

01:07:45.659 --> 01:07:49.599
then they started paying me i got on more with

01:07:49.599 --> 01:07:51.400
u .s lighthouse society they started paying me

01:07:51.400 --> 01:07:55.179
and with all the information that i had gathered

01:07:55.179 --> 01:07:58.940
i wrote a book about the lighthouse and because

01:07:58.940 --> 01:08:02.500
i did that uh the guy who actually hired me for

01:08:02.500 --> 01:08:04.739
the coast guard he knew about me for a couple

01:08:04.739 --> 01:08:08.480
years and he goes The job is getting too much

01:08:08.480 --> 01:08:10.599
for the one person that's working there. We want

01:08:10.599 --> 01:08:13.340
to hire a second person on there. Do you have

01:08:13.340 --> 01:08:15.199
any interest? Heck yeah. I'm like, well, I was

01:08:15.199 --> 01:08:16.920
actually going to say, you know, if she retires,

01:08:17.000 --> 01:08:19.279
can I get her job? He's like, well, no, we're

01:08:19.279 --> 01:08:21.439
trying to. And so it took a year and a half,

01:08:21.460 --> 01:08:24.279
two years for them to government, you know, to

01:08:24.279 --> 01:08:28.319
approve it. But I want somebody who knows the

01:08:28.319 --> 01:08:31.060
history, preserves the history, loves the history,

01:08:31.119 --> 01:08:35.520
can share that with our guests. And so it's not

01:08:35.520 --> 01:08:38.800
just, you know, we don't know. Yeah. I want somebody

01:08:38.800 --> 01:08:41.500
who knows. So by writing the book, by doing all

01:08:41.500 --> 01:08:45.760
this, I didn't plan this. Somebody else planned

01:08:45.760 --> 01:08:47.880
it for me. Yeah. And I just followed the steps.

01:08:48.239 --> 01:08:50.340
So that's how I got into the whole thing. That's

01:08:50.340 --> 01:08:52.300
awesome. Just walking into that lighthouse for

01:08:52.300 --> 01:08:54.720
the first time. Yeah. Kept that for a couple

01:08:54.720 --> 01:08:58.079
of years. Yeah. And back to it. Totally lucked

01:08:58.079 --> 01:09:01.159
out. That's incredible. It's also having to be

01:09:01.159 --> 01:09:03.779
really like tenacious that you're like, I'm going

01:09:03.779 --> 01:09:05.939
to go, I'm going to, Check every single place

01:09:05.939 --> 01:09:07.699
from here to there. Try and figure out all the

01:09:07.699 --> 01:09:10.100
information, especially like a lot of people

01:09:10.100 --> 01:09:12.180
would be like, oh, there's not more information.

01:09:12.239 --> 01:09:15.720
OK, I'll like I'll just let that die. But it's

01:09:15.720 --> 01:09:18.939
commendable that you're like, that's not good

01:09:18.939 --> 01:09:20.579
enough for me and I'm going to figure it out.

01:09:21.039 --> 01:09:23.659
But when you find things that are wrong, it's

01:09:23.659 --> 01:09:28.460
like you want to fix them. And so it's an addiction

01:09:28.460 --> 01:09:30.779
every time. It's like Christmas every time I

01:09:30.779 --> 01:09:35.550
find something new. Like I got. some of the personnel

01:09:35.550 --> 01:09:37.590
files from the National Archives in St. Louis.

01:09:37.770 --> 01:09:41.649
And I actually had, I reached out to him and

01:09:41.649 --> 01:09:43.670
I said, these are the files I want pulled. I'm

01:09:43.670 --> 01:09:47.130
going to be here these dates. And I'm, you know,

01:09:47.130 --> 01:09:49.149
got my flight, got my hotel, got my car, all

01:09:49.149 --> 01:09:54.289
ready to go. COVID hits. Oh. I'm like, son. So

01:09:54.289 --> 01:09:56.729
now we're the U .S. Lighthouse Society, Craig

01:09:56.729 --> 01:10:00.319
Anderson, who runs the... A lot of the keepers.

