Two brick lighthouses were built on the Gulf of Mexico near the crook of St. Joseph's peninsula. Both were destroyed. So in 1883, the Lighthouse Board erected a third lighthouse at Cape San Blas, this one a skeletal tower thought to withstand wind-and-wave action better. But the erosion has destroyed most of the beach area and the tower had to be moved to its present site in 1918. The two homes were for the lighthouse keepers.

Swamp land near St. Joe's.