Susan Nosco Wolfe
Island Light: Afterword
    “Oh, wild, bright land, oh, beautiful land of home!”
    – Alexander Key, Island Light

    A fugitive from federal justice, Lieutenant Max Ewing returns home to the Gulf port city of Apalachicola determined to seek revenge. The War Between the States has ended, but Apalachicola remains occupied by federal troops and local opportunists, emboldened and empowered by the war. Max’s brother Randy has died, a victim of shipboard hostilities in the Bay of Cardenas. Soon, Ewing learns of other losses incurred in his absence: his mother’s death from yellow fever, the confiscation of his family’s property, and the fates and deaths of many friends.
    Ewing turns for support to Branch Clabo, his boyhood companion and owner of a remote trading outpost and tavern across Apalachicola Bay. By his cunning, Clabo has survived and profited from the war and agrees to shelter Ewing from the authorities. Ewing also seeks out Cassius Drew, once an influential lawyer and longtime family friend, now stripped of position and power, but still determined to restore local peace and order.
    Ewing plans to bide his time; hiding and plotting to secure money and guns for an insurrection. Clabo recommends him to Captain Lassaphene, the Northern-bred and newly-appointed lighthouse keeper of St. George, an isolated barrier island, as a fill-in for his injured assistant keeper Ben Haik. Ewing seizes this opportunity, not only to protect his identity and make his plans, but also to explore the island for a decades-old ship wreck, reputed to contain a fortune in gold in its hold.
    Assuming the alias Max Call, Ewing encounters his former lover, the earthy Bella, whose memory sustained Max during his imprisonment. Bella, doubting that Max would return and pressed by circumstances, has married the crude Ben Haik. Max also meets the lighthouse keeper’s daughter-in-law, widow Charlotte Maynard, a quiet inward-turning Northerner looking to find solace in the remoteness of the deserted island.
    Revenge, loyalty, honor, passion and greed clash in this dramatic tale, which Key sets among the raw and rugged elements of Florida’s Gulf coast at a turbulent time in its history.

Publisher’s Note:
    It has been more than 60 years since the first publication of Alexander Key’s Island Light and nearly 150 years since the time period in which the novel was set. This Afterword provides a brief overview of the novel’s historical context and the changes which have occurred since that period to shape the Forgotten Coast of today.

The Forgotten Coast Then and Now:
A Brief History of Apalachicola, St. George Island and the Cape St. George Light
    Today’s visitor to the Florida Panhandle and its popular Gulf Coast may find it hard to believe that huge portions of the region remained inaccessible and undeveloped well into the twentieth century. During the time period in which Island Light is set, immediately following the War Between the States, access to settlements and trading posts in the region was primarily by water, either from local creeks and rivers or from the Gulf of Mexico.

    ~ The City of Apalachicola
    Historic Apalachicola, first settled in 1820 as a customs collection outpost, adopted its current name in 1831, and by the mid-1800s was the third largest port on the Gulf. Commercial goods, including 80% of the river basin’s cotton production, were transported from Alabama, Georgia and Northern Florida down the Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola rivers to Apalachicola, then shipped by sea to other port cities along the United States Eastern Coast, to England and other European destinations. Due to the challenges of navigating the shallow Apalachicola Bay, local ships’ captains were often hired to pilot goods in and out of the busy port.
    Franklin County was formed in 1832, with Apalachicola as its county seat. A year later, the first lighthouse on St. George Island was built at the western entrance to Apalachicola Bay. Florida became a state in 1845, but in 1861 became the third state to secede from the Union following the election of Abraham Lincoln to the United States Presidency.

    ~ The Port of Apalachicola, during and after the War Between the States
    Early in the Civil War, Union warships blockaded Apalachicola’s port. Max Ewing, Island Light’s, central character, commanded the fictitious privateer St. George of the Confederate States Navy, a blockade runner and a target for Union forces. Confederate ships, when seized while attempting to thwart the blockade, had their crews imprisoned and vessels and cargo sold for profit. When Ewing’s fictional ship was captured in 1864, according to Key’s narrative, Ewing was charged with piracy and treason and received a harsh sentence of 20 years in prison.
    The years following the war were difficult for Apalachicola residents, although the port enjoyed a brief resurgence in trade by 1869. Under Reconstruction, the city was governed from a distance by Union Forces based in Pensacola, and the 82nd Colored Infantry, stationed in the city to maintain order.

