Even More Carrabelle, FL

This morning it was 60 glorious degrees outside, with a sun that made a brief, but welcome appearance. We jumped at the chance to get outside and dusted off our folding bikes to visit a couple more Carrabelle sights that are farther away than we were willing to walk. 

First was the Camp Gordon Johnston Museum, the former home of the Army Amphibious Training Center during World War II. The original camp stretched for more than 20 miles and prepared thousands of soldiers for amphibious warfare on the nearby beaches of Carrabelle and its barrier islands. Dubbed “Hell by the Sea” and “Alcatraz of the Army” by trainees, the isolated and primitive camp was “hacked out of the palmetto scrub along a bleak stretch of beach,” according to General Omar Bradley, and was plagued by fleas, mosquitos, snakes and scorpions. The future Army group commander would further remark that “the man responsible for selecting that site should have been court-martialed for stupidity.” The museum isn’t large, but the exhibits are well done and held way more information than we could absorb in one visit. And we thought the location was kind of nice.

Next we biked down the road to the Crooked River Lighthouse, erected in 1895 and still an active Coast Guard aid to navigation, with the adjacent keeper’s house preserved as a museum. The light is the fourth iteration on Saint George Sound—after three successive lighthouses on Dog Island were destroyed by hurricanes, Congress refused to fund the construction of another unless it was located on the mainland. 

We were the only visitors there, and enjoyed chatting with the Iowa-born docent, viewing the exhibits and climbing the 127 steps to the top of the lighthouse.