01:10:00.319 --> 01:10:02.880
If you think I'm a lighthouse nerd with Hillsborough,

01:10:03.000 --> 01:10:06.079
he is the ultimate lighthouse nerd when it comes

01:10:06.079 --> 01:10:10.760
to keepers and lists. He's got everything. Oh,

01:10:10.800 --> 01:10:16.500
my gosh. He sent me a PDF of stuff in Excel.

01:10:17.180 --> 01:10:19.060
And I'm looking through all these names like,

01:10:19.119 --> 01:10:21.859
oh, my gosh. And I'm just scrolling and scrolling

01:10:21.859 --> 01:10:25.000
and scrolling. And then I realized it's only

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:28.270
one tab. That's for the first district. So he's

01:10:28.270 --> 01:10:31.909
got every, I'm like, Oh my, he is phenomenal.

01:10:32.369 --> 01:10:36.710
And he is, he's a honey badger when it comes

01:10:36.710 --> 01:10:38.710
to finding out stuff with that. And so he's got

01:10:38.710 --> 01:10:40.609
somebody down there and he's, it's his goal to

01:10:40.609 --> 01:10:42.710
get every single lighthouse keepers personnel

01:10:42.710 --> 01:10:45.710
file into our archives. And so it's like, so

01:10:45.710 --> 01:10:50.529
I don't have to go. Thanks, Greg. A man with

01:10:50.529 --> 01:10:53.949
a spreadsheet. Yeah. And he's phenomenal at keeping

01:10:53.949 --> 01:10:56.229
that thing up. I don't know how he finds some

01:10:56.229 --> 01:10:58.329
of the stuff he does. He finds photographs and

01:10:58.329 --> 01:11:01.529
he is tenacious. He's awesome with that stuff.

01:11:01.829 --> 01:11:05.590
That's so cool. Yeah. That's awesome. We keep

01:11:05.590 --> 01:11:08.090
meeting people in the community and I keep hearing

01:11:08.090 --> 01:11:12.970
all these awesome, resounding things. And it's

01:11:12.970 --> 01:11:15.510
a little off track, but I was in a men's group

01:11:15.510 --> 01:11:18.510
last week. We were talking about different challenges.

01:11:18.550 --> 01:11:21.449
And one of the things. that came out of me i

01:11:21.449 --> 01:11:24.029
was talking to another young guy was he's talking

01:11:24.029 --> 01:11:25.909
about doing something new i was like doing something

01:11:25.909 --> 01:11:29.869
new is is brave because i feel like you don't

01:11:29.869 --> 01:11:32.550
have to you know maybe you go to high school

01:11:32.550 --> 01:11:34.270
maybe you go to college maybe you're you know

01:11:34.270 --> 01:11:36.609
through some process and now you're new into

01:11:36.609 --> 01:11:39.170
something but most people will never do anything

01:11:39.170 --> 01:11:41.750
new again they'll they'll stay this is what i

01:11:41.750 --> 01:11:44.270
am this is what i do or maybe this is what i

01:11:44.270 --> 01:11:47.170
used to do but you know a lot of folks like yourself

01:11:47.170 --> 01:11:50.399
where you took a risk with those six months of

01:11:50.399 --> 01:11:52.779
pay instead of just sticking with what you were

01:11:52.779 --> 01:11:55.140
doing and maybe being, I won't speak for your

01:11:55.140 --> 01:11:57.279
experience, but in a new experience that wouldn't

01:11:57.279 --> 01:12:00.039
be that new, you know, here you are these years

01:12:00.039 --> 01:12:02.560
later telling the stories. It's really, it's

01:12:02.560 --> 01:12:05.859
incredible. And enjoying it. Yes. That's awesome.

01:12:05.939 --> 01:12:09.319
The most important part. Are you, it sounds like

01:12:09.319 --> 01:12:11.180
you're involved with giving the tours as well.

01:12:12.300 --> 01:12:15.069
Yeah, we don't. You know, tours is kind of a

01:12:15.069 --> 01:12:19.729
misnomer. We don't do guided tours because we

01:12:19.729 --> 01:12:21.529
don't, we really don't have the staff and we

01:12:21.529 --> 01:12:23.890
don't really have that kind of a setup for it.

