2/6 Jupiter Lighthouse

I've been here before, but I love to climb lighthouses, so I went again.  It is one of the tallest lighthouses in Florida at 108' tall, and it was built in 1860. 

 

The lighthouse was built in an area at the opening of Jupiter Inlet that contains several shell middens.  A shell midden is built up over hundreds of years by native peoples eating shellfish and then leaving the shells behind--basically a gigantic trash heap!  Many in this area were excavated in the 1800s and early 1900s, so there is a very nice museum here with some of the artifacts found in the midden.



Some nice views from the top.

This is a first-order Fresnel lens, the largest and most powerful of the six classes of Fresnel lens.  All were made in France. This is actually still a working light, so you cannot tour late in the afternoon.  You also must be escorted to and from the lighthouse because the grounds are a Coast Guard station.

I did some exploring afterwards, driving my rental car along a beach drive with enormous homes.  This below is a driveway!  There are hundreds of no parking signs and no places to pull over, so it is obvious that they do not exactly welcome uninvited visitors to these places.