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Georgia’s Golden Isles are just beautiful, as they set glistening in the hot sun. They give off the promise of all that is wonderful in life. Draped like a necklace along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, it is made up of several gems with one being, St. Simon’s Island. This island has several sites where the history is still talked about today. Some of these places are Fort Frederica, near where the Battle of Bloody Marsh took place, and Christ Church and its cemetery, just to name a few. However, there is one site that is very haunted, and that is the lighthouse.

Located not far from the were the eighteenth-century clash between the English and the Spanish took place, which was quite close to where the St. Simons lighthouse now sets. However, it too, was the scene of a much smaller but no less violent fight. This one took place during the late nineteenth century, when two enraged keepers fought a battle of a different kind, for a different reason, in the yard of the lighthouse, that they so carefully maintained. It ended with one of them lying on the ground in a lifeless, bloody heap. Some say that the murdered keeper’s spirit still haunts the lighthouse and that at night his footsteps can be heard on the tower stairs.

Steeped in legends, this iconic lighthouse towers high above the south end of the island where it guards the entrance to St. Simon’s Sound and is just east of Brunswick, Georgia. Visitors are allowed to go up the stairway to the top and I thought you would want to try it. We will need a strong heart for our climb. And, you can’t be afraid of heights!

As beautiful as it is, this is not the first lighthouse. That one was built in 1808, when a plantation owner, John Couper, sold a patch of land to the government for one dollar.

The port on St. Simons Island was rapidly growing and Couper felt strongly about the need for a lighthouse. The site chosen for this tower was near the area where the Battle of Bloody Marsh, between the English and Spanish, was fought in 1742.

At first, this lighthouse was to be made of bricks. However, because of the availability of so many oyster shells, it was made of tabby instead. This is still a popular local building material that is made up of sand, lime, oyster shells and water. There still are many historic and modern buildings existing on St. Simons Island that are made of tabby.

For the lighthouse, the tabby foundation was eight feet thick at the base. When finished, this tower was a white, tapered, octagonal shaped structure, seventy-five feet high and twenty-five feet in diameter at the top, where a ten foot high, iron lantern which was lit by oil lamps that were suspended high in the air, by chains.

James Gould, who designed the tower, became the first keeper. He assumed his post in 1810, and took care of the light until his retirement in 1857. It was in that year that the St. Simons Island tower was raised in rank by the Lighthouse Board, from a harbor light to a coastal light because of a new Fresnel lens that had been installed.

However, this honor was short lived because just five years later, in 1862, the tower was reduced to rubble at the start of the War Between the States. The Confederacy wanted to prevent the Union troops from taking it over, so they used black powder to level this very necessary lighthouse and the keepers dwelling as well.

After the War, in 1867, the second light was placed west of the first. This new tower was higher, being one hundred and four feet! To get up to the light, a cast iron, spiral staircase with one hundred twenty-nine steps was assembled. Eventually, around 1910, this interior staircase was removed and an exterior one was built.

This lighthouse took ten years to complete because many men, including the contractor, became ill and lost their lives working there because the light was located near several stagnant ponds, in which malaria bearing mosquitoes bred. In 1870, one of the bondsmen took charge of the construction in order to protect his investment but shortly after his arrival, he too, became a victim of the illness. Despite the lives lost during construction of the St. Simons Island light station, the tower was completed by a second bondsman.

Also, after the War Between the States, it was very difficult to find necessary supplies. Sometimes it would take months to get what was needed. Therefore, that  building did not go up quickly. Nevertheless, sporting a new sparkling white paint job, on September 1, 1872, the lamps were lit and the St. Simons Island lighthouse was in business.

Also, at this time, adjacent to the lighthouse, the keeper’s house was completed. Because of the intense storms and hurricanes that seemed to always take aim on this area, the two story dwelling was constructed of sturdy, Savannah gray brick with walls that were twelve inches thick and floors made of gleaming heart of pine. These walls were thick enough to successfully keep out the fierce storms that slam into the Georgia coast.

Having two floors made it possible for the keeper and his family to live on the first floor, while the assistant keeper would live on the second floor. The reason for having an assistant keeper was to help divide up the week. This now left free time to go ashore and bring relief from the many days of isolation, which was typical for lighthouse keepers and their families.

However, in the case of keeper Fred Osborne, this arrangement was a miserable failure. Osborne served as keeper around the 1890s. He had a reputation for being overly meticulous and hard to please when it came to taking care of the light. So much so, that when it came time for applications to be taken for an assistant keeper, no one applied for the job. The government kept searching for someone when finally, John Stevens applied. He felt that he was suited to work for Osborne.

Stevens was given the position and was trained by Osborne, mainly so he would learn to do things his way. Stevens was an apt pupil and was very good at the job. Nevertheless, Osborne never trusted him with significant duties and Stevens was not given enough work to do. It was said that the two often argued over small things, like chickens.

