Point Arena Light Station

Point Arena Light Station occupies about six acres at the very tip of Point Arena, where the land rises sixty feet above the Pacific on three sides. The district holds a wood fog signal station from 1870, a reinforced concrete lighthouse from 1908, and two stucco storage sheds from the same year; a small modern restroom does not contribute. Coastal traffic, especially lumber shipping, grew during the 1860s, and storms and fog caused ships to founder near the point. The fog signal station was the U.S. Lighthouse Service's first response. The original brick lighthouse collapsed in the 1906 earthquake. Its replacement, built by a San Francisco chimney maker, rose 115 feet and was the first reinforced concrete lighthouse in California. The circular stairway was kept from the 1870 tower, and the Fresnel lens was set in a vat of mercury. The structure has withstood every earthquake since 1908, and the light still operates.