Pensacola

Almost from the first days of European settlement, Pensacola has abounded in spooky legends. The first white man to sail into Pensacola Bay was a one eyed Spanish explorer named Panfilo de Narvaez in 1528. He was followed by a settlement party led by Don Tristan de Luna, who arrived in the beautiful azure bay on August 14, 1559 with a thousand stouthearted colonists. But six days later, on Aug. 20^th, their spirit was broken by a fierce hurricane. The terrible loss of lives and vessels caused the frightened Spaniards to cross themselves and whispers of "Devils in the Air" and "Evil Spirits" began to be heard. De Luna and the remaining colonists abandoned the colony in 1561.

Spain and France bickered over this piece of prime waterfront real estate during the 16^th and into the 17^th century. Then in 1821, it finally became part of the United States.

Government engineers realized that they had one of the finest harbors in the world but because of the darkness and often-turbulent storms, something had to be done to make it safer.

Finally, on March 3, 1823, Congress authorized construction of the Pensacola Lighthouse. It was the first along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

They temporarily dispatched the lightship, Aurora Borealis, but the ship’s mast lacked enough height to be of any real help. In 1824 when Pensacola was incorporated and chosen as the site of the country’s newest navy yard, the powers that be decided it was time for a permanent light.

Pensacola’s first light was built on a bluff about 300 yards from the site of the old Spanish Fort San Carlos. This made it about 75 feet above sea level and visible for about 17 miles out to sea.

From the beginning, the lighthouse was plagued with problems. Some were easily visible to the outside world while others were secretly contained and waiting to cause a tragedy. The mariners were unhappy about the light’s similarity to the Mobile light. They also felt it was not visible far enough out in the sea. The brickwork was inferior and Florida’s humidity began to creep within the walls causing dampness and degeneration of the structure. The inside spiral staircase was built without a railing, making it very dangerous.

The first keeper, Jeremiah Ingraham, lived in the little red brick keeper’s house alone until 1826. After two years in his lonely position, he took a bride, a local girl named Michaela Penalber. Together they raised three children.

Like the light itself, the Penalber’s appeared to be a happy normal family to outsiders. In reality, they were just the opposite. It is believed Michaela stabbed her husband to death in 1840 and then remained as keeper herself until her death in 1855. Her son-in-law, Joseph Palmes, then became the keeper.

Was Michaela doomed to hear and see her victim-husband’s cries in the night? No one knows. She was not in a position to complain but things went wrong with the light. That is a fact. In the late 1840s, the clockwork mechanism failed and two men had to be hired to rotate the lamps by hand, until the mechanism could be fixed. By the 1850’s, complaints about the light’s deficiencies caused the Corp of Engineers to construct a new taller light half a mile west of the original light.

It was first lit by Keeper Palmes on New Year’s Day, 1859. However if he expected the new light to be untroubled by his father-in-law’s spirit, he was wrong. To this day, visitors tell of mysterious objects flying through the air, laughter coming from unseen beings, forms appearing at windows in the uninhabited lighthouse tower, and the back door of the keeper’s house is often found open when it was closed and locked. The smell of tobacco and eerie cold spots are also experienced in the house.

Ingraham’s spirit is not the only one reported in the lighthouse and keeper’s cottage. Permanent bloodstains are found in an upstairs bedroom of the keeper’s house. No one knows for sure how they got there but since it was customary to bury drowned people near where they were found, many unknown victims lie near by. Many of the injured were taken into the keeper’s house to either die or to recover.