Provides historical background and descriptive information on some of the most significant lighthouses along the Gulf coast, from the Florida panhandle to the Mexican border.

"The southeastern region of the United States depends on the Gulf of Mexico for maritime trade and travel. The unique settings of lighthouse along the Gulf coast are the subject of this calendar.

ISBN 0963641212 LCCN 96072414.

"Lighthouses and Islands" presents the Mississippi Sound as the focal point with the channels that flow through it. Ellis traces the historical conditions and movements of the barrier islands and near-shore islands, including ownerships and residents during the past 300 years. It includes descriptions of the lighthouses and their replacements since the first towers were built on the Coast. Primarily, these early lighthouses were built to mark the anchorages and channels used by seagoing vessels trading to New Orleans. The Cat Island channel and the Pass Christian channel were on the Coastal mail route and were the first to receive light towers in 1831. In the early 1800s, a large portion of the cotton that was shipped from Mobile to Europe was taken through the Sound to New Orleans or New York before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. By the mid-1800s, the Coast had become a popular "watering place" for vacationers seeking health spas and comfort. Captain John Grant of Pascagoula, who was dubbed the "Father of Gulf Coast Transportation," erected the Gulf's first private lighthouse at Tower Island, where Fort Powell was located. Both the lighthouse and the fort were destroyed during Civil War actions. Knowledge of the Mississippi Sound need not be only the realm for commercial and sports fishermen. This book offers all Coastians a descriptive comprehension of the marine and ecosystem that Nature has provided. The winds and the tides and submarine currents are in constant action - moving and ever changing the islands - the natural Monuments of the Sea. From the early 1800s, these islands were the foundation onto which many of the first lighthouse towers were built. Island erosion and lighthouse preservation has been a challenge to Coastians for nearly 200 years - and which continues with greater fascination and increased nostalgia - as lighthouses become even more significant to the beholder. Ellis, a former educator and business owner, has published more than a dozen books in his heritage legacy series, and is a contributing writer to several publications and an accomplished public speaker.

Sporting the second-longest coastline in the United States, Florida has over 8,000 miles of sparkling beaches and waterfront property. This valuable landscape and the region's position between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico made Florida key in the early expansion of American trade routes, but the state's several capes and dangerous reefs, rocks, and shoals made travel quite perilous to unwary mariners. When commerce and traffic began to grow between ports on the East Coast and along the Gulf of Mexico in the nineteenth century, it became necessary to construct aids to navigation along the state's long and treacherous coast. Lighthouses were the solution. Constructed in a variety of styles and sizes, Florida's lighthouses were erected on what, at the time, were some of the most desolate regions of the southeastern United States and included lonely offshore islands. Manned and inhabited by vigilant keepers and their families, these towers illuminated the dark seas and provided the beacon that guided lost travelers. Large brick structures watched over St. Augustine, Pensacola, and Ponce de Leon Inlet; iron skeletons towered over Crooked River and Hillsboro Inlet; and screwpile lighthouses stood as sentinels in the waters off the Florida Keys.