Who wants to own a lighthouse off the Florida Keys? Pretty soon, five are going to be available. The price? They’re free. Carysfort, Sand Key, Alligator, Sombrero and American Shoal, all built in the 19th century, none younger than 138 years, were designated excess property last month by the U.S. Coast Guard.

They are now in the hands of the General Services Administration, which holds and manages government property and will give the lighthouses away — if it can.

Not just anybody can have one. You have to have a government agency — federal, state, or local — or an educational agency or community development organization, to take one over.

Then your outfit has to be able to take care of the lighthouse if you get it, and to make it available for “education, park, recreation, cultural, or historic preservation purposes for the general public, at reasonable times and under reasonable conditions,” according to the National Park Service, which has a lot of online info about historic lighthouses.

Those requirements are in the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation act of 2000. Some people might be discouraged by that, considering how expensive and technical such a project seems so sure to be — all with little to no hope of making a buck off it.

It is not discouraging to “Lighthouse Larry” Herlth. He is well known in the Keys for building those ubiquitous replica lighthouses that visitors notice standing like cigar store Indians of old, in front of businesses along the Overseas Highway. One marks the entrance to the city of Marathon.

David Goodhue at Florida Keys News Bureau reports that Herlth is starting a non-profit outfit to acquire Alligator Reef Light, which stands off Islamorada — more precisely 4 nautical miles east of Indian Key — on a shallow bank north of the true Alligator Reef.

Heath is founder of a signature Middle Keys event, the annual (in September) Swim for Alligator Lighthouse. It raises money for student scholarships and awareness of the lighthouse.
“It would make it quite difficult to have the event if there was no lighthouse there,” Herlth was quoted.

That’s not his only motive: “The reason I feel we need to save these lighthouses is that, number one, they are a major part of our maritime history of the Florida Keys. “They are the reason we enjoy the Overseas Highway.”

For more on how to go about getting a lighthouse, see this web page: www.nps.gov/maritime/nhlpa/intro.htm.