The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum is an excellent spot for sightseeing in the Jupiter area.
After you’ve taken our narrated Jupiter Island Historical boat tour you will undoubtedly have lots of questions and a trip to the Jupiter Lighthouse is a great way to answer a lot of them where you can physically see what we discuss on our tours.
Congress approved $35,000 to build the lighthouse back in 1854 and President Franklin Pierce signed the order.
The lighthouse was completed and first lit in 1860 and has only been unlit for 6 years during the Civil War and various hurricanes and storms that have hit the area.
Currently the lighthouse is not operating with it’s equipped lens due to construction of the Jupiter Federal Bridge project. With all of the pounding of pilings next to the site, the caretakers of the lighthouse thought it prudent to wrap the lens during construction and monitor the lens.
The first order Fresnel lens is one of only a 2 lenses still in use today and is worth millions of dollars, so they are very careful about how this lens is handled.
Other interesting facts about the lighthouse include the Navy’s Radio Detection Finding Station, known as “Station J”, was once installed at this location. It was a secret base that was designed to intercept German U-boat radio messages. Once we were able to intercept the messages, Station J could figure out the locations of the submarines and radio the Allied fleet of their position. In the summer of 1943, more than 50 German submarines were destroyed due to the hard work of the men of Station J.
In 2008, then-President George W. Bush signed a bill that will protect the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area for all Americans in perpetuity.
Visit the lighthouse today…you won’t be sorry.