Sebastian Inlet (Florida)

Sebastian Inlet, located in Sebastian Inlet State Park in Brevard County, Florida and Indian River County, Florida, offers surfing and fishing opportunities. It is off State Road A1A just 12 miles north of Vero Beach. There are annual surf tournaments, professional and amateur. Visitors fish there, particularly for Snook and Redfish.

The Inlet is managed by a commission popularly elected by voters from the surrounding area. Candidates run non-partisan. Their annual salary is $3,600. Commissioners include:
District 1, Brevard County - Jenny Lawton Seal (term ends 2012)
District 2, Indian River County - Beth L. Mitchell (term ends 2012)
District 3, Brevard County - Jeannette Westlake(term ends 2012)
District 4, Indian River County - Ann Perry (term ends 2014)
District 5, Brevard County - Jim Culberson (term ends 2014)

Administrator (appointed) - Martin S. Smithson

The first attempt by settlers to open an inlet at Sebastian took place in 1872. It was orchestrated by David Peter Gibson. Although Gibson first dug a cut at Sebastian in 1872 he did not acquire title to the property where the digging took place until May, 1885. Gibson's Cut, as his inlet was known then, appears as a feature in a U.S. National Geodetic Survey map drawn in the winter of 1880-81. Mention of Gibson's Cut appears in James Henshall's 1881 tale "Cruise of the Rambler" when he relates how "Sailing out of St. Sebastian River into Indian River, a break in the coast line opposite can be seen, which is the beginning of an attempt by settlers in the vicinity to cut an inlet to the sea." Since Henshall was only passing through there was no way he could know that the "break in the coast line" he saw wasn't the "beginning" but the end result of the effort to dig the cut from nearly a decade earlier.

In the July 28, 1886 edition of the Florida Star letter writer G. W. Idner reports that talk was once again circulating about re-opening Gibson's Cut. Idner names some of those who worked on the first cut as "The Gibson and Houston boys ... and also Charley Creech and several others." Idner was an early settler of Tillman, now Palm Bay. He was also involved with Gibson's first efforts to open a cut. Discussion about opening Gibson's Cut in 1886 never amounted to anything more than just talk although a commonly held misconception has been that this was the year it was first dug.

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