Carysfort Reef Lighthouse Foundation
Standing Since 1852.
At Risk Today.
The Carysfort Reef Lighthouse has guided mariners through treacherous Florida Keys waters for over 170 years. Now the lighthouse — and the living reef beneath it — face threats that demand urgent action.
Why This Matters
A Lighthouse. A Reef. A Legacy Under Threat.
Completed in 1852, the Carysfort Reef Lighthouse stands as one of the most significant engineering achievements of 19th-century America — an iron screw-pile structure rising from open ocean, built to warn ships away from the deadliest reef in the Florida Keys. For generations, its light meant survival.
Today, the lighthouse structure itself is deteriorating. And the reef it was built to mark — once among the most biodiverse coral ecosystems in the Atlantic — has lost more than half its coral cover in the past four decades. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects these waters, but public awareness of what that means, and what is at stake, remains dangerously low.
The Carysfort Reef Lighthouse Foundation exists to change that. We are raising funds to preserve the lighthouse structure, educating the public about the reef ecosystem, and working to ensure that conservation boundaries appear clearly on the recreational and electronic charts that boaters rely on every day.
Carysfort Light has stood through hurricanes, wars, and neglect. It deserves to stand through our watch too.
— Neil Hunley, author of the definitive two-volume history of the Florida Keys reef light stations
Florida's reef tract has lost more than 90% of its coral cover since the 1970s. The window for action is closing.
History & Maritime Navigation
The Light That Saved Thousands of Lives
Before the lighthouse was completed in 1852, Carysfort Reef was the most feared hazard on the Florida Straits — the primary shipping lane connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic. Dozens of vessels wrecked on its shallow coral heads each decade, their cargoes lost and crews drowned.
The lighthouse's construction was a feat of American engineering: a 112-foot iron skeleton tower anchored to the reef itself by massive screw-pile foundations, designed to flex in hurricane winds rather than resist them. It was the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
Neil Hunley's landmark two-volume series documents the full history of this lighthouse and its sister reef lights — the keepers who lived on the reef for months at a time, the storms they survived, and the ships they saved.
The Florida Keys Reef Lights — Two-Volume Series
The definitive account of the reef light stations of the Florida Keys, their construction, the keepers who served them, and their enduring legacy in American maritime history.
Reef Condition & Conservation
The Reef Beneath the Light Is Dying
The coral reef that Carysfort Lighthouse was built to mark is one of the most ecologically significant — and most threatened — marine ecosystems in North America. Florida's reef tract, the third largest barrier reef in the world, has lost more than 90% of its coral cover since the 1970s.
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary encompasses 2,900 square miles of ocean, including Carysfort Reef — but it is not the same as John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, a common source of confusion among boaters and visitors. Understanding the difference matters for conservation.
Take Action
The Lighthouse Cannot Wait.
Every year without intervention, the structure deteriorates further. Saltwater corrosion, storm damage, and decades of deferred maintenance have left this irreplaceable piece of American maritime history at a tipping point.
Your donation funds structural assessment, emergency preservation work, and the public awareness campaigns that will bring this lighthouse the attention — and the protection — it deserves.
Carysfort Reef · 25°13′N 80°13′W · Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary