Charlotte Harbor

Merchant ships were crucial to the economy of the earliest settlers around Charlotte Harbor, but the vessels posed problems of navigation and health. Though the harbor is large, its useful channel is relatively narrow and hard to follow. Ship crews often brought in contagious diseases. Local pioneers coped with these problems in cumbersome but effective ways.

Small boats had plied the harbor every since the Spanish came in sixteenth century. However, with the exploitation of phosphate from the bed of Peace River in 1888 it became necessary to lead ocean-going schooners and side-wheel steamers into and up the bay.

The first need was to mark the entrance through its parallel "flying bars." Congress in 1888 appropriated $35,000 "for a light or lights and other aids to guide into Charlotte Harbor." A light house and assistant keeper's house were built on the southern tip of Gasparilla Island in 1890. Its light flashed to life on the night of Dec. 31. The first keeper was William Lester who held the job for 30 years. Both houses have been restored by the Barrier Islands Park Society and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The beacon was a kerosene lamp focused and magnified by a cylinder of glass prisms rotated by a counterweight. Lester's job was to keep the lamp fueled and to reset the counter-weight every two hours. Focal plane of the light was 44 feet above sea level and was visible for 10 miles on a clear night. It's white beam was varied every 20 seconds by a red flash. Once inside, large ships had to make their way to the long dock at Punta Gorda. The first obstacle was the Cape Haze shoal which still claims small boats that yield to the temptation to take a short-cut.

A smaller light house, on stilts over the a mid-harbor mud bar, was constructed sometime later. The exact time is in doubt but probably was 1900 when other navigation aids were installed. Early charts indicate the marker as "Charlotte Harbor Light," 36 feet high, visible for 11 miles, exhibiting a white flash every second.

Then earliest keeper of the Cape Haze light whom we know about was Francis Larrison, a Civil War Veteran from Indiana who came to Fort Winder on the Peace River, then Charlotte Harbor Town, in 1893.

The last keeper is believed to be a man named Fine whose wife ran a men-only boarding house in Punta Gorda. The visibility of well-reflected kerosene lamps was remarkable, as attested by the Rev. George W. Gatewood about 1910. He came to Southwest Florida in 1882 from Kentucky. He was a devout Christian in a wilderness with few ordained ministers. Though lacking formal training, the Methodist General Conference licensed him to preach in frontier churches. Consequently he ranged widely and was beloved by the pioneers.

Gatewood in his late years wrote a series of reminiscences for the Punta Gorda Herald. One of them related an incident when Senator Frank Cooper and a cracker named R.B. Singletary went "fire hunting" for deer in the Burnt Store area south of Punta Gorda.

"They decided to try a timbered tract of land bordering the bay opposite Cape Haze," said Gatewood. "In those days, there were quite a number of deer that fed in that locality.

"It seems that on this occasion they had only one gun between them. One would carry the fire -- in a frying pan tied to a pole laid across his shoulder. The fire was made of fat lightwood (resinous pine) splinters. With it you could shine a deer's eyes as far as the ordinary gun could kill one.

"Pretty soon, they shined what the thought was a deer's eye. They could only see one eye, but fired. They started out to see if they had killed it, but didn't find the deer.

"Again, they sighted the eye and shot at it, but no deer was there. After a couple more shots of that kind, the Senator turned the gun over to Singletary who made several shots with no better results.

"Finally Frank Cooper says to Singletary, 'You know what we've been doing, Sing? We've been shooting at Cape Haze light.'" The light was about three miles off."

The channel around this beacon gave only 8 to 10 feet of water at low tide, so it was deepened to 11 feet in 1925. The light was tended by a resident keeper at first, but was converted to continuous battery operation when the deeper channel was cut through.

Historian U.S. Cleveland, Victor Larrison, and the late Harry Goulding remember fishing with their fathers around the Charlotte Harbor light house in the late 1920s. It was functioning but unattended at that time.

Victor Larrison, grand-son of Francis Larrison,the Cape Haze light keeper, says it was a popular fishing spot. Fish would congregate under the house for shade. All three men recall that it was a square building, painted white, with the light in a turret atop the roof. A porch encircled the structure, and their fathers would boost them up so they could run around the porch to "stretch their legs."