You know what is said about idle hands and most of the time, it is true. Stevens tried very hard to strike up a friendship with Osborne. However, when this failed, he became a close “friend” of Osborne’s wife, a fact that Osborne eventually found out. On that day in March, 1880, he came home and now confronted Stevens. The two had a bitter argument on the front lawn of the lighthouse. Osborne pulled a pistol but Stevens, who was carrying a shotgun at the time, fired first. He did not miss.

Not wanting to face murder charges, Stevens ferried the dying Osborne to the hospital at Brunswick. When there, he told everyone that Osborne had been shot by a transient. Stevens then returned home to tend the unmanned lighthouse.

When Osborne died, the sheriff brought Stevens back to the mainland for further questioning. Since there was no one else who could tend the light, the sheriff decided to release Stevens until his trial or until a replacement keeper could be found. Ultimately, Stevens claimed self-defense and the charges were dropped. Stevens continued his career as a lighthouse keeper. No record of what happened to Mrs. Osborne has ever been found.

You know the law of physics which states: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Well, there was a reaction to the murder at the St. Simon’s Island lighthouse. Prior to the incident, there never was any indication of a ghost living at the lighthouse. However, since the murder of Osborne, locals and visitors have reported unusual and unexplainable happenings. Also, when the heavy footsteps, that go up to the lantern room and then down to the kitchen are heard, there is the strong, unmistakable smell of kerosene, which was used back then to light the lantern.

Carl Svendsen was the keeper after Stevens. He served from 1907 to 1936. He, his family and their dog, Jinx, moved into the keeper’s house on St. Simons. It was deserted and had been for some years. Also, they had no prior knowledge of its haunted history. However, Mrs. Svendsen began hearing the sound of footsteps around dinner time, coming down the stairs from the lantern room. At first, she assumed this was her husband coming down to eat. However, she became very alarmed when each time she looked, she discovered that no one was there. She told her husband about the phantom footsteps. He thought it was only her imagination or a reaction to the isolation, until he too, began to hear the footsteps.

One evening when Mrs. Svendsen began to set the table for dinner, she thought she heard her husband coming down to eat. When the very heavy footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs, the kitchen door opened and instead of Carl coming in, a cold blast of wind entered, frightening the family. Even their dog reacted when this happened and his fur stood up on end as he began growling at the invisible entity. Everyone sensed the ghost.

However, the ghost was not the only enemy that Carl Svendsen had to deal with. One evening, when Svendsen was coming down the lighthouse stairs, he came across a huge snake, coiled up against the door. Terrified, and not knowing if the reptile was venomous, he jumped in surprise and dropped his lantern, which was promptly snuffed out. Alone in the dark with the unidentified snake, he yelled for help and roused his family from bed. They arrived with a lantern and found the animal coiled around the bottom step. It was a large, but a harmless black snake that stubbornly refused to leave. Svendsen was forced to overcome his fear and remove it by pulling it loose and tossing it outside.

Through the years, the ghost of Osborne has never harmed anyone and eventually the family adopted him and learned to live with him, with the exception of Jinx. The ever-watchful canine, continued to go into a frenzy, baring his teeth and growling whenever the ghost was around. Even now, when some people visit the lighthouse, they hear all sorts of things like quarreling, footsteps and gun shots.

Most people feel that Osborne’s spirit returned because his assistant, John Stevens, had wanted his wife, and in the end, his post as keeper, too. Or, he may have started haunting to get revenge on Stevens. However, it has been a very long time but he still continues to haunt the lighthouse to this day. Perhaps, he really didn’t care about his wife that much but he just doesn’t trust anyone to take proper care of his light.

As one of the only five surviving light towers in Georgia, St. Simons Island lighthouse remains in service today and its Fresnel lens still flashes white through the night sky, once every minute, with a visibility of twenty miles out to sea. It also has a museum that is in the keepers dwelling. It contains exhibits on the history of the St. Simons lighthouse and what life was like as a keeper at the turn of the century. Visitors are welcome to climb the one hundred and twenty-nine step staircase leading to the top of the lighthouse. Although no live keeper awaits you since the lighthouse is now fully automated, Fred Osborne may be there. It’s worth the climb and the risk. You can’t beat the view of the vast panorama in front of you. The light station has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.

Osborne is the most famous of our ghosts. However, with the island having the Battle at Bloody Marsh and the clashes at Fort Frederica, there are frequent sighting with ghosts as the stars. One at Fort Frederica is that of a lady, with a red mud stained dress, walking slowly along a wall at the Fort. She is singing a lullaby as she carries her baby in her arms. A soldier in a tattered American Revolutionary Army uniform that is also covered in mud, but its red color has been caused by his blood. He slowly walks towards her and she looks up, and smiles at him. He then walks slowly towards her, looks down at the baby and smiles. He places his arm to circle around her waist and the apparition then disappears. This scene takes place mostly during a full moon night.