Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge - Hutchinson Island

I have been almost too busy to explore lately but I decided to take a short break and have a look around my new home town for something obscure and off the beaten track. Just a short drive along the beach and I came across Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge. The 10 parking spaces told me this was my kind of place.

This little museum among the giant, modern coastal houses and condos has an incredible history in which our tour guide was well versed. Built in 1876 it was one of 10 rescue stations built along the coast of Florida. They were installed some 40 miles apart so if you were unfortunate enough to find yourself as a shipwrecked sailor, you would have a 20 mile or less walk to the closest rescue station. The sole job of the keeper was to feed and clothe any shipwreck survivors until their eventual rescue. I did not get a really good idea of how many shipwrecks a typical station handled in it's life time but this one had at least two famous wrecks to contend with.

One of the hard to believe facts I learned on my visit was that the population of Florida at the time was around 400. I assume that did not include the Native American population but even so, I passed more people on the road than that on the 15 minute drive over. It would be hard to imagine the loneliness and self reliance of the keepers in these stations. The bear trap inside and the story that goes along with it is a pretty good indication there was no corner grocery store. In fact the town of Stuart barely existed as more then a cleared spot in the wilderness.

Another important fact, there is no bar. Gilbert's Bar is more of a tiny sand bar than a drinking establishment.

The House of Rescue had a long history including as a submarine lookout post during World War II. This is the last of the Houses of Rescue and very well preserved. The house also has a million dollar view.

I have a few more photos from this unique museum so if you are interested in exploring further, click here






12 comments:

  1. I love this place! It also has pirate history ... are you living up in Stuart now?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Maria - hey. It's been a while. If you look back a few posts you will find my new house. I split my time between Stuart and Hollywood.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Please don't tell me you went to Gilbert's Bar hoping it was a tavern?!?!?! I guess you could always sue for false advertising ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Red - According to the tour guide, some visitors as when the bar opens on a fairly regular basis. My guess is that a few significant others my not be providing full disclose in an effort to visit the museum.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some lovely pictures. Loved the history behind the bars. I wasn't aware the coast of Florida was prone to wrecks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Ramakant - I think the best thing about blogging is sharing across the world. We are very prone to wicked storms and shallow reefs. Ships loaded with gold or in the case of the most famous wreck in this area, mahogany wood all took their chances passing this way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been browsing online more than 4 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be much more useful than ever before.

    Here is my web site :: just click for source

    ReplyDelete
  8. There are many different kinds of tools and techniques required to deliver an exceptional SEO India results.
    This means you tend to be copying it through
    file sharing websites like rapidshare, megaupload, hotfile, etcetera.
    The race is becoming even more challenging with the passing
    of each day. While you’re at it, remove all or
    fix 404 errors. If you simply copy the original manufacturer's description, you don't add value to
    your product and you certainly don't add your personal touch that can make you stand out from your competitors. Search engines are getting smarter at detecting sites that are spamming keywords or made solely for the purpose of advertising. Pages and articles are very different, as far as Joomla is concerned. This is because there is a stiff competition in this particular field and the market is flooded with lots of firms that provide proficient SEO experts India services at the economical costs. The businesses have understood the need to take SEO services for attaining good search engine placement. Be sure that the SEO outsourcing company you hire is capable of communicating properly. Search engine optimization is necessary for online businesses because it lets your website get found. The growth management of small business can be accomplished with SEO as an integral part of your overall Internet marketing strategy. Moving your hosting to a nearby country such as Canada or an offshore Caribbean host may provide the same latency times, but reduce the risk of having your website brought down by a mistake. You can Google maps link for your website, which will be very helpful if any person search in images sections. And, as more and more companies move larger portions of their advertising budgets to internet marketing, there is an even greater demand for their skills. G) SEO basics -Image 6: Open Google. Today, it is necessary that you scout the market for the best SEO Host that can help you achieve this. You will not even get to a 1 or 2 until Google has fully crawled your website or blog enough to give it a ranking. First of all a market survey is done by them as to know the competitors analysis. Never post a half edited article, and never settle for less than your best.

    My web-site - next page

    ReplyDelete
  9. You might want to switch off the Anonymous comments for a bit - unless unlike me, you actually LEARNED something from the above comments ...

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Red - I see the sneaky little bastard are getting past the spam filter. Ok - I think I blocked them now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good....What a bunch of nonsense nony mouse wrote. Thanks.

      Delete