01:12:24.409 --> 01:12:28.270
So if you come to one of our tours, you become

01:12:28.270 --> 01:12:32.050
a member and you can become, most people do it

01:12:32.050 --> 01:12:35.409
for a year. So you pay one time. It's like 35

01:12:35.409 --> 01:12:39.649
or like 50 for one person. But if you do a family

01:12:39.649 --> 01:12:43.310
of four, it's much less. But you pay once, you

01:12:43.310 --> 01:12:45.569
get 12 tours out of it. Oh, wow. And what you

01:12:45.569 --> 01:12:48.130
do is you hop on the boat. So we have to charter

01:12:48.130 --> 01:12:51.529
a boat, a dive boat. And they bring you to the

01:12:51.529 --> 01:12:54.250
grounds. And then you've got the lighthouse.

01:12:54.350 --> 01:12:58.489
We have the brick thing, the brick patio. We

01:12:58.489 --> 01:13:00.329
have people who tell the story of the Barefoot

01:13:00.329 --> 01:13:03.930
Mailman. We have people floating around who give

01:13:03.930 --> 01:13:08.210
other stories. We let you see the cottages, but

01:13:08.210 --> 01:13:10.189
you can't go in because they are rented out by

01:13:10.189 --> 01:13:15.109
military people. I mean, if I had my way, we'd

01:13:15.109 --> 01:13:18.329
push the sea grape out, rebuild the original

01:13:18.329 --> 01:13:20.630
keeper's cottage, and turn that into a museum,

01:13:20.630 --> 01:13:24.029
too, and a storehouse. But I don't get everything

01:13:24.029 --> 01:13:30.829
I want, unfortunately. We tried doing guided

01:13:30.829 --> 01:13:34.189
tours, but people really weren't paying that

01:13:34.189 --> 01:13:37.649
much attention. It's kind of a waste of time.

01:13:39.530 --> 01:13:41.970
when we can really kind of pinpoint and you're

01:13:41.970 --> 01:13:43.510
like, what do you want to hear? What do you want

01:13:43.510 --> 01:13:45.689
to know about? And then like, we'll have people

01:13:45.689 --> 01:13:48.510
at the top of the lighthouse. I used to be perched

01:13:48.510 --> 01:13:50.289
up there all the time and just tell story after

01:13:50.289 --> 01:13:53.350
story. Unfortunately, you can only live out some

01:13:53.350 --> 01:13:55.869
people up at one time and it got a little long

01:13:55.869 --> 01:13:57.970
winded. It's like, you get the radio, send people

01:13:57.970 --> 01:14:02.930
down, please. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. So now like

01:14:02.930 --> 01:14:06.449
I'll be at the bottom and, and if I'm not doing

01:14:06.449 --> 01:14:09.899
actual work, I'll be, you know, try to tell people

01:14:09.899 --> 01:14:11.340
different stories about things that had happened

01:14:11.340 --> 01:14:14.060
there. Yeah. Okay. That's cool. That's a unique

01:14:14.060 --> 01:14:16.359
experience. There's some, we've been trying to

01:14:16.359 --> 01:14:19.380
travel and see more lighthouses. There's some

01:14:19.380 --> 01:14:22.039
that it's a, it's a wide variety of what you're

01:14:22.039 --> 01:14:24.039
going to be able to get. Of course, everybody's

01:14:24.039 --> 01:14:26.539
great, but it just depends on the facilities,

01:14:26.600 --> 01:14:29.460
the staff. And then of course, whatever history,

01:14:29.539 --> 01:14:34.319
like there was one we went to where Martha's

01:14:34.319 --> 01:14:36.939
Vineyard. It was really great. There was a really

01:14:36.939 --> 01:14:41.060
nice lady there who talked to us. We're going

01:14:41.060 --> 01:14:43.260
to go to the top of the lighthouse. We're going

01:14:43.260 --> 01:14:44.640
to take a picture and we're going to come back.

01:14:44.840 --> 01:14:47.739
We had a wonderful time. We did our own research

01:14:47.739 --> 01:14:50.560
and learning about the lighthouse. Physically

01:14:50.560 --> 01:14:52.819
visiting, you really wouldn't learn anything.

