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Community History


TIMELINE FOR AUGUST 25: THIS DATE IN THE BOCA BEACON

August 24, 2023
FIVE YEARS AGO The Beacon swept the Florida Press Association awards presentation, and Hopkins & Daughter celebrated 30 years of ownership of the Boca Beacon. TEN YEARS AGO Fire destr…

OBITUARY: Robert Johnson

August 17, 2023
This generational pilot boat captain has crossed the bar Capt. Robert W. Johnson passed away on Saturday, August 12, 2023 at his family home, the historic Quarantine House. Robert was born o…

Can you take the fountain? 

August 17, 2023
Fountain created decades ago by Alzamora sister needs a home right away Sometimes you don’t realize how much has changed in a place until you find out that the things that were once so importan…

EDITORIAL: We are all ‘somebody’ in the history of Gasparilla Island … for better, or for worse

August 17, 2023
There’s so much that has changed in our community in the last year or two. It’s difficult sometimes to wrap our minds around what has happened just since last September, much less the other change…

THIS DATE IN THE BOCA BEACON

August 17, 2023
TEN YEARS AGO A mystery survey was sent to random island residents, regarding Gilchrist Avenue parking? Who sent it? And why? FIFTEEN YEARS AGO A group that included Robert Johnson, siste…

Hurricane Ian book features Boca Beacon article about Little Gasparilla Island

August 10, 2023
Gulf Coast Writers Association Inc. (GWCA), Southwest Florida’s 28-year-old meeting ground for writers, editors and their associates, announced today that Leoma Lovegrove, internationally-known ar…

THIS DATE IN THE BOCA BEACON

August 10, 2023
FIVE YEARS AGO Was it red tide or Vibrio vulnificus that was making young stomachs upset, or back-to-school jitters? Either way, we had both. TEN YEARS AGO South Beach was missing three o…

Historical Society to take over care of veterans’ marker on 5th Street

August 3, 2023
There’s a little-known memorial in Boca Grande that is about to get some much-needed love and care. It is the Veterans’ Memorial at the corner of Gilchrist and 5th St., by the entrance to The Gasp…

PROFILE: WSEB Radio

August 3, 2023
In Cape Haze, just behind the Ace Hardware and Cool Pickle in Paradise restaurant, a 300-foot radio tower that most see, but few pay attention to, peeks out of the woods.  The tower, with its b…

THIS DATE IN THE BOCA BEACON

August 3, 2023
FIVE YEARS AGO Crowder Gulf, a name we know and love from Hurricane Ian cleanup, was on our beaches cleaning up dead fish from red tide. TEN YEARS AGO The first cars went over the new cen…