Sanibel to spruce up lighthouse

Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau

Sanibel is asking the federal government for $170,000 to help pay for refurbishing the 126-year-old Sanibel Island Light. The city plans to pressure blast and repaint the 98-foot tower, replace parts of the lighthouse eves and replace deteriorated steel doors, sanibelcaptiva.com reports.

The Sanibel Island Light was the first lighthouse on Florida's Gulf coast north of Key West and the Dry Tortugas. It is located on the tip of Sanibel Island. It was built to mark the entrance to San Carlos Bay for  ships calling at Punta Rassa, across San Carlos Bay From Sanibel Island.

Punta Rassa was an important port for shipping cattle to Cuba during the Spanish American war.

In 1859, a woman lighthouse keeper

St. Augustine Historical Society

In 1859, a Minorcan woman, Maria Andreu, became lighthouse keeper at the St Augustine Lighthouse after her husband died in a fall from a scaffolding when he was whitwashing the light tower. The St. Augustine Record tells the story of this tough early Florida resident who became the first Hispanic American woman to serve in the Coast Guard. She was lighthouse keeper from 1859 until 1862.