Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse Tour

The Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse, known to sailors as Big Diamond for the black-and-white pattern of its iron skeleton tower, has guarded the inlet between Pompano Beach and Hillsboro Beach since it was first lit on 8 March 1907. Its original second-order Fresnel lens, 356 hand-ground glass panels made in Paris, still throws one of the brightest lights on the Atlantic coast, a white flash every twenty seconds rated at about twenty-eight nautical miles. It stands on private grounds, so most visitors only see it from the beach or a passing boat. The exception is the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society's tour programme, which runs roughly once a month: boats shuttle visitors across the inlet from a dive shop dock at 101 North Riverside Drive in Pompano Beach, and volunteers lead groups around the station grounds and up the tower. The climb is the real thing, about 167 narrow, steep steps to the catwalk, hot inside on summer days, with closed-toe shoes required and bags, food and drinks not allowed. The reward is a sweeping view down the coast toward Fort Lauderdale, up toward Boca Raton, and straight down into the inlet's churning blue water. There are no seat reservations; boats run first come, first served and fill fast in peak season, and non-members pay a per-person transportation fee at the dock. Check the posted schedule for the coming year's dates and arrive early.

The lighthouse belongs to the era when the Florida coast was still lightly settled, and the inlet carries local lore: the barefoot mailmen who walked the beach route between Palm Beach and Miami in the 1880s and 1890s crossed here, and a bronze statue by sculptor Frank Varga, placed at the tower's base in 2012, remembers James Ed Hamilton, the carrier said to have drowned attempting the crossing in 1887. A long-repeated tale claims the tower was first shown at the 1904 St.

Louis World's Fair; historians now treat that as a newspaper myth. The real drama came later: the Coast Guard automated the light in 1974, the great lens went dark in 1992 when its rotating mechanism failed, and a local campaign led by the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society, founded in 1997, restored it and relit it for good in 2000. The society took over maintenance in 2008, its volunteers run the tours, and the station has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.

Planning matters because dates are scarce. The society publishes its schedule well in advance, typically one tour day a month with several boat departures through the day, plus occasional themed tours tied to neighbouring towns. Check-in opens half an hour before the first sailing; return boats leave about thirty minutes after each departure, so most visits last around an hour on the grounds.

The calendar mixes regular monthly tours with themed appreciation days for the neighbouring towns, a 120th birthday tour in March 2027 and a Barefoot Mailman Remembrance Day in the autumn; summer tour days sail in the morning only. On tour days the society's small museum and gift shop also open, free of charge. Leave beach chairs, coolers, towels and snorkel or fishing gear at home.