01:14:53.100 --> 01:14:55.760
You could ask questions, but most people were

01:14:55.760 --> 01:14:58.800
probably waiting in line just to climb the stairs.

01:14:59.319 --> 01:15:01.159
There's so much more to it when you find the

01:15:01.159 --> 01:15:04.439
right people. Absolutely. A little call to action

01:15:04.439 --> 01:15:06.439
for our listeners, because you guys are now,

01:15:06.579 --> 01:15:09.239
you're fundraising for this restoration. Is that,

01:15:09.279 --> 01:15:13.279
they can donate on the. Right on our webpage.

01:15:13.539 --> 01:15:15.920
Okay. Hillsboroughlighthouse .org. Okay, great.

01:15:16.239 --> 01:15:19.220
Yep. Yeah. So you mentioned, is it a yearly,

01:15:19.399 --> 01:15:23.539
an annual, is it a gala you mentioned? Yes. We,

01:15:23.640 --> 01:15:26.500
we, we first started doing them because it was

01:15:26.500 --> 01:15:32.340
115 or 110th anniversary and we needed to start

01:15:32.340 --> 01:15:35.899
fundraising. And so one of the ladies in our

01:15:35.899 --> 01:15:38.779
organization said, why don't we try a gala? And

01:15:38.779 --> 01:15:40.619
we got to get Coast Guard approval, get things

01:15:40.619 --> 01:15:46.119
shut down. And what she created is phenomenal.

01:15:47.319 --> 01:15:51.359
Well, we also do weddings on site. And there's

01:15:51.359 --> 01:15:53.479
a company called Tents and Events. And they have

01:15:53.479 --> 01:15:56.000
this huge tent that covers, I don't know how

01:15:56.000 --> 01:16:00.140
many yards, but it's clear. So at night, things

01:16:00.140 --> 01:16:02.079
lit up, you can see the lighthouse through the

01:16:02.079 --> 01:16:04.380
roof. So yeah, a lot of people who do the weddings,

01:16:04.439 --> 01:16:06.979
they'll rent from them too. So we have that.

01:16:07.020 --> 01:16:13.420
We have tables, eight or 10 seaters. People get

01:16:13.420 --> 01:16:17.260
brought over by the boat. We'll have food stations

01:16:17.260 --> 01:16:21.220
around. We'll have a band that plays. And actually

01:16:21.220 --> 01:16:25.829
the bassist and sometimes singer is... Sheldon,

01:16:25.850 --> 01:16:32.069
who is the grandson of Thomas Knight. He's been

01:16:32.069 --> 01:16:34.850
in music his whole life. He's a Beatle maniac.

01:16:36.250 --> 01:16:41.630
He does that for free. We pay the band, but he's

01:16:41.630 --> 01:16:43.689
like, I'm a legacy here. This is such an honor

01:16:43.689 --> 01:16:47.229
to be able to do this. You have the grandkeeper

01:16:47.229 --> 01:16:49.390
of one of the longest serving lighthouse keepers

01:16:49.390 --> 01:16:52.470
here. That's pretty cool. But most people don't

01:16:52.470 --> 01:16:54.949
even realize that. I'll broadcast that around.

01:16:55.350 --> 01:16:57.770
We'll have a silent auction. We'll have a live

01:16:57.770 --> 01:17:02.770
auction. In the Pompano Air Park, we have a blimp,

01:17:02.789 --> 01:17:06.750
a Goodyear blimp station. And you have to put

01:17:06.750 --> 01:17:11.510
in four tickets and we get to, they've been very

01:17:11.510 --> 01:17:14.270
good with us and they give us two tickets and

01:17:14.270 --> 01:17:18.229
we auction those off. And if you, they say the

01:17:18.229 --> 01:17:22.390
past two years, if you get $5 ,000 for one, we'll

01:17:22.390 --> 01:17:25.109
give you a second set. tickets so this year we

01:17:25.109 --> 01:17:27.529
nailed we still got 10 grand just for blimp auction

