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Welcome to the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse has stood on the Cape for over 150 years. Situated amidst America’s Premier Gateway to Space, the lighthouse is owned by the United States Space Force and maintained as an active aid to navigation by the United States Coast Guard. Visits to the lighthouse, museum, and gift shop are available via prescheduled tours, only. Open House for CCSFS badged personnel occurs every Wednesday from 10:00 – 1:00. Hangar C will also be open during these hours.

We are open for scheduled tours, but since we are located on an active military installation, you cannot drive your own vehicle onto the facility. Members of the public can only visit by taking a tour, which must be booked at least two days prior, to process through Space Force Security. Active duty military with CAC cards may come onto the station to visit the lighthouse, but cannot escort non-badged visitors without prior approval of SLD 45. Unlike most other military installations, a retired military ID will not gain you access to CCSFS. You will have to take the public tour. Please see our Visit page for tour information. So make plans now to come visit us!

CAPE CANAVERAL LIGHTHOUSE VIRTUAL TOUR – created by the University of South Florida Center for Digital Heritage & Geospatial Information

CAPE CANAVERAL LIGHTHOUSE VIDEO

Check out our brochure.

Click Here for a short Spectrum News Florida on a Tankful segment about the lighthouse.

Click Here for a 12 minute video tour of the lighthouse presented by our Historian, Barbara Moser, produced by the Space Launch Delta 45 Public Affairs Office.

Click here for a 321 Liftoff Podcast about visiting the lighthouse.

Click here for a US Lighthouse Society podcast for the lighthouse. This is an hour long podcast the first half of which is a discussion about Patos Island Light in Washington State. The Cape Canaveral Light discussion is in the 2^nd half.

Latest News

Don’t miss the first ever Cosmic Ball

Support the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and other Brevard Museums as well as the Brevard Humane Society! Choose a spacey costume or come as you are on Saturday, October 21st from 7-11 and attend the inaugural Museums of Brevard (MOB) “Cosmic Ball” at the Beachside Hotel beside Ron Jon’s in Cocoa Beach and meet the mystery astronaut! Tickets are $50, available through Eventbright, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cosmic-ball-tickets-724208676647?aff=oddtdtcreator

The evening will include music by DJ Silky Smooth, a cosmic costume contest with prizes, a free digital image by TSS Photo, and moongazing through telescopes. And you might be the lucky winner of the Lazy River Duck Race! A light buffet of party foods will be provided with admission, and there will be a cash bar. And, who at the party will be the mystery astronaut (or two, or three!)?

For more information, contact Mark Marquette: marq@americanspacemuseum.org or phone (423) 946-4132.

Check out this video! We celebrated National Lighthouse Day on August 7^th with close to 100 visitors. Lighthouse Day is celebrated Aug. 7 in the United States to commemorate the act of the establishment and support of lighthouses by Congress in 1789. This year, lighthouses around the country participated in a video competition sponsored by the US Lighthouse Society. Check out our entry and see the fun had by all.

On August 18-20 this year, the Kennedy Space Center Amateur Radio Club once again participated in the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend from inside our museum. This year they were able to take advantage for the first time of having permanent tie-downs for their radio tower in the parking lot between the lighthouse and Hangar C. They made a total of 625 contacts with Amateur Radio operators. Out of these, there were 15 contacts with other lighthouses and 3 lightships. They made contact with 7 Canadians and 41 US States, including all East and West coast seaboard states. We look forward to next year’s event!

The University of South Florida Center for Digital Heritage & Geospatial Information, just completed a virtual tour of the Cape Canaveral Light Station. Many thanks for all their hard work and a great product that helps us share this national resource. Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Virtual Tour

Our 4th Order Fresnel Lens on loan from the Coast Guard is now on display in the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Museum!

We now have a 4th Order Fresnel lens on loan from the U.S. Coast Guard. This type of lens is significant to the Cape Canaveral lighthouse as it was used twice in its history. During the Civil War, the old Winslow Lewis Lamp was removed from the original brick lighthouse when all lighthouses in the South were ordered to go dark. After the war, a 4th Order Fresnel lens was installed in the brick lighthouse from 1865-1868, when the iron lighthouse was built and began using a 1st Order Fresnel lens. Later in 1893-1894 when the iron lighthouse was dismantled and moved a mile inland due to beach erosion concerns, a skeletal tower was built and used a 4th Order lens until the move was completed. The 4th Order lens now in the museum was made in America circa 1905 by the MacBeth-Evans Glass Company. It’s just under 3-feet tall and likely weighs over 500 lbs. This is definitely worth a special trip to see a Fresnel lens up close.

