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Vietnam-era PT boat makes nice profile in Gasparilla visit

Heading to Alabama; left island Wednesday The surprise visit of one of the last two remaining Navy PT boats to Gasparilla Island caused a stir on its visit this week. A Facebook post called the ship a “bad boy as it floated by the house.” “What an incredible sighting tonight as I was sipping champagne […]

First day of World’s Richest tarpon results

For the first day of the 2024 World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament “Blaze” is leading, according to leaderboard results.  The tournament began this week and was held Wednesday, May 22 and Thursday, May 23.  As of press time there were a total of 56 fish released by 20 boats on Wednesday for day one of the […]

EcoWatch: What shade of green do you prefer?

“As crude a weapon as the cave man’s club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life – a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the […]

Bridge election registration deadline approaches

Running for a local office on Gasparilla Island is sometimes more complicated than one might expect. Because there are two counties on the island, if an elected board, like the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority, serves both Charlotte and Lee County residents, a candidate for one of those boards must be “qualified” by the Florida Division […]

Quarantine history from the late Capt. Robert Johnson

BY CAPT. ROBERT JOHNSON Editor’s Note: The late Capt. Johnson wrote a history of The Boca Grande Quarantine Station during the COVID-19 outbreak for the Beacon. We are reprinting the May 2020 story. The Boca Grande Quarantine Station, located on the south end of the island, was built in 1892 on the beach next to […]

Livingston Sheppard 1928-2024

Livingston Byrns Sheppard II was born in the Appalachian mountains of Jenkins, Kentucky to his father Livingston Byrns Sheppard Sr and mother Mecca Vicars, both of Virginia, on April 19, 1928. Growing up in coal country he met his wife, Glenda Huskisson of Virginia. The two married young and Livingston attended the University of Virginia […]