{{Short description|Lighthouse in Florida, US}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox lighthouse | image = americanshoal.JPG | caption = American Shoal lighthouse | location = south-east of the<br> Saddlebunch Keys<br>close to Looe Key<br>Florida<br>United States | coordinates = {{coord|24.525189|N|81.519464|W|region:US_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | yearbuilt = 1880 | automated = 1963 | yeardeactivated = 2015<ref name="American Shoal Lighthouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=700|title=American Shoal Lighthouse|work=Lighthouse Friends|access-date=October 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914060649/http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=700|archive-date=2016-09-14|url-status=live}}</ref> | foundation = screw-pile with platform | construction = wrought iron skeleton tower | shape = octagonal pyramidal skeletal tower with platform and 2-storey keeper's quarters, central cylinder, balcony and lantern | marking = red tower and lantern | height = {{convert|110|ft}} | focalheight = {{convert|109|ft}} | lens = First-order drum Fresnel lens (1880), VRB-25 aerobeacon (current) | range = white: {{convert|14|nmi}}<br>red: {{convert|10|nmi}} | characteristic = Fl (3) W 15s. (two red sectors) | racon= "Y" (– • – –) | managingagent = United States Coast Guard<ref>{{Cite rowlett|fl|accessdate=2016-06-27}}</ref><ref name="USCG.mil">{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|[https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Land/All/Article/1899571/american-shoal-lighthouse/ Florida Historic Light Station Information & Photography] United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 27 June 2016. }}</ref><ref>[http://www.lighthousedigest.com/Digest/database/uniquelighthouse.cfm?value=310 American Shoal Light] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805224920/http://lighthousedigest.com/Digest/database/uniquelighthouse.cfm?value=310 |date=2016-08-05 }} Lighthouse Explorer. Retrieved 27 June 2016</ref> | module = {{Infobox NRHP | embed = yes | name = American Shoal Light | added = January 25, 2011 | refnum = 10001189 }} }}
The '''American Shoal Light''' is located east of the Saddlebunch Keys, just off Sugarloaf Key, close to Looe Key, in Florida, United States.<ref>{{Cite rowlett|fl|access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite uscgll|3|2009|11}}</ref><ref>{{cite uscghist|FL}}</ref> It was completed in 1880, and first lit on July 15, 1880. The structure was built to the same plan and dimensions as the Fowey Rocks lighthouse, completed in 1878.
==History== left|thumb|American Shoal Lighthouse, 1955. As early as 1851 plans were made for the erection of a series of great offshore lighthouses to mark the dangerous Florida Reef. These towers, all of skeleton iron construction, to resist hurricanes, were eventually built one at a time over a period of years, that on American Shoal completed in 1880, being the most recently constructed.<ref name="USCG.mil"/>
American Shoal was built by a Trenton, New Jersey firm and took only 13 months to fabricate, ship, and erect on site. The site of the lighthouse was 15 miles to the eastward, on the outermost reefs, and was covered with 4 feet of water. Construction continued for about 2 years, and the tower when completed cost about $94,000. The lighthouse was first lighted on the night of July 15, 1880.<ref name="USCG.mil"/>
American Shoal Light was built in wrought iron on a screw-pile foundation with a platform and a skeletal tower. The Light is {{convert|109|ft}} above the water. The keeper's octagonal dwelling is on a platform {{convert|40|ft}} above the water. The tower framework and dwelling are painted brown, while the enclosed circular stair to the lantern is painted white. The original lens was a first-order drum Fresnel lens, producing a flash every 5 seconds. The light was automated in 1963, and a fourth-order lens with solar-powered light was installed, the current (non-operational) light is a VRB-25 aerobeacon. The light had a nominal range of {{convert|14|nmi}} in the white sectors, and {{convert|10|nmi}} in the red sectors.
