Archive for Lighthouse
History of Sanibel Lighthouse Cottage 3
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Move over Nancy Drew! There’s a new girl on the beaches of Sanibel solving our own Beach Bling mysteries.
In a few posts a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned there are some chunks of concrete, bricks and debris I’ve never seen before that have been uncovered because of beach erosion by the Sanibel lighthouse. Remember?
The first thing that caught my eye was this piece of concrete with a layer of aqua linoleum or tile adhered to it. Hmmm. Where did it come from? I wanted me a piece of that aqua Beach Bling!
Then I saw pieces of red brick scattered around…
There were random bits and pieces of concrete every where…
So I put on my Pamsy Drew hat and tracked down the very man that buried this rubble 40 years ago… Charles LeBuff.
While working for US Fish and Wildlife Service, Charles LeBuff lived in the beach cottage called Lighthouse Quarters 2 (which is still there today) in 1958 through 1979 when the Sanibel Lighthouse facility was headquarters for National Wildlife Refuge.
page 43 in Charles LeBuff's J.N. "Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge (my edit in red)
Jackpot! He knows the history of each of those pieces of rubble and wrote two books telling the story!
As he stated in his book, Lighthouse Quarters 3 was built in 1942 to house the Coast Guard’s wartime beach patrol. Then became a guest cottage rented to Service employees for vacation retreats.
page 155 Charle's LeBuff's book Sanybel Light (my edit in red)
Unfortunately, the cottage was torn down in 1969 because a Washington office employee complained about an odor of stinky bait which had been left in the unplugged refrigerator. At that time, the regional refuge supervisor thought that shutting the cottage down would be easier than maintaining it so they tore it down. What?? Was he crazy?
page 44 Charles LeBuff's J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge
Charles said when they tore down the cottage, they burned the wood and used heavy equipment to move all the other remains of the building (concrete, bricks, etc) closer to the water. Charles pointed out that the aqua color on the concrete was the tile floor of the cottage.
The bricks were from the chimney of the cottage…
After demolishing and burying this cottage 40 years ago, he recognized each piece of this “Bling” and told me what it used to be.
Sanibel lighthouse cottage 3 page 41 in Charles LeBuff's book J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge
concrete sanibel lighthouse
Isn’t it so interesting how much you learn from getting out on the beach just to go shelling? I did see lots of good shells getting stuck around those concrete chunks but my curiosity about that “Bling” got the best of me and I didn’t pick up one shell.
rocks sanibel light house
Talking with Charles at “the scene of the crime” was fascinating. Of course I thought y’all would enjoy hearing him as well, so I made a short video so you could meet this memorable man.
I was tickled to hear him tell the stories about the “old days of Sanibel Lighthouse” and I also enjoyed browsing through the pages of his two books… “Sanybel Light” published in 1998 and his latest one “J.N.Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge” published in 2011. You can find the books here on Sanibel at MacIntosh Books where Charles works on Sundays or on his website Sanybel.com. 
I’m so happy to tell you that the wonderful couple that now live in Lighthouse Quarters 2 love shelling too. Here are Judy and Dennis who have been in the cottage for 10 years and are now…. the “keepers of the Lighthouse”…
PS- Speaking of shelling at the lighthouse, Donnie found major treasure over the supermoon weekend. A JUNONIA! That makes #2 for him almost in the same spot as finding his first one six months ago as I showed in Another First Junonia. Congrats again Donnie!
Beach Bling Is A Wonderful Thing
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If you want to learn the types of seashells, sea life, vegetation and what the different kinds of mollusk egg cases look like and live in the Gulf Of Mexico, you’ve got your chance this week. It all washed up on the beach on the East end of Sanibel.
You can see it for miles. So many mollusk egg casings and PEN SHELLS galore!
MERMAID PURSES! Well, they are really SKATE EGG CASES…
HORSE CONCH EGG CASINGS (I shot this with the Nikon J1)…
WHELK EGG CHAINS…
Lots of CRABS too. This one is a STONE CRAB…
My friend Jane called me and said she found a dead crab shell on the beach that had a NAUTILUS shell pattern. She has found a NAUTILUS before so she would know! Wanna see? CLICK HERE . So I went to see this crab…and it does have that pattern! It’s a FLAME BOX CRAB…
I also saw lots of SEA WHIPS. This was the first time I’ve ever found a WHITE SEA WHIP…
We normally just find the purple SEA WHIPS but when I went to see Jane’s FLAME BOX CRAB she showed me this bright yellow WHIP she picked up as well.
There were oodles of PURPLE SEA URCHINS also ( J1)…
I always get questions about the bones on the beach. They are from the bait in the crab traps… not random dead carcasses. LOL
I also get a lot of questions about this guy on the left. It’s a SEA CUCUMBER…
Don’t worry, I saw lots of shells too. Mainly, the double DOSINIAS.
Cyber Sheller Alert! This next photo is really big so you can do a little shelling and blinging…
Looking through all this BEACH BLING, there are little treasures that look like this so you have to look closely…
Some goodies were still washing in at the shoreline as well…
The big find was by Seth (FL)! He found this huge HORSE CONCH on the sand bar near Donax Rd. Here he is with Erin and Reese…
See? BEACH BLING is a wonderful thing… (J1)
PS- Some of you know I’ve been testing a new Nikon J1 camera. It isn’t very spontaneous but when I do catch a nicer shot than with my spontaneous, trusty, easy, clear Panasonic DMC…. I’ve noted it.