We had a great time on Saturday, July 15th with our quarterly Members and Brick Holders tour. Over 60 people took advantage of this free opportunity on a beautiful day at the lighthouse. If you’re not yet a member or brick holder, please consider becoming a member or buying a brick before our next quarterly tour so you can take advantage of this special FREE event, only open to those individuals.

Keep Brevard Beautiful partnered with us at the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse for the first ever Adopt-A-Landmark program. This project was awarded the national Community Innovation Award by Keep America Beautiful. Check out the video below to learn more.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse made #1 on the list of 10 best things to do in Cape Canaveral, Florida! Check it out!

Merritt Island Now magazine published a wonderful follow-up article on our recent Lighthouse Keeper Grave Marker Program. Click here to read it.

If you don’t have the time to take the regular full tour on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (that includes space history), try our monthly special Lighthouse and Hangar C only tour. You will be able to come just to the lighthouse for a 1+ hour visit. You will also be able to see the tremendous collection of artifacts from the Air Force Space and Missile Museum Annex next door in Hangar C. Click here to book your Lighthouse and Hangar C only tour, or any of Canaveral Tours’ small van tours.

Upcoming Events

The Museums of Brevard (MOB) is a 501(C)3 nonprofit of interested museums and historic sites in Brevard County, Florida (including the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse). Together we: advertise and promote each other’s facilities both individually and jointly; share activity information and coordinate upcoming events; share best practices and lessons learned in museum administration and management, including fundraising, grant writing and collections management; and assist other members with special requests.

Check out the MOB Brochure and see all the sites!

Visit the MOB website for links to every member.

Like the MOB on Facebook and find out all the things happening!

Message from Our Foundation President

We are the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation but in most issues of the Canaveral Beacon we promote this specialty license plate and have a full page write-up about the Florida Lighthouse Association. Why do we dedicate a page to the Florida Lighthouse Association (FLA), and why do we even care about the FLA? We care because the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse is a member and has benefited from that membership to the tune of over $92K. But some history on FLA:

The FLA was formed in 1996 by twenty-six Lighthouse enthusiasts who lived throughout Florida. The group wanted to form an organization that could be used to share information with lighthouses around the State about restoration and repairs. The larger lighthouses shared lessons learned with the smaller light-houses since the smaller lighthouse organizations couldn’t afford to make mistakes and waste money. To that end, FLA is a success. However, the organization continues to grow in its capabilities to help with lighthouse preservation, restoration, and protection.

FLA receives NO funding from the state and has NO connection to the State Government. In 2008 FLA applied for a Specialty License Plate which was approved and signed into law on 1 October 2008. The application states that “FLA may use a maximum of ten percent of the proceeds to market and promote the plate. The remaining proceeds shall be used by the Association to fund the preservation, restoration, and protection of the 29 historic light-houses remaining in the state.” Please note: None of the License Plate proceeds may be used for administration purposes. However in recent years “Education” has been added to how funds may be expended.

FLA receives roughly 25 dollars per plate and uses this money to support lighthouse projects throughout Florida via grants issued to member lighthouses. To receive grant money, member Lighthouses must pay annual dues of $60, which is well worth it when considering what they can and have received. At the present time there are 11,312 active lighthouse plates on vehicles around the state, which will give FLA over $275,000 to fund lighthouse projects this year. This is accomplished through lighthouse organizations submitting a grant request for desired work followed by the FLA approval process.

It should be pointed out that Cape Canaveral Lighthouse does not qualify for license plate grants in a lot of cases since the lighthouse is owned and maintained by the US Space Force. However, we have been able to find projects that FLA can fund, and over the years Cape Canaveral has received over ninety-two thousand dollars.

Florida Lighthouse Association is a good organization and I encourage anyone who likes lighthouses to visit their website at floridalighthouses.org and join FLA.

Please visit our website https://canaverallight.org for additional information.

Thank you for your help in keeping our light shining into the future.

Ron