Jupiter Lighthouse May Get Federal Protection Status
By Sue Clark on Oct 27, 2007 in News 
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Florida State Representative Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach, has introduced a bill to get Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse designated as an “Outstanding Natural Area.” This rarely given designation would protect the lighthouse and and its surrounding 126 acres from development and make it eligible for certain grants. Jupiter mayor Karen Golonka recently testified in Washington D.C. in support of the bill, which was also introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bill Nelson.
This will put Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse in the same category as National Monuments, and will provide cohesion to the several groups that currently own or operate the area, including the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management, the Coast Guard, Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management, the Loxahatchee River Historical Society and the town of Jupiter. If the designation occurs, the Historical Society would still manage the lighthouse and raise money.
ONA is a congressional designation that was established to protect federal lands. The designation has been used for conservation sites of approximately 100 acres in size that include a lighthouse. Jupiter Inlet would be the second ONA in the nation. The first is at Yaquina Head in Oregon.
The ONA designation would:
- Provide long-term protection of a site containing cultural and biological resources in a highly urbanized part of Florida;
- Promote tourism;
- Create an eastern/Atlantic counterpart to Yaquina Head on the Oregon coast;
- Elevate the visibility of the local community and help it compete for environmental grants.
The site is home to more than 18 threatened or endangered species of plants and wildlife. Historical Society officials said it is rich with history and contains both prehistoric and historical artifacts. Archaeological evidence of American Indians dates to 3000 B.C. Reports claim that Ponce de Leon sailed into the Jupiter Inlet in 1513. The site also has strong ties to maritime and military history. The lighthouse was designed by Lt. George Meade, who later as a Union general defeated Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg in 1863, Historical Society officials said.
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