01:17:27.529 --> 01:17:34.090
yeah it was pretty cool and unfortunately inside

01:17:34.090 --> 01:17:38.569
our lighthouse in the lantern room you have the

01:17:38.569 --> 01:17:41.649
false ceiling inside there which used to track

01:17:41.649 --> 01:17:45.050
the heat and funnel it up well unfortunately

01:17:45.050 --> 01:17:50.949
i guess my better wish is years ago right around

01:17:50.949 --> 01:17:55.510
this time the first gala They were removed and

01:17:55.510 --> 01:17:58.970
replaced because they needed to take them out

01:17:58.970 --> 01:18:01.829
to get to... There's a ring that goes around

01:18:01.829 --> 01:18:04.989
the exterior of the lighthouse, and an iron ladder

01:18:04.989 --> 01:18:06.590
actually hung on that, and you could run it all

01:18:06.590 --> 01:18:08.590
the way around the top. That's how they accessed

01:18:08.590 --> 01:18:10.949
the upper part to clean the windows, access the

01:18:10.949 --> 01:18:14.750
roof to make repairs, paint, whatever. Those

01:18:14.750 --> 01:18:17.510
pegs go through the double walls, and some of

01:18:17.510 --> 01:18:19.090
them had completely corroded out, and it was

01:18:19.090 --> 01:18:20.890
in danger of completely falling down, so they

01:18:20.890 --> 01:18:23.250
all had to be removed. And when they removed

01:18:23.250 --> 01:18:25.449
them, they didn't do a very good job of it. So

01:18:25.449 --> 01:18:30.310
the guy who was in charge of the project said,

01:18:30.369 --> 01:18:35.649
well, let's just throw them away. So no. So we

01:18:35.649 --> 01:18:37.890
actually kept them. And now what we do with those

01:18:37.890 --> 01:18:41.109
is we give them to a local artist. And they do

01:18:41.109 --> 01:18:43.310
a mural or they do a painting of the lighthouse.

01:18:43.430 --> 01:18:46.369
Whatever their interpretation is, it's a pie

01:18:46.369 --> 01:18:49.010
shape. And so we auction all those off. So we

01:18:49.010 --> 01:18:51.390
have a few more of those to go as well. Cool.

01:18:51.770 --> 01:18:53.949
that's so yeah so that brings in a lot of money

01:18:53.949 --> 01:18:58.789
um this year we had a jeweler make up a one -of

01:18:58.789 --> 01:19:03.149
-a -kind necklace and then with diamonds and

01:19:03.149 --> 01:19:07.609
all sorts oh my gosh and then she made smaller

01:19:07.609 --> 01:19:10.210
versions with different rocks in it that they

01:19:10.210 --> 01:19:13.829
actually sell now uh so that brought in a good

01:19:13.829 --> 01:19:17.050
number of dollars for us as well but like all

01:19:17.050 --> 01:19:20.420
that goes right you know paying off all expenses

01:19:20.420 --> 01:19:22.939
everything else goes into bank account which

01:19:22.939 --> 01:19:25.119
is trying to create as much money as we can to

01:19:25.119 --> 01:19:27.720
go into a restoration fund yeah of course so

01:19:27.720 --> 01:19:29.439
we do that every year that's the only time of

01:19:29.439 --> 01:19:32.640
year we actually open the lantern room i'll sit

01:19:32.640 --> 01:19:34.819
at the top next to the lens and let people come

01:19:34.819 --> 01:19:37.039
up one at a time up the stairs they get face

01:19:37.039 --> 01:19:39.720
to face with the lens oh my gosh so i sent you

01:19:39.720 --> 01:19:43.119
a picture that one night of where i was and that

01:19:43.119 --> 01:19:45.729
that was the night of the gala yeah I was riddled

01:19:45.729 --> 01:19:48.890
with jealousy. Oh, those people don't know what

01:19:48.890 --> 01:19:53.489
they have. When is the gala? Is it? It's in March.

01:19:53.550 --> 01:19:56.850
March. Yeah. The weekend changes like March 8th,

01:19:56.850 --> 01:19:58.949
1907 was our first day of service. So we try

01:19:58.949 --> 01:20:01.689
and get as close to that date as possible. Yet

01:20:01.689 --> 01:20:05.670
the first year we did gala and then public tour

01:20:05.670 --> 01:20:08.090
the next day. And the next day, nobody wanted

01:20:08.090 --> 01:20:10.750
to get out of bed. We're not going to do it on

01:20:10.750 --> 01:20:13.130
the same weekend anymore. So we're going to list.