When Shelling Worlds Collide
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Ken found an extraordinary JUNONIA! I introduced you to Ken on my last post “Saving Another Sanderlin…Andy!“…. but remember I told you things were getting a little crazy? It’s because I was listening to Ken’s heartwarming story of his JUNONIA when all of our iLS worlds collided. Now that you’ve heard about Alyssa’s SANDERLING, I have to share the story of this extremely precious JUNONIA…
Ken’s sister Chris introduced the family to her passion of beach combing while on their annual visit to Sanibel. After being on the beach with Chris the first time, Ken’s wife Sue understood why her sister-in-law loved shelling so much and became hooked right away so she tried to get Ken to shell with her with no avail…..at first. This is Ken and Sue…
Ken thought shelling was more for people who just liked walking on the beach until…. you ready for this? Sue called Ken over to the computer one day to show him all the cool stuff Clark finds on the beach then she showed him Donnie’s shell posts on iLS too. An “Aha moment”! He started to get it. He finally realized it’s all about the treasure hunt! Now he’s a sheller and it all began with his sister Chris sharing her passion.
Donnie, Ken and Clark
Then Sue said to me… “Our family love love loves your website, including Ken’s youngest sister and our shelling buddy Chris. Sadly we lost her in August, at age 38 to ovarian cancer. The last time we saw her, I whispered in her ear that we would think of her every time we were shelling, and if there was a way for her to communicate that she was OK, she could guide us to a junonia. In the fall, her sisters sprinkled some of her ashes in the Gulf off the Lighthouse Point. On Tuesday morning, the fist day of Ken’s shelling vacation, he waded out in front of the Light House and found a beautiful junonia. The following morning he found an angel wing in the same spot. While it was a bit emotional when he first found it, we have been grinning from ear to ear since!
This is the same photo (Sue took the picture) I showed you on my last post when I said things were getting a little wild. Somehow, this photo makes a little more sense to me why all of our worlds were brought together at this very moment. Alyssa found another Sanderling while Mother Earth Marilyn was there again for the rescue….. then ME Marilyn was there to witness the heavenly JUNONIA being found….. when one of the reasons Ken was inspired to shell was because of Clark and Donnie…. then Karen shows up with her iLS shirt to explain how we all know each other… then Andrea joined us because it makes us realize all of these people are part of our iLoveShelling family. Bonded by the beach.
Sanibel Lighthouse With A Splash Of Color
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We had a real treat tonight! We took a ride on the Fort Myers Princess Cruises cruise boat to watch the sunset over our sweet Sanibel.
I couldn’t help but take lots of pictures since I don’t get to see her from the water at sunset that often.
This beach in the above photo is where I found the ROSE PETAL TELLINS yesterday…. if you walk to the right about 20 yards.
Paradise found.
Speaking of those ROSE PETAL TELLINS, yesterday Kelli had asked what the difference was between these shells and COQUINAS. Well here they are together so you can identify the differences yourself. See ? The ROSE TELLINS are a little fatter along with the shape and hinge position. Also, the ROSE PETAL TELLINS can grow to over four times the size of COQUINAS. Here is another view of the insides of both shells….
My photograph on yesterday’s post, was a little deceiving because I didn’t shoot the shells flat so you couldn’t see how wide they were. I didn’t have a pink COQUINA handy to show you the inside color but this will show the difference in shapes and lines from the inside view. Now you can see a big difference? Hope this helps!
Shelling Here and There
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Nassa (Bruised Nassa)
I’ve been so obsessed with the Sanibel’s Middle Gulf Rd beaches and Captiva lately, that I’ve neglected my old time fave beach… the Lighthouse. Thats’s where I found this mini half inch beauty the BRUISED NASSA. I updated this a few hours after I wrote this original post in which I misidentified this shell as a WHITE NASSA. Thank you to Bird and MurexKen for your keen eyes!
Bruised Nassa aperture
I also found shelling sistah and blogger Kaybe from The Essential Beachcomber (click on that link to see her “You might be a shell addict if you…”) finding WENTLETRAPS and BABY’S EARS.
Beachcomber Kaybe (Englewood, FL)
Kaybe’s minis….
And I found more beach art. Another mermaid! This is for you Anna N…
I did take a couple of photos of Captiva’s Blind Pass on Monday and the beach and sand bar, of course, have changed. Not many shells on the left side of the jetty but the right side of the jetty had a little pile building.
Sand bar beach left side of jetty
This next picture shows a little pile of shells that was building up and look who was there working the pile …. Teresa from my January 2 post. She had found a couple of FLATS and a CONE. Look at that fog!
Right side of jetty on Captiva
The picture of the day that made me smile from ear to ear for probably an hour after I saw it on the iLoveShelling FaceBook page….Thank you Mary Ann!!! You made me speechless.
Simple Sanibel Beach Stroll
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Little Sheller
It was a beautiful beach stroll on the east end of Sanibel near the lighthouse.
Apple Murex Sanibel Sunset
An APPLE MUREX was our biggest find.
Sea Bean with waves
We found two SEA BEANS .
Button Seashell
…..and a BUTTON SHELL. We didn’t see big shell piles but it was simply a beautiful afternoon.
Romantic Sanibel Sunset
