There is a tiny museum dedicated to the Hillsboro Lighthouse in Roy L. Rogers Family Park also known as Hillsboro Inlet Park. You have to pay for parking in the lot at the meter. The park offers a beautiful view of the boats in the inlet and a view of the Hillsboro Lighthouse.
The Hillsboro Lighthouse Museum is around the corner from the restrooms, blink and you might miss it. The one room museum is run by the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society which was founded in 1997 to preserve the Hillsboro Lighthouse which is located across the inlet from the museum. The Preservation Society does not get any funding from the US government. All of the money that goes to keeping the lighthouse operating is provided by their fundraising and whatever grants they can get. To raise money they sell lighthouse memberships and they give tours once a month. The land the lighthouse sits on is controlled by the US Coast Guard so you can only visit during the Preservation Society's tours. They also sell lighthouse themed items while giving the tours and in the museum. They host a lighthouse gala once a year and sell tickets to that as well.
The small museum at Hillsboro Inlet park is only one room. They sell shirts, lighthouse themed items, postcards, notecards, mugs, plates, and coasters. Displays in the museum focus on information about the Hillsboro Lighthouse and The Barefoot Mailmen who were eleven US postal workers who delivered the mail in South Florida from 1885 to 1893 by walking barefoot on the beach from Palm Beach to Miami. Before the mailman started the route, a letter from Lake Worth to Miami could take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months to arrive and would be routed through Cuba. The annual salary of a Barefoot Mailman was $600 a year. The trip started on Monday and took three days to get to Miami, Then they would turn around and come back for a round trip of 136 miles. Eighty miles were walking and fifty six miles were by boat. The three day trek down the coast was not without it's danger. You can find statues and markers dedicated to them all down the coast from Lantana to Miami. Barefoot Mailman James "Ed" Hamilton mysteriously vanished in 1897 while crossing the Hillsboro Inlet. The mystery of what happened to Hamilton is fascinating. Was he eaten by an alligator, killed by native people, or did he drown? No one will ever know.
The museum is staffed by a Preservation Society volunteer who donates their time. The next lighthouse tour is February 11th on shuttle boats leaving from Sands Harbor Dock. The museum is open seven days a week from 11am until 3pm and on tour days it opens at 10 am. If you love the lighthouse as I do drop in for a visit to the museum or for a lighthouse tour and support the Lighthouse Preservation Society in their mission to keep the lighthouse open and accessible to everyone. read more