01:20:13.680 --> 01:20:16.000
One week in between at least. And it's nice.

01:20:16.039 --> 01:20:19.680
The boat kind of adds like that. It's an exclusive

01:20:19.680 --> 01:20:23.020
like event and like really cool. Is that you

01:20:23.020 --> 01:20:25.399
have to take a boat to get there every day? Yes.

01:20:25.539 --> 01:20:29.439
No, no. We get to drive through the Hillsborough

01:20:29.439 --> 01:20:30.899
club because we have a nice working relationship

01:20:30.899 --> 01:20:33.720
with them, but our guests that come for tours

01:20:33.720 --> 01:20:35.140
and things like that, they have to come on the

01:20:35.140 --> 01:20:37.960
boat. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Part of the fun.

01:20:38.159 --> 01:20:42.859
Yeah. It is good, but it also isn't good. You

01:20:42.859 --> 01:20:45.529
know, It's good because the Coast Guard gets

01:20:45.529 --> 01:20:49.510
to maintain it as a recreation facility for military

01:20:49.510 --> 01:20:53.189
people and secluded, blah, blah, blah. But from

01:20:53.189 --> 01:20:56.409
a lighthouse restoration and everything, it stinks

01:20:56.409 --> 01:20:58.770
because we don't have daily access for guests.

01:20:59.510 --> 01:21:01.270
You know, it's like my cousin came down and I

01:21:01.270 --> 01:21:04.770
took him to Jupiter. He's like, the day after

01:21:04.770 --> 01:21:06.649
being in Hillsborough, he's like, this place

01:21:06.649 --> 01:21:08.189
is so much cleaner when we're on the observation

01:21:08.189 --> 01:21:10.109
deck and no bird poop. I'm like, well, because

01:21:10.109 --> 01:21:12.890
there's people here every single day. We don't.

01:21:12.949 --> 01:21:15.449
We have to fight off the birds. Yeah. It's like,

01:21:15.529 --> 01:21:19.569
oh, I didn't think of that. Yeah. That makes

01:21:19.569 --> 01:21:22.510
it a little tougher for us. Easier to maintain,

01:21:22.689 --> 01:21:25.609
easier to get to for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

01:21:25.609 --> 01:21:28.729
So if you can just drive in, it's great. We don't

01:21:28.729 --> 01:21:31.930
have that luxury. Yeah. Well, good luck with

01:21:31.930 --> 01:21:34.850
raising funds. I know that's a huge challenge.

01:21:34.989 --> 01:21:37.729
We hear it time to time. Hopefully we can help

01:21:37.729 --> 01:21:39.609
spread the word a little bit. Yeah. Appreciate

01:21:39.609 --> 01:21:42.750
it. We have a small reach, but we have a very

01:21:42.750 --> 01:21:47.010
consistent reach. I'm one of those people you're

01:21:47.010 --> 01:21:51.470
reaching. Awesome. Glad to have you. It's funny

01:21:51.470 --> 01:21:52.689
because I'll be listening at times and I'll be

01:21:52.689 --> 01:21:58.649
like, no, it's this. I'm talking to myself. You're

01:21:58.649 --> 01:22:00.930
not the only person yelling at the screen. It

01:22:00.930 --> 01:22:04.270
just depends on the content. That's so funny.

01:22:04.510 --> 01:22:07.369
One of the things I covered a while ago, it's

01:22:07.369 --> 01:22:10.079
kind of... it's really too broad, but like lighthouse

01:22:10.079 --> 01:22:13.180
tourism was the name I think of the, of the episode.

01:22:13.260 --> 01:22:16.539
And we were talking about our first trip we took

01:22:16.539 --> 01:22:19.279
was to the outer banks. I love that place. It

01:22:19.279 --> 01:22:22.000
was great. It was amazing. It's a long story,

01:22:22.039 --> 01:22:24.380
but the people first were awesome. And then of

01:22:24.380 --> 01:22:26.680
course the lighthouses, the, I lost a bunch of

01:22:26.680 --> 01:22:29.960
golf balls. It was a great trip. And that was

01:22:29.960 --> 01:22:32.439
our first, our first lighthouse visit together.