    ~ St. George Island
    St. George Island, setting of Key’s Island Light, is the largest of the barrier islands separating Apalachicola Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. The area has a long history of human habitation, going back more than 12,000 years. Spanish and French explorers established outposts during Florida’s later history, but many of Florida’s Indian tribes had permanent settlements, including the dominant Apalachees.
    In 1804, at the suggestion of the Spanish government, over a million acres of land between the St. Marks and Apalachicola Rivers, including St. George Island, were ceded to Englishman John Forbes and Company, in settlement of Indian land debts. This transaction was later contested and remained in dispute until resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1835. In that year the Apalachicola Land Company was formed, and land in the region was sold piecemeal until the company became insolvent in 1858. Along with other barrier islands along the Apalachicola Bay, portions of St. George Island were sold and resold over the years. Key’s character, Max Ewing, was to have purchased a portion of St. George Island prior to the Civil War.
    At the time of Key’s novel, St. George Island was remote and largely uninhabited, covered by sand dunes and stunted scrub brush, and accessible only by boat. The Lighthouse Keeper, his family and his staff would have lived a primitive and isolated existence.

    ~ Changes to St. George Island In the 20th Century
    During World War II, St. George Island was occupied by U.S. Forces for B-24 bombing and amphibious assault practice. German U-Boats were known to prowl the Gulf waters along the coast. Some foreign vessels were apprehended and prisoners captured in the area during this period.
    St. George Island has been breached many times over the years due to storms and erosion. In 1954, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged a channel, Bob Sikes Cut, across the island. Bob Sikes was an influential congressman from Florida’s panhandle. The Cut provided a fast alternate route between the bay and the gulf, benefitting Apalachicola’s commercial fishing fleet. Today, the site attracts recreational fishermen as well.
    Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park stretches along nine miles of the island’s eastern tip. Its 2000+ acres retain a relatively wild nature although the park offers full service camping sites, hiking trails, boardwalks and observation platforms.
    A popular destination for bird watchers, the park is also popular with recreational fishermen, offering two boat launches and miles of undeveloped beaches for fishing, swimming and sunning.

    ~ The Founding of Eastpoint
    The relationship between Apalachicola and its neighbors across Apalachicola Bay changed little until around 1900. In 1898, the community of Eastpoint was settled in approximately the location of Key’s fictitious “Gabo’s Tavern”. Families from Nebraska established Eastpoint as an experimental community, with profits from farming, lumbering, seafood and manufacturing to be shared by its inhabitants. Although the experimental community eventually disbanded, the settlement of Eastpoint remained.

    ~ Connecting the Communities
    Until 1935, Eastpoint was accessible from Apalachicola only by ferry. In 1935, the 6.5 mile John Gorrie Bridge was completed, named after a local doctor, who in the 1840s pioneered the development of refrigeration and cooling techniques to treat victims of yellow fever. The Gorrie Bridge and its causeway made automobile traffic possible between Apalachicola and Eastpoint.
    A causeway and bridge linked Eastpoint to St. George Island in 1965. Named the Bryant Grady Patton Bridge, the structure was replaced by a new bridge in 2004. The third longest bridge in Florida and the longest in Florida’s Panhandle, it contains a span 72 feet in height providing clearance for tall ships navigating the Intracoastal Waterway.
    Today, with its connection to the mainland, St. George Island contains a small, but thriving community, including a vibrant commercial district and both permanent residential and resort properties.

    ~ St. George’s Lighthouses
    St. George Island’s lighthouses have a tempestuous and compelling history, marked by hurricanes, erosion and human determination. Lighthouses have played a critical role in the Gulf Coast’s navigational history, which includes numerous stories of piracy and shipwrecks. The Cape St. George Light was one of several lighthouses established in the early 1800s to improve navigational safety along the Gulf coast.
    The first St. George Island Lighthouse, built in 1833 on the westernmost point of St. George Island, marked the West Pass shipping entrance into Apalachicola Bay. Its location was problematic, partially hidden by the island, which made the light difficult to see for ships approaching from the East. Vulnerable to storm surge, this first light was destroyed in 1846.
    The second light was built in 1848, relocated farther east at the southernmost point of Cape St. George. Salvaged materials from the first light were used to build the second light, known as the Cape St. George Light. This lighthouse stood ten feet taller than the original. At 75 feet, it was easier to spot by sailors from the east. Three years later, this second lighthouse was toppled in a hurricane which also destroyed neighboring lights at Cape San Bias and Dog Island.
    The third lighthouse was rebuilt nearby, but farther inland. “Built to last,” the new structure was supported by seven-foot pine pilings driven into the sand to provide the foundation. This would be the lighthouse described in Island Light. The light was turned off during the Civil War, to discourage the entrance of Union vessels into Apalachicola Bay, but was relit following the war, on August 1, 1866. Its damaged lens, removed and hidden during the war, was replaced in 1889. In 1949, the light was automated and operated until 1994 when it was deactivated by the U.S. Coast Guard.