The light house was in place and functioning in 1939 when Cleveland and friends fished there overnight. Larrison says it was replaced shortly after World War II with the present 16-foot "Marker 6" flashing every four seconds.

"The Punta Gorda Fish Company bought the old Cape Haze light," recalls Larrison. "They ran a barge under it at low tide, then at high tide towed both up to Tarpon Inlet just south of Fishermen's Village. A man and wife with six or seven kids lived there for a couple of years. They cleaned fish for the fish companies at the municipal dock." There was another light house near the Punta Gorda "long dock" which was the terminal of the Florida Southern Railway in 1886. The late Maude Mauck said that at one time her grandfather, Hiram Curry, was the resident tender there. It was a red house on stilts and marked the bay's most northern two-fathom (12-foot) contour.

. "Sometimes he would row to Charlotte Harbor to see his grand children and stay overnight," she said. "Yet, he would always walk down to the beach to see if the beacon was functioning properly."

Mrs. Mauck kept several brass utensils, with U.S. Light House Service markings, which she got from her grandfather when the beacon was replaced with today's Marker 2 flashing red every 4 seconds. A nine-foot channel from there to Punta Gorda's new municipal dock -- now Fishermen's Village -- was dredged in 1929.

A malaria epidemic in 1892 -- during which local settlers tried unsuccessfully to ban ships from other parts -- led to a demand for inspections of crew health. Punta Gorda's first newspaper, the Beacon, reported in July 1889: "State Physician Porter, in his report before the State Board of Health, recommended that an inspecting station and fumigating chamber be stationed at LaCosta Isle in Charlotte Harbor. He asked that a steam launch be provided that station for cruising between Punta Gorda and Punta Rassa, and also to Tampa and Manatee.

"The Board of Health did not accept the proposition but said they might act on his recommendation if urgently requested by the local Board of Health. Now there is a chance for our local Board to take opportunity by the horns." It is not clear when the quarantine station was established. In October 1893, the Herald reported: "Dr. J.F. Cronin is the genial quarantine officer at Boca Grande Pass." However, another article in May 1895, noted: Dr. J.F. Cronin left Wednesday for Boca Grande to assume his duties as quarantine inspector at that point."

The station, built by the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, consisted of a home for Dr. Cronin and two sailors who operated the pilots' boat. It was the physician's duty to examine seamen on incoming ships parked just off the bar and prevent any sick crew members from going ashore. Dr. B.B. Blount, of Punta Gorda, succeeded Dr. Cronin in 1902.

The Herald in April said: "Dr. Blount, physician at Boca Grande Quarantine station, captured a 12-foot alligator and will mount the head. He has received an elegant naptha launch which he has named the Gov. Jennings in honor of our chief magistrate."

The south end of Gasparilla Island was low and swampy. Mosquitos were abundant. The environment was not suitable for health care.

Consequently, the quarantine station was abandoned in 1904. The north end of La Costa Island was appropriated for the site of a new station.

Cleve Cleveland, U.S. Cleveland's father, and Cleve's brother Dell were hired to provide living quarters for Dr. Cronin and workmen building the La Costa Station. The U.S. Marine Hospital Service acquired the hull of a decrepit schooner named Proctor.

The Clevelands intentionally ran this aground at high side on the bay side of the island. Then, the carpenters built a barracks and an apartment for a physician over the hull. The new station house, rain water cistern, and pier to the island was built on pilings off the Proctor's stern. The quarantine officer at this time was Dr. Wyatt Barnes.

After the station was built, the Clevelands were allowed to salvage what they wished of the now useless *Proctor. Cleve saved a porcelain-iron bath tub and installed it in his home at Boca Grande when he worked for the phosphate company there. Then, he carried it with him when he moved the family to Punta Gorda. The venerable fixture is still giving good service at 509 Gill St.

The quarantine station was discontinued about 1950 when phosphate loading of foreign vessels was shifted entirely to Tampa.

Author: Lindsey Williams