Point Sur State Historic Park, Big Sur CA

Category & Type :

Outdoors

Location :

37028 Hwy 1 , Big Sur CA

Phone :

831-625-4419

Website :

http://www.pointsur.org/

Information about Point Sur State Historic Park...

Throughout history, Point Sur has been a navigational hazard, to which many shipwrecked captains can attest.  In the 1880s, lighthouses and lightships provided invaluable warnings to the many ships that traveled close to shore, especially during rough weather when protruding headlands could provide them with much-needed shelter.  It took mariners 11 years of petitioning the U.S. Lighthouse Service Board before money was allocated for Point Sur in 1886.  Three years later, on August 1, 1889, the lightstation keys were turned over to the first keeper.  He and three assistants staffed the lighthouse and fog signal 24 hours a day.

The four keepers and their families lived an isolated life.  The trail to Monterey was long and often treacherous, so trips were rare.  The U.S. Lighthouse Service provided a horse and wagon to get mail and supplies from Pfeiffer's Resort (now Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park).  Each family was allotted a garden area for fresh vegetables.  Bulk supplies such as coal, firewood, animal feed, and some food came on a 'lighthouse tender' about every four months. One function of these long, broad ships was to service remote lightstations inaccessible by land.  The tender would anchor south of the lightstation and send in a 20-foot whaler towing a skiff, both loaded with supplies.  The sacks and barrels were hoisted in cargo nets to a platform at the base of the rock.  They were then secured to a flat railcar and winched up to the dwelling area using a steam-driven donkey engine.  Like most remote lightstations, Point Sur was very self-sufficient. As the years passed, life became increasingly less isolated at Point Sur, specially following the completion of Highway One in 1937.  Two years later, the U.S. Coast Guard assumed responsibility for all aids-to-navigation.  Lighthouse Service employees were absorbed into the new program, and allowed to become either members of the U.S. Coast Guard or remain civil service employees.
 

In the 1960s, the U.S. Coast Guard began automating lightstations in an effort to make more efficient use of their personnel.  In 1974, the last keeper left Point Sur.  Today a U.S. Coast Guard crew services the lighthouse regularly.

The Point Sur Lightstation originally contained a first-order (the largest) Fresnel lens.  The lens was in use until the 1970s when it was replaced by a modern aero beacon mounted on the roof of the fog signal room.  The lens remained in the lighthouse tower until 1978, when it was disassembled and transported to the Allen Knight Maritime Museum of Monterey for display.  The aero beacon was later moved into the lighthouse tower.  

The Fresnel lens was invented by Augustin Jean Fresnel, a French physicist.  Fresnel's invention revolutionized lighthouses world-wide.  Within a short time his lenses were accepted as the best available.  Many are still in use today.