Pensacola Lighthouse - A Real Haunted Lighthouse

The Pensacola Lighthouse is a real haunted lighthouse. The first Pensacola Light was the lightship Aurora Borealis. A lightship is a permanently moored ship that has a light beacon mounted on it. Because the seas here were often choppy, the lightship was anchored on the bay behind Santa Rosa Island. Due to the location where the lightship had to be anchored, it was very inefficient and provided little benefit as a lightship and in 1824 was replaced by a permanent lighthouse. This new lighthouse and the keeper's residencewere built for $5,725 and completed in barely two months.

This real haunted lighthouse is said to still be inhabited by its first lightkeeper, Jeremiah Ingraham. Jeremiah relocated from New England in December of 1824 to assume the lightkeeper duties at the Pensacola Light.He grew to love the tropical Florida climate and his crops of strawberries, grapes, rice, and others, were plentiful. After living the solo bachelor life for a couple of years, Jeremiah decided it was time he got married.

Jeremiah got married in 1826, and the couple soon had three children. Their family grew as they hired a young man as an assistant lightkeeper and also took on the responsibility of caring for an ailing elderly relative. Even with everyone who was able to do so pitching in to hunt and harvest the crops, there just never seemed to be enough food. This issue seemed to be the root cause of heated arguments and underlying tension for years. Even though he worked around the clock to provide for the family, Jeremiah's wife insisted that he wasn't doing all he could and constantly nagged him to do more.

This went on for the nearly thirty years the couple ran the lighthouse. After 30 years, the children were grown and on their own, and the couple was alone in the house.

One evening, for reasons still unknown, Jeremiah'sspouse got up in the middle of the night, went down to the kitchen, and retrieved the sharpest knife in the drawer. She proceeded back upstairs and stabbed her sleeping husband to death. As she watched him die, she formulated her plan for covering up her actions. She got rid of anything that might incriminate her and told the authorities her husband was killed in a hunting accident.She got away with it and soo took her husband's job of tending the lighthouse.

Her duties as lightkeeper we made nearly impossible constant malfunctions. The lighthouse was plagued by ongoing mechanical problems and setbacks, and the guilty wife seemed to be haunted by the vengeful spirit of her murdered husband.

Legend says the murderous wife watched as objects sail through the air, heard ominous laughter in empty rooms, glimpsed shadows in the windows of the locked tower at night, constantly smelled the aroma of pipe tobacco, and felt ice cold blasts of air no matter how hot the fireplace was burning. The Pensacola Lighthouse definitely seems to have the makings of a real haunted house.

Even though the old station was completely rebuilt, reports say the bloodstain of Jeremiah's murder shows through the floorboards of the master bedroom of the current keeper's house. It doesn't matter how hard it is scrubbed or what cleanser is used, the stain always comes back. The son of a former keeper stated that when he used to pull the chains that kept the lens turning, he always heardbreathing in the room with him, even though he was alone. Visitors have their name eerily whispered into their ear by an unseen presence. Unseen hands open and close doors, and residents would hear footsteps walking to the front door, the door would open and close, then the footsteps would continue on to the gate, where the gate would open and close, then the footsteps would stop.

Coast Guard crews can't keep the doors locked. They lock the doors, double-check to ensure they're locked, and then come back the next day to find them all unlocked. Many of them have also smelled the pipe smoke; one even reported actually seeing the smoke. Almost everyone who goes there feels as though they aren't alone in the tower. Still others are startled by the sudden slamming of the hatch to the lantern room, when they know no one is there. They're pretty sure this is a real haunted lighthouse.

One of the most convincing reports that this is a real haunted lighthouse happened in the late 1980s. The couple was asked to check the lighthouse to see why the light was out. After arriving at the lighthouse, the heard the sounds of a seemingly angry man pacing around and cursing loudly, even though there was no one else around. As the husband went up to fix the light, the wife continued to hear the pacing and cursing. As soon as the man fixed the light, the cursing and pacing suddenly stopped.Maybe Jeremiah was frustrated because he couldn't figure out how to fix the light...
This encounter probably provides the best evidence that this just may be a real haunted lighthouse.

The Pensacola Light was fully automated in 1965. In 1971, the Gulf Islands National Seashore was created to help preserve the tower, as well as the neighboring Fort Pickens and Fort Barrancas. The lighthouse tower and associated buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Until 2007, the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 17 provided tours of the lighthouse, but they were discontinued due to safety concerns.. The facility remains an active aid to navigation, and in many opinions a real haunted lighthouse.

You can read about more real haunted lighthouses at HauntedLightHouses.info.