Point Pinos Lighthouse was lit on February 1, 1855, to guide ships on the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