01:22:34.440 --> 01:22:36.659
And then, did we climb there? Did you get to

01:22:36.659 --> 01:22:38.739
climb? No, because I had broken my foot. Yeah,

01:22:38.760 --> 01:22:40.279
she had a broken foot. She was on a scooter.

01:22:40.319 --> 01:22:42.479
Two weeks before our trip, I had broken my foot.

01:22:42.539 --> 01:22:44.100
And I was like, the first thing I thought, I

01:22:44.100 --> 01:22:45.960
was like, I'm not going to get to climb any lighthouses.

01:22:47.420 --> 01:22:50.199
Terrible timing. So it was a big adventure. But

01:22:50.199 --> 01:22:52.100
I like to ask whenever we get an opportunity,

01:22:52.239 --> 01:22:55.960
if we were to visit Hillsboro, the area in general,

01:22:56.039 --> 01:22:59.079
what would you recommend going to see? Lighthouse

01:22:59.079 --> 01:23:01.220
-wise? Yeah. Well, lighthouse and elsewhere.

01:23:02.540 --> 01:23:06.520
Okay, so within driving distance is Jupiter inlet

01:23:06.520 --> 01:23:09.199
to the north of us. To the south of us in Miami,

01:23:09.300 --> 01:23:12.899
you have Cape Florida. And then you can hop on

01:23:12.899 --> 01:23:15.739
a little tourism boat, and they'll take you through

01:23:15.739 --> 01:23:18.399
a place called Stiltsville, which is houses that

01:23:18.399 --> 01:23:22.859
were in the water on stilts. It used to be party

01:23:22.859 --> 01:23:25.659
central. My brother -in -law, when he first moved

01:23:25.659 --> 01:23:28.000
to Miami, he goes, this place is the best. The

01:23:28.000 --> 01:23:31.380
best parties ever. The state's trying to shut

01:23:31.380 --> 01:23:34.819
the whole thing down. If you don't own it, they're

01:23:34.819 --> 01:23:38.319
not selling them anymore. But out that way is

01:23:38.319 --> 01:23:40.960
Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, which is the lighthouse

01:23:40.960 --> 01:23:45.039
that replaced Cape Florida. So I'd recommend

01:23:45.039 --> 01:23:48.079
those places to go. Absolutely. You have to go

01:23:48.079 --> 01:23:52.739
to dinner at Cap's place at least once. It really

01:23:52.739 --> 01:23:57.369
depends on what you're looking to do. no matter

01:23:57.369 --> 01:23:59.710
where you go, it's the kind of thing. There are

01:23:59.710 --> 01:24:03.449
different historical homes throughout, you know,

01:24:03.449 --> 01:24:06.729
the area, which, you know, depending on if you're

01:24:06.729 --> 01:24:09.430
into historical architecture and the people that

01:24:09.430 --> 01:24:12.869
were like that, that lived in the times. So there

01:24:12.869 --> 01:24:16.069
are some of those cool things going on. There's,

01:24:16.069 --> 01:24:19.430
you know, again, it really depends on what you

01:24:19.430 --> 01:24:23.050
want to, for you golfing, not a problem. Golf

01:24:23.050 --> 01:24:26.319
courses everywhere. Yeah. everywhere so yeah

01:24:26.319 --> 01:24:28.399
it's not an issue a little bit of something for

01:24:28.399 --> 01:24:30.680
everybody oh yeah it sounds like if you have

01:24:30.680 --> 01:24:33.239
kids like when i tell people they're staying

01:24:33.239 --> 01:24:35.239
in the cottages who have kids they want to see

01:24:35.239 --> 01:24:37.680
turtles well just go right up the road about

01:24:37.680 --> 01:24:41.500
six seven miles there's a turtle sanctuary and

01:24:41.500 --> 01:24:43.739
rehab center and they have these huge fish tanks

01:24:43.739 --> 01:24:46.039
you walk around i mean it's not like indoors

01:24:46.039 --> 01:24:48.199
it's this whole outdoor thing that's covered

01:24:48.199 --> 01:24:51.779
and they have a navy area out there so the tower

01:24:51.779 --> 01:24:53.939
you can climb to go up above the canopy to see

01:24:53.939 --> 01:24:56.140
the birds and everything. So it's a whole thing.

