Point Sur State Historic Park is a

California State Park The California Department of Parks and Recreation, more commonly known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. The system administers 279 separate park units on 1.4 million acres (570,000 hectares), with over 280 ...

on the Big Sur coastline of

Monterey County, California Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Monte ...

, United States, south of Rio Road in Carmel. The 1889

Point Sur Lighthouse Point Sur Lighthouse is a lightstation at Point Sur south of Monterey, California at the peak of the rock at the head of the point. It was established in 1889 and is part of Point Sur State Historic Park. The light house is tall and above ...

is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

History

The point was granted as a part of

Rancho El Sur Rancho El Sur was a Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California on the Big Sur coast given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Juan Bautista Alvarado. The grant extended from the mouth of Little Sur River inland about 2.5 ...

in 1834 by Governor

José Figueroa José Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835), was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. He wrote the first book to be published in California. Background and governorship Figueroa was a Mestizo of Spanish ...

Juan Bautista Alvarado Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo (February 14, 1809 – July 13, 1882) was a Californio politician that served as Governor of Alta California from 1837-42. Prior to his term as governor, Alvarado briefly led a movement for independe ...

. Point Sur was a notorious hazard to navigation. The 725-ton steamer '' USS Ventura'' was the fastest ship in Goodall, Nelson & Perkins’ fleet; she could do thirteen knots per hour. On Tuesday, April 20, 1875, she set sail from San Francisco with 225 passengers and 500 tons of freight. In dense fog the ship ran onto rocks just north of Point Sur. The ship's commander, Captain George John Fake, was a veteran mariner. He had navigated the route between Monterey and San Francisco for several years. But this was his first trip from Monterey to Southern California. While he was drunk that night, the absence of a light contributed to the tragedy. The sinking of the ''Ventura'' became the impetus for building a lightstation in the remote area.Point Sur State Historic Park
/ref>Point Sur – The Worst Possible Place for a Shipwreck
/ref> Other ships lost in the area include the S.S. ''Los Angeles'' (originally USRC ''Wayanda''), which ran aground in 1894, the ''Majestic'' in 1909, the ''Shna-Yak'' in 1916, the ''Thomas L. Wand'' in 1922, the ''Babinda'' in 1923, the ''Rhine Maru'', the ''Panama'' and the ''S. Catania'' in 1930, and the ''Howard Olson'' in 1956. John Bautista Henry Cooper, who owned the portion of

surrounding

Point Sur Point Sur State Historic Park is a California State Park on the Big Sur coastline of Monterey County, California, United States, south of Rio Road in Carmel. The 1889 Point Sur Lighthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hist ...

, sold to the United States of land on the rocky summit of Point Sur for $5 and the right-of-way for $1,495 (or about $ today) as recorded on November 9, 1889. In 1888, Joseph Post won a government contract to build the road from the coastal road his father W.B. Post had built to Point Sur, where the lighthouse would be built.

Lighthouse construction

Point Sur Lighthouse opened on August 1, 1889. The station was very remote and was necessarily self-sufficient, as most supplies had to be brought in by ship. Lighthouse employees and their families had their own vegetable gardens. Children stayed with local ranchers during the week to attend school, returning home on weekends, or stayed with distant relatives. In 1927, a schoolteacher was assigned to the lightstation to teach the six children who resided there. When the two-lane road from Monterey to the Big Sur Village was completed in 1927, children could attend school at a school house on Highway 1. In the 1940s, children from the lightstation were assimilated into Big Sur's larger school. The coast off Point Sur Lighthouse was the location of the sinking of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

in 1935. The Lighthouse Service was absorbed into the Coast Guard in 1939, and Point Sur Lighthouse became the property of the Coast Guard. The lightstation was automated in the late 1960s, and in 1974 ceased to have a light keeper. Point Sur State Historic Park was established in 1986.

Naval Facility Point Sur added

In 2000, the nearby

Naval Facility Point Sur Naval Facility Point Sur was one of 30 secret sites worldwide that were built during the Cold War to detect Soviet submarines. In 1958, the U.S. Navy built a Naval Facility (NAVFAC) ½ mile south of Point Sur on the Big Sur coast to provide subma ...

, except for one building retained by the U.S. Navy, was transferred to the

system. It became part of the Point Sur State Historic Park. The state park used some of the facility's housing for a period. The facility is open for guided tours on weekends. On February 3, 2017, the California Historical Resources Commission nominated Naval Facility Point Sur for the

. It was chosen in part because Point Sur NAVFAC is one of the last remaining Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) facilities, and the only one remaining on the West Coast.

Etymology

The land formation later known as Point Sur is visible at sea for and was first mentioned in the logs of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1552. Sebastian Viscaino visited the area in the early 1600s, and his 1603 map names the promontory "Punta que Parece Isla" (meaning "Point that looks like an island"). In 1769, explorer

Miguel Costansó Miguel Costansó (1741–1814), original name Miquel Constançó, was a Catalan engineer, cartographer and cosmographer. He joined the expedition of exploration of Alta California led by Gaspar de Portolá and Junípero Serra, serving aboard ship ...

, a member of the

Portolá expedition thumbnail, 250px, Point of San Francisco Bay Discovery The Portolá expedition ( es, Expedición de Portolá) was a Spanish voyage of exploration in 1769–1770 that was the first recorded European land entry and exploration of the interior of ...

, named the point "Morro de la Trompa" because it looked like a rock in the shape of a trumpet. The name "El Sur" (meaning "The South") was first applied to a land grant named

given by Governor

on July 30, 1834. The name of the rock was shortened to Moro Rock, until the U.S. Coast Survey renamed it Point Sur in 1851.

Marine Protected Areas

Point Sur State Marine Reserve and Marine Conservation Area Point Sur State Marine Reserve (SMR) and Point Sur State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) are two adjoining marine protected areas that lie offshore of Point Sur, part of the Big Sur area on California's central coast. The combined area of thes ...

are marine protected areas offshore from Point Sur Lighthouse. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.

References

External links

California State Parks: Official Point Sur State Historic Park website

Point Sur Lighthouse and State Historic Park
{{Big Sur, state=collapsed California State Historic Parks Parks in Monterey County, California Protected areas established in 1986 1986 establishments in California Big Sur