    ~ Preserving Island History
    Already ravaged by storms and natural erosion, this third lighthouse was washed from its foundations in 1995 by tidal surges following Hurricane Opal. Though still standing following that storm, the structure tilted seven degrees.
    That year, committed citizens of the region formed the Cape St. George Lighthouse Society in an attempt to save their historic lighthouse. More than 5200,000 in grants and donations were used to stabilize the structure. By 2002, the lighthouse was deemed restored and the group disbanded.
    Gulf storms continued their assaults. By spring 2005, ground around the lighthouse had eroded, leaving the light standing 20 feet from the shoreline. On October 21, 2005 the Cape St. George Light collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico.
    Again, local citizens rallied. The St. George Lighthouse Association, established in 2004, worked with the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection to salvage materials from the destroyed light. Building plans for the 1852 Lighthouse were obtained from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and reconstruction began in 2007. Twenty-two thousand bricks reclaimed from the previous structure were used to surface the interior walls, floor and ceiling of the new tower. This fourth lighthouse is located on St. George Island in St. George Lighthouse Park. It was completed in December of 2008. The site includes a replica of the original Lighthouse Keeper’s House, which serves as a museum dedicated to telling the story of the historic lighthouse.
    The Cape St. George Lighthouse is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.

    ~ Today’s “Forgotten Coast,” Remembered
    Today the Lighthouse and St. George Island State Park are just a few of the many attractions which draw thousands of visitors to St. George Island’s famous beaches and a variety of accommodations, restaurants and shops.
    Apalachicola remains a charming and historic community, offering four state museums, a new Maritime Museum, and a variety of accommodations, both historic and modern. Its world-class restaurants take full advantage of the strong local seafood industry, serving up along with many other choices, the best oysters in the world.
    Today’s Gulf Coast offers the best of the modern and traditional worlds. Each year lovers of the outdoors flock to Apalachicola and the Forgotten Coast, to explore its natural beauty, including its rivers and creeks and many federal and state forests, gamelands and parks, where it is possible to catch glimpses of the region’s untamed past. Here it is still possible to experience the setting of Alexander Key’s Island Light.

    Sources for this article:
    A variety of websites were used to gather the information for this article, including websites for Apalachicola, Carrabelle and Franklin County history. One of the best included information provided by the Apalachicola Historical Society. The Florida Department of State Division of Library and Information Services maintains its State Archives of Florida Online Catalog, which proved useful. Historical sites often have their own information website. It is also possible to search by name or topic. As with many queries, one often leads to another. In the age of “point and click,” with a computer and a bit of time, it’s possible to find answers to most questions, and often, in the process, find something unexpected. Many thanks to the persons who develop and maintain these sites and to the historical societies and other groups which support them. If asked, they will be glad to guide you through the discovery process.

    * * *
    Alexander Key (1904-1979) lived in Apalachicola from 1936 until enlisting into the Navy during World War II. An enthusiastic and accomplished sailor, Key incorporates his sailing knowledge to enhanced graphic narratives of ships navigating the treacherous waters along Florida’s Gulf Coast and Apalachicola Bay. A skilled illustrator educated at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920’s, Key turned to writing and illustrating his own novels, after difficulty obtaining commissions during the Great Depression. Island Light and The Wrath and the Wind, Key’s two novels set in Apalachicola and along the Gulf Coast, contain distinctive illustrations. Key also illustrated Suwannee River; Strange Green Land by Cecile Hulse Matschat (1938), an early book in The Rivers of America series, drawing on Key’s boyhood memories growing up along the Suwannee.
    Key’s first wife, Margaret Harmony Livings Key, also a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, was an illustrator and author in her own right. A beautiful and vibrant personality, she remained in Apalachicola, active in community affairs until her death in 1996. Margaret’s estate included a bequest to the City of Apalachicola’s Municipal Library and a portion of Margaret’s papers and photographs are contained in the library’s collection. A portrait of Alexander Key hangs over the library’s front door.
    Key married his second wife after World War II and left the area, eventually moving to the mountains of North Carolina where he continued to write popular fantasy fiction for young adults. A portion of his papers are kept in the University of Southern Mississippi’s de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection. He died in Eufaula, Alabama, at the age of 71.

    2011

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