Cape Mendocino Light was a navigation light at

Cape Mendocino Cape Mendocino ( Spanish: ''Cabo Mendocino'', meaning "Cape of Mendoza"), which is located approximately north of San Francisco, is located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, United States. At 124° 24' 34" W longit ...

, California. The former

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

was relocated to Shelter Cove near Point Delgada,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in 1998, and the historic

Fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular th ...

lens to

Ferndale, California Ferndale is a city in Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 1,481 (2021 census), up from 1,371 at the 2010 census. The city contains dozens of well-preserved Victorian storefronts and homes. Ferndale is the northern ...

, in 1948. An automated beacon operated for a number of years but was removed in May 2013.

History

After many ships, including the SS ''Northerner'' and a

lighthouse tender A lighthouse tender is a ship specifically designed to maintain, support, or tend to lighthouses or lightvessels, providing supplies, fuel, mail, and transportation. The work is often carried out by ships which also act as buoy tenders. In ...

with supplies to build the facility, were lost to the jagged rocks surrounding the sea stack "Sugar Loaf" and Blunt's Reef offshore of Cape Mendocino, the lighthouse with attendant buildings including a carpenter shop, an oil house, a barn and a two-story residence were built on of remote rangeland. On December 1, 1868, the light began sending a signal of one white flash every thirty seconds. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

took control of the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse in 1939 when the

United States Lighthouse Service The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of th ...

merged with the Coast Guard. The lighthouse was a iron tower, sixteen-sided and double balconied, a twin to the lighthouse at

Point Reyes Point Reyes ( , meaning 'Cape of the Kings') is a prominent landform and popular tourist destination on the Pacific coast of Marin County in Northern California. It is approximately west-northwest of San Francisco. The term is often applied ...

but for the roof shape. At , the height of the light exceeded the Makapuu Point Light, making it the highest focal plane of any lighthouse in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The lens had been shipped through

Eureka, California Eureka ( ; Wiyot: ; Hupa: ; ) is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco and south of the Oreg ...

and then overland to the remote location as it was too risky to ship it directly to the lighthouse. Also due to the remote location, lighthouse tenders serviced the facility. In 1881, three men being sent to the lighthouse were killed while attempting to land in a small boat from the tender ''Manzanita''. New dwellings were built in 1908 for the keepers, some of whom raised cows or ponies for the Ferndale to Petrolia

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

line. At least ten keepers served this lighthouse from 1869 to 1926.

Shipwrecks and strandings

In 1905, the continuing danger from Blunt's Reef led to the installation of a

lightship A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. It is used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the ...

, which saved over 150 passengers of the steamer ''Bear'' after it ran aground in 1916. After five people were killed while trying to land

lifeboats Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

on the rocky shore, it was decided that the others would make for the Blunt's Reef lightship. The survivors clustered on the lightship until they could be taken ashore safely. On 6 August 1921 the ''Alaska'', built in 1889 by the

Alaska Steamship Company The Alaska Steamship Company was formed on August 3, 1894. While it originally set out to ship passengers and fishing products, the Alaska Steamship Company began shipping mining equipment, dog sleds, and cattle at the outbreak of the Klondike G ...

, stranded and sank at Blunt's Reef off the California coast, showing that even the shore-mounted light and the lightship were not enough to save all passing ships. In 1926, a keeper at the light was credited with saving the lives of all on board the ''Everett'' a steam schooner which he saw had caught fire. The keeper called for a rescue via telephone. When the ship arrived to help, they discovered the crew was unconscious from the fire fumes and saved them. In 1941, the Blunt's Reef lightship saved the surviving crew of the SS ''Emidio'', the first casualty of the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine force action on California's Pacific Coast.

Later history

After World War II, the original first order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

was replaced by an automated rotating aerobeacon. On 24 December 1948, the Coast Guard loaned the lens to the City of Ferndale who dismantled it in 1949, moved it to town, built a replica lighthouse at the entrance to the Humboldt County Fairgrounds and reinstalled the lens there. In 2008, a Coast Guard inspection of the lens resulted in negotiations for the continued housing of the lens in Ferndale. The "Save Our Lens" group of local citizens raised $100,000 to dismantle and store the lens. By agreement with the Coast Guard in early September 2012, the lens was disassembled and put in temporary storage while the

Ferndale Museum The nonprofit Ferndale Museum, located in Ferndale, California, houses and exhibits artifacts, documents and papers from settlement during the California Gold Rush to the present including an active Bosch-Omori seismograph. The area of collecti ...

is remodeled to display it. Cape Mendocino Lighthouse in Shelter Cove

The actual lighthouse building continued to deteriorate after being abandoned by the Coast Guard and in 1998 a group of volunteers dismantled the 1868 lighthouse, removed the lantern by Army National Guard helicopter and the remainder of the building by truck. Restored, fitted with new glass and painted by the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse Preservation Society, it was installed at Point Delgada in Mal Coombs Park () in Shelter Cove, California.

Current conditions

In 1951, the Coast Guard installed a dual aerobeacon, but this light was replaced by a simpler light with a focal plane of , which flashed white every 15 seconds. The new light was located on a cliff about northwest and higher than the old light. The light was turned off on May 29, 2013. Aerial photos show the tower has been removed. While the original lighthouse was moved to Shelter Cove, and the keeper's residence demolished, the oil house is still at the site.

References

External links