Point Arena Lighthouse along Pacific Coast Highway 1

Driving south on Highway 1 past Fort Bragg on the coast of California overlooking the Pacific Ocean stands a monument to time and the perseverance of our fellow Americans.  The Point Arena Lighthouse was constructed in 1870 to help sailors navigate the rocky shoals along the Pacific Coast.  

 Point Arena is a narrow peninsula jutting about a 1/2 mile into the Pacific Ocean.  This sandbar creates a natural hazard to navigation, and hence the need for a lighthouse and fog signal here.  When I arrived there was a foggy mist in the area but as the day continued the fog burned off creating contrast between the lighthouse, the rocks and the blue green ocean.

The brick-and-mortar tower included ornate iron balcony supports and a large keeper residence with enough space to house several families.  In April 1906, a devastating earthquake struck the light station.  The keeper's residence and lighthouse were damaged so severely they had to be demolished.

The company chosen normally built factory smokestacks, which accounts for the final design for the new Point Arena Lighthouse, featuring steel reinforcement rods encased in concrete.  This was the first lighthouse built this way.

 The new lighthouse began operation in 1908, nearly 18 months after the quake.  It stands 115 feet tall, and featured a 1st Order Fresnel Lens, over six feet in diameter and weighing more than six tons.  The lens was made up of 666 hand-ground glass prisms all focused toward three sets of double bullseyes.  It was these bullseyes that gave the Point Arena Lighthouse its unique "light signature" of two flashes every six seconds.  This incredible optic, that held an appraised value of over $3.5 million, was set in solid brass framework, and was built in France.

Its height of 115 feet helped to guide many a ship to safety and in return it endured the foulest of weather, howling winds in excess of 120 mph carrying sea water battered the lighthouse, along with snow, ice and rain.  The lighthouse stood its ground and endured.

Even when it’s no longer needed and has been replaced by technology it still stands as a sentinel watching over the Pacific Coast.   In 1984, a nonprofit organization called the Point Arena Lighthouse Keepers acquired the light station as part of a 25-year land lease from the Coast Guard and the Department of Transportation.  

In November 2000, the nonprofit group became the official owners of the property due to their diligent historic preservation and educational efforts.  Daily visitation, gift store sales, memberships and the rental of the historic Keeper's homes on the property as vacation houses, all provide income to the group, for ongoing preservation, facility upgrades, and educational endeavors.

The Point Arena Light is California Historical Landmark No. 1035.

I remember this lighthouse was used in two movies I have seen.  The final scenes of the movie Forever Young (1992, starring Mel Gibson) were filmed near the lighthouse.  The lighthouse also appears in the 2014 movie Need for Speed, as the finishing point of the De Leon underground supercar race which forms the climax of the film. 

As I sit and listen to the waves breaking against the rocks below the lighthouse and the call of the gulls as they wing their way over head I can’t help but feel a calm as if the lighthouse is still watching over me offering its protection as it has done for the last 150 years.  The sun is slowly setting into the ocean and as it dips down suddenly the lighthouse comes alive.  

 The beacon at the top of the lighthouse is once again aglow from the setting sun.  It is as if the lighthouse is saying even though I am no longer needed I am still here waiting!  Much like the rest of us in life.

Ice