01:24:56.199 --> 01:24:57.899
And when they have turtle hatchlings, they have

01:24:57.899 --> 01:25:01.720
eggs of them. So kids love the place. So that's

01:25:01.720 --> 01:25:03.920
another thing you can do. But there's a lot of

01:25:03.920 --> 01:25:06.340
like wildlife sanctuary things along the area

01:25:06.340 --> 01:25:09.840
too. Cool. Florida's on the list. There's lots

01:25:09.840 --> 01:25:12.340
of parts of Florida on the list actually. Well,

01:25:12.539 --> 01:25:14.300
if you come down and I'm still working there,

01:25:14.359 --> 01:25:17.039
give me a call. You get the special tour. Oh

01:25:17.039 --> 01:25:19.439
yeah. Wouldn't miss it. No chance. That's why

01:25:19.439 --> 01:25:23.720
we do this podcast. Absolutely. That's why I

01:25:23.720 --> 01:25:27.539
do them too. So much fun. Well, thanks for chatting

01:25:27.539 --> 01:25:30.619
with us. It's my pleasure. Telling our listeners

01:25:30.619 --> 01:25:32.199
more about the lighthouse. It's important that

01:25:32.199 --> 01:25:33.920
one, we get all the information right, which

01:25:33.920 --> 01:25:36.939
is not very often because we're reliant on the

01:25:36.939 --> 01:25:39.500
internet and also getting the word out there

01:25:39.500 --> 01:25:42.399
when there's a need for a lighthouse to be, you

01:25:42.399 --> 01:25:45.100
know, funded or whatever else. So glad that we

01:25:45.100 --> 01:25:46.619
could chat with you and hear some more about

01:25:46.619 --> 01:25:50.970
it. Appreciate it. Like you have no idea. Because

01:25:50.970 --> 01:25:53.909
we don't get a lot of publicity. Yeah. So, yeah,

01:25:53.949 --> 01:25:55.810
I mean, there's so many lighthouses and each

01:25:55.810 --> 01:25:58.109
one is like trying to do its own outreach. So

01:25:58.109 --> 01:26:00.369
it's hard to cover them all, but it's fun when

01:26:00.369 --> 01:26:02.529
we find one that we're like, this one's really

01:26:02.529 --> 01:26:05.130
fun. And it's, it's important that we get more

01:26:05.130 --> 01:26:08.210
the word out about it. Yeah. Yeah. We love to

01:26:08.210 --> 01:26:10.850
connect with people. We don't do very many interviews.

01:26:12.449 --> 01:26:14.170
This has been a really nice, you have a very

01:26:14.170 --> 01:26:15.989
good presence. And again, I love the storytelling.

01:26:17.550 --> 01:26:19.090
If you just think of something you want to tell

01:26:19.090 --> 01:26:21.670
us. I could keep on going, but I won't. I mean,

01:26:21.689 --> 01:26:23.149
anytime, really. If you want to have another

01:26:23.149 --> 01:26:25.609
call or if you want to put together one or two

01:26:25.609 --> 01:26:28.630
stories, you can do it. I'm a nerd. I will just

01:26:28.630 --> 01:26:30.869
talk and talk and talk and talk. This is our

01:26:30.869 --> 01:26:35.670
unpaid second job, so we have fun. All right.

01:26:35.689 --> 01:26:39.670
Well, thanks again, and hopefully we get some

01:26:39.670 --> 01:26:42.829
more people headed your way. Appreciate it. Absolutely.

01:26:43.609 --> 01:26:45.550
Thanks, guys. All right. Thank you. All right.

01:26:45.590 --> 01:26:49.600
Bye. See you. Thanks for listening. And we'll

01:26:49.600 --> 01:26:53.720
catch you next time. Wait. On. The lighthouse.

01:26:55.220 --> 01:26:55.819
Lowdown.