A guide to the St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area lists among its attractions on Egmont Key :There is an old lighthouse that can be toured…”

Indeed, the lighthouse that sits on the sandbar at the entrance to Tampa Bay is both old and accessible to visitors. The key is also a wildlife refuge, affording visitors the pleasure of nature as well as the opportunity to tour one of Florida’s oldest sentinels.

Although the Tampa Bay area was not as colonized as Key West to the south and Pensacola to the north, the trade route between these two points was heavily traveled and the need for lighthouses to guide mariners became acute. Requests began in the 1820s, but action was slow in coming.

While waiting for a tower, mariners relied on a makeshift beacon. The beacon was a barrel, painted black and white, on the top of an 80-foot long spar that was placed on the northern end of Egmont Key in 1836. The beacon was placed by the US Ship "Concord" to mark the entrance to Tampa Bay and is shown on an 1839 map of Florida.

There were many delays - including a ship carrying bricks that sank under its load - and it was several years before the first lighthouse was operational. The contract was completed with "the work being properly done and all the materials such as called for in the contract on April 19, 1848," at a cost of $7,050. It showed a fixed white light produced by 13 lamps in 21-inch reflectors. The lighthouse was probably put in operation in May 1848.

Just four months after coming into service, the Tampa Bay area was hit with a monumental hurricane, and the new lighthouse was seriously damaged. Subsequent storms undermined repairs, and a replacement sentinel was proposed, along with a better lighting system. Congress appropriated $16,000 on August 18, 1856, to rebuild the lighthouse and a new keeper’s home.

Two years later, the new beacon was illuminated with a powerful 55-inch tall, third order Fresnel lens. The height of the new tower was 81 feet when measured from the ground to the center of the lens, and 86 feet when measured from water level.

Listed in the National Registry of Historic Sites, Egmont Key Lighthouse has not only withstood the ravages of nature, but it has experienced the storms of the Civil War and a severe yellow fever epidemic in the late 1880s. The station was automated in 1989 and continues to be an active aid to navigation, jointly owned by the US Coast Guard and the Florida Department of Natural Resources.

Egmont Key is accessible only by boat. Guided trips to the island are offered from local tour companies, bringing some 100,000 visitors each year. Egmont Key Alliance volunteers provide guided tours of the historic and natural resources of Egmont Key, including a tour of the bottom portion of the lighthouse.

Although full restoration of the lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling remains a goal, the beacon and its 150-year service is a living tribute to the heritage and durability of lighthouse legacy.