Good news from Tallahassee. This week the state legislature passed the lighthouse license plate bill. It just needs to be signed by Governor Crist and we will all be sporting this new plate on our vehicles. An outstanding job by the volunteers of the Florida Lighthouse Association, and remember, all of the money from its sale goes to lighthouse preservation here in the state.

Oddly enough, an employee of ours came running in today and told me that there was a car in the parking lot with the Florida lighthouse plate on it. I said, "That's impossible. It hasen't been signed into being yet." But, sure enough, we went out to the parking lot and saw this plate on the back of a Volvo.

The plate belongs to a group in central Florida running a school for the blind and visually impared, "Lighthouse Central Florida; Vision Rehabilitation Services," hence the name of the plate, "State of Vision." That's a good thing since lighthouses have always been about keeping folks safe, even though our plate is way nicer than theirs.... but you didn't hear that from me. :-)

Florida lighthouses rule!

I was recently in Tallahassee for the FLA board meeting and member's meeting the following day. Of note was the progress of the proposed Florida Lighthouse license plate currently in committee in the state legislature. It was championed by our own Representative William L. "Bill" Proctor and with the support Senator Mike Fesano, Rep. Matt Hudson and many others in the legislature, has been passing with flying colors. One reason it has not met with much opposition is that the FLA is an all volunteer organization and so $0.90 out of every dollar spent on the plate will go to preserving our Florida lighthouses. We are also very honored to be the featured lighthouse on the plate when so many of our friends have lighthouses in the state too. We love them all!

Continue reading "Florida Lighthouse Assoc. at St. Marks Lighthouse" »

Most folks know that one of the most exciting new projects at the Lighthouse is our wooden boatbuilding program. Part of LAMP's First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project, the LAMP Boatworks is dedicated to keeping traditional maritime craftsmanship alive, while providing experimental archaeological and public outreach avenues to help us better interpret boat and ship remains preserved in the archaeological record. Our first build was a Bevin's skiff, a traditional skiff design available as a kit build through the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. While this inaugural and beautiful little boat was an undisputed fantastic success, many of us were eagerly awaiting our first boat to be built from scratch. This was to be the barca chata.

Continue reading "Sea Trials for the Barca Chata" »

National Maritime Heritage Area Workshop

HOSTS
GUANA TOLOMATO MATANZAS NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE
ST. AUGUSTINE LIGHTHOUSE & MUSEUM, INC.
LIGHTHOUSE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MARITIME PROGRAM
SEA GRANT ASSOCIATION
ST. JOHNS COUNTY/PLANNING DIVISION/HISTORIC RESOURCES

Please join us for a National Heritage Area Feasibility Workshop
(Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch.)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - 12:30 pm until 5:00 pm
GTM NERR Environmental Education Center
505 Guana River Road
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida 32080

RSVP requested by April 11, 2008
Contact Pam Troll at 904-829-0745, ext 224 or
ptroll@staugustinelighthouse.com

As Florida Archaeology Month (March) draws to a close, I'd like to reflect on LAMP's biggest public archaeology event, the annual Northeast Florida Symposium on Maritime Archaeology. We sponsored, along with the Lighthouse, the GTM Research Reserve, FPAN, and a number of other supporters, this Symposium for the first time last year. As successful as that inaugural effort was, this year's meeting--from March 12th to the 15th--was even greater!

Continue reading "The 2008 Northeast Florida Symposium on Maritime Archaeology" »

In case you missed it, here is the 16th Annual Lighthouse Festival in pictures. Press the speaker button at the bottom to hear a little music while you check out the action.

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Last Friday night was a wonderful Boat Launch Event, as we launched the Bevin Skiff now christened the William A. Harn, after Lighthouse Keeper William Harn, a man who was at Ft. Sumter as member of the Union army when it was fired upon. This small skiff, designed in New England was perfect for Harn, whose family might have kept such a craft for bringing in supplies from Steam boats named Fern and Armeria, when they docked on what is now Salt Run. This boat is the first finished product of our recently established traditional boatbuilding program, LAMP Boatworks.

UPDATED! More pictures and video below the fold . . .

Continue reading "Boat Launch a Yo Ho Ho Success!" »

The first of the First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project lecture series for 2008 will take place at the St. Augustine Lighthouse Museum on Thursday, March 6, at 6 pm. LAMP Director of Archaeology Dr. Sam Turner will present a slideshow lecture titled "Maritime Archaeology in Portarlington, Australia."

Continue reading "Lecture at the Lighthouse: Maritime Archaeology in Portarlington, Australia" »

Digging through the online archives of the Library of Congress, I recently came across a panorama of St. Augustine completed in 1855. After close review, there are some interesting details I thought I'd share with the blog community.

Continue reading "Details from 1855" »

Menendez High School student Ricky Stratton makes a giant stride entry as LAMP intern Lindsay Jones, fellow student David Pouliotte, and Menendez High teacher Ken Jones look on.

One of LAMP's more exciting educational activities is the MARC program. MARC=Maritime Archaeology Research Class. Founded in 2000, LAMP's high school program was initiated at Nease High School, and later moved to Pedro Menendez High School just south of St. Augustine. With the inception of LAMP's First Coast Maritime Archaeology Project (FCMAP), the MARC program was reorganized and expanded. Starting last September, the students enrolled in this class interact with archaeologists five times a week, including 2 hours of pool training for each student every week for NAUI scuba diver certification. Through our FCMAP grant, 10 new sets of dive gear were purchased so that these students can dive with LAMP archaeologists first as student divers and later as project volunteers. Last week, our first class of student archaeologists "graduated" by conducting their final two checkout dives on a historic shipwreck offshore St. Augustine.

Continue reading "MARC High School Students Dive on Historic Shipwreck in America's Oldest Port" »