The lighthouse is listed as number 1015 in the U.S. Coast Guard light list.<ref>{{cite uscgll|0|}}</ref>
In 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 25 cent featuring the American Shoal Light.<ref>{{cite web|title=Stamp Series |publisher=United States Postal Service |url=http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-series |access-date=Sep 2, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810160707/http://beyondtheperf.com/stamp-series |archive-date=2013-08-10 }}</ref>
The lighthouse was deactivated in 2015.<ref name="American Shoal Lighthouse">{{cite web|url=http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=700|title=American Shoal Lighthouse|work=Lighthouse Friends|access-date=October 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914060649/http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=700|archive-date=2016-09-14|url-status=live}}</ref>
On May 20, 2016, 24 Cuban refugees boarded the lighthouse.<ref name=14ymedio2016-07-20/> Elements of the United States Coast Guard repatriated four of the refugees, and interned the other twenty at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station.
==Head keepers== * William Bates (1880 – 1889) * Henry P. Weatherford (1899 – 1905) * Alfred A. Berghell (1905 – 1907) * Arthur C.E. Hamblett (1907 – 1908) * John Peterson (1908 – 1910) * William H. Curry (1910 – at least 1915) * Thomas M. Kelly (1917) * William H. Pierce (at least 1919) * Richard C. Roberts (at least 1921 – at least 1936) * James O. Duncan (1939 – at least 1940)<ref>[http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=700 American Shoal, Fla.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914060649/http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=700 |date=September 14, 2016 }} Lighthouse Friends. Retrieved 27 June 2016</ref>
==Availability== On February 1, 2019, it was announced that the lighthouse would be given away freely to any government agencies, educational agencies, non-profit corporations, or any community development organizations who wanted to use it for "educational, park, recreational, cultural or historic preservation purposes." Eligible entities had to submit an application by April 2, 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/maritime/nhlpa/noa/2019/American%20Shoal%20Light-NOA-20190201_1A2.pdf|title=Notice of Availability: American Shoal Light Station|date=February 1, 2019|website=U.S. National Park Service|access-date=April 7, 2019}}</ref>
In late 2021 the U.S. General Services Administration put out an invitation for bids for the auction of the lighthouse.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 12, 2021 |title=Invitation for Bids |url=https://realestatesales.gov/ATTACHMENT/REGNP/PEACH422006001/IFBAmericanShoalLightFinal.pdf |access-date=January 25, 2023 |website=IFB American Shoal Light}}</ref> The lighthouse was sold for $860,000 on May 22, 2022 to an undisclosed bidder.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 22, 2022 |title=GSA Auctions |url=https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucdsclnk?sl=PEACH422006001 |access-date=January 25, 2023 |website=U.S. General Services Administration Auctions}}</ref>
==See also== {{stack|{{Portal|Florida|Engineering}}}} * List of lighthouses in Florida * List of lighthouses in the United States
== References == <references>
<ref name=14ymedio2016-07-20>{{cite news |url = http://www.14ymedio.com/internacional/Base-Guantanamo-reunirse-familia-Cuba_0_2038596124.html |title = Un balsero deja la Base de Guantánamo para reunirse con su familia en Cuba |language = es |trans-title = A rafter leave Guantanamo Bay to meet with his family in Cuba |location = Miami, Florida |date = 2016-07-20 |author = Mario J. Penton |publisher = 14ymedio |access-date = 2016-07-22 |quote = Leyva y otros 23 cubanos hacían parte de un grupo de balseros que el pasado 20 de mayo se refugiaron en el faro American Shoal, a siete millas de las costas estadounidenses. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160722025541/http://www.14ymedio.com/internacional/Base-Guantanamo-reunirse-familia-Cuba_0_2038596124.html |archive-date = 2016-07-22 |url-status = live }}</ref>
</references>
==Sources== *{{Citation | surname=McCarthy | given=Kevin M. | title=Florida Lighthouses | publisher=University of Florida Press | place=Gainesville, Florida | year=1990 | url=http://www.upf.com/archive/mccarthy.html }} {{ISBN|0-8130-0982-0}}. *{{Citation | surname=Dean | given=Love | title=Reef Lights: Seaswept Lighthouses of the Florida Keys | publisher=The Historic Key West Preservation Board | place=Key West, Florida | year=1982 }} {{ISBN|0-943528-03-8}}.
==External links== {{commons category}}{{Lighthouses of Florida}} {{National Register of Historic Places in Florida}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Lighthouses completed in 1880 Category:Lighthouses in Monroe County, Florida Category:Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Category:National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Florida Category:1880 establishments in Florida