A Light in the Wilderness

You can’t miss the red tower when at Jupiter Inlet in Florida. But many passers-by are unaware that it sits atop a hill that marked the confluence of two waterways that was the center of 5,000 years of Indian civilization. It would later draw a succession of Spanish, English, Seminole Indians, and American soldiers. When the lighthouse was built in 1860, it became a hub for builders, surveyors, Civil War blockade runners, pioneer farmers and paddlewheel steamboats. A Light in the Wilderness tells how today’s coastal strip of over seven million residents began just a few generations ago when bears, panthers and alligators roamed and ruled.