Cape San Blas is part of a peninsula in

Gulf County, Florida Gulf County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,192. Its county seat is Port St. Joe. Gulf County is included in the Panama City, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. H ...

, extending westward from the mainland of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, separating

St. Joseph Bay St. Joseph Bay is a bay on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The bay is located in Gulf County between Apalachicola and Panama City. Port St. Joe is located on St. Joseph Bay. St. Joseph Bay is bounded on the east by the mainland, o ...

to the north from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

to the south. It is fifty-nine miles southeast of

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

. The

St. Joseph Peninsula The St. Joseph Peninsula is located in Gulf County, Florida, in the Florida Panhandle, at coordinates . It is a 15-mile long Spit (landform), spit, extending northward from Cape San Blas between the Gulf of Mexico to the west and St. Joseph Bay to ...

extends northward from the west end of Cape San Blas. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) south-southwest of the town of

Port St. Joe Port St. Joe is a city located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and State Road 71 and the county seat of Gulf County, Florida. As of the 2020 census,the population was 3,357. This was a decline from 3,644 as of the 2000 census. Histo ...

, located at coordinates .

History

Cape San Blas was home to a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

saltworks where of salt a day were processed by evaporation of seawater. This halted in 1862, when a landing party from the Union ship, the , destroyed the saltworks. Cape San Blas has had four

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

s. The first, built in 1847, collapsed during a gale on August 23–24 of 1851. Congress appropriated $12,000 for a second brick tower lighthouse for the cape which was finally finished in November 1855, but it was destroyed on August 30, 1856, when another hurricane struck Cape San Blas. On May 1, 1858, a third lighthouse was completed. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

the lighthouse was not in commission but resumed operations July 23, 1865. Over the years, erosion began eating away at the lighthouse. In 1883 the fourth iron frame lighthouse was constructed. In the aftermath of

Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael was a very powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. It was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to ma ...

, large swaths of the vacation rentals on the peninsula were heavily damaged. A new inlet was cut where the road was washed out inside

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park is a Florida State Park on the St. Joseph Peninsula near Port St. Joe. It is located off U.S. 98. Recreational activities The park has such amenities as beaches, picnicking areas, cabins, ...

; other portions of the road, especially at its southern end near the Cape itself, were heavily damaged.

References

* – retrieved February 17, 2006 Geography of Florida Unincorporated communities in Gulf County, Florida Populated coastal places in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico Unincorporated communities in Florida {{GulfCountyFL-geo-stub

History

See also

References