Written by Guest Columnist on . Posted in Featured News, News, Sports & Outdoors.
BY CAPT. WILL WATERHOUSE This year we have a back to back champion with Tina Sexton taking home the trophy with her two combined redfish measuring 52.5 inches. Congratulations to Tina and Capt. Danny Latham for their outstanding performances the last two years in the Gasparilla Island Fly Fishing tournament, also known as G.I.F.T. Second […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Breaking News, Community, News.
Above, Sarah Holt, Lizzie Ahlers and Kerri Jacobs at Bella Vida. This Christmas shopping season is the first full season since the island’s recovery from 2024 hurricanes. The Beacon took just a few of the faces of the island’s small businesses; sadly we could not get them all. All are back and ready for the […]
Written by Angela McPhillips on . Posted in Featured News, News, Sports & Outdoors.
Just off Gasparilla Island, a small colony of Florida burrowing owls – a state-threatened species – is holding on as development increases around them. Fewer than 50 adult owls remain in western Charlotte County. To help protect this population, Lemon Bay Conservancy (LBC), Peace River Audubon and other partners have launched a long-term habitat protection […]
Written by Garland Pollard on . Posted in Editorial.
A nice long weekend is ahead. But it is a busy week ahead too, as there are a flurry of new(ish) holidays that follow Thanksgiving. It is a marker of the cultural energy of the United States that the simple Thanksgiving has been reinvented with a series of promotional holidays. A remarkably inventive commercial culture […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Featured News, Obituaries.
Sarah Sharp Farish passed away on November 24, 2025 at home in Boca Grande, Florida, surrounded by her family. Raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Sarah was the daughter of Mary and Bayard Sharp. In 1961, she married the love of her life, Will Farish, owner of Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky and former U.S. Ambassador […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Obituaries.
On the 18th of November, Cheryl Midyett of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Boca Grande, passed on to the realm of peace and eternal love. On Easter Sunday of 1944, the daughter of Albert Gustav and Janice Sollberger was born and grew up in Houston, to a “Texas Three Hundred” family whose Hunter and Allen roots predate […]
Written by Angela McPhillips on . Posted in Profiles.
From tennis court to animal habitat Mark Horan’s path to conservation work in Boca Grande and Cape Haze began long before he ever paddled out to collect water samples or walked the edges of a burrowing owl colony. His roots stretch back to rural Vermont, where he grew up on his parents’ cattle farm and […]
Written by Angela McPhillips on . Posted in News, Sports & Outdoors.
Coffee and Conservation invites the public to a special hands-on workshop, Vertical Oyster Gardening: Clean Water Starts Here, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 10 a.m. to noon at Don Pedro Island State Park. Participants will dive into the water quality challenges facing Charlotte Harbor and discover the surprising power of oysters to help filter and […]
Written by VAN HUBBARD on . Posted in Columns, Sports & Outdoors.
Growth has altered our way of life. Our Gulf Coast was originally settled by fishermen. They were the only ones that could feed themselves. We had few roads, and they were dirt. Boats were the main form of transportation on water, horse and wagon on land. Mosquitos and flying jaws (sand gnats) terrorized humans. Life […]
Written by Staff Report on . Posted in Community History.
FIVE YEARS AGO The Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association announced that work had begun to refurbish the 3.5-mile walking path with 30 loads of coarse sand. TEN YEARS AGO Barbara Anne’s Jewelry & Repair celebrated its 25-year Anniversary on Gasparilla Island. The Boca Grande Club celebrated the opening of the season with a “Farm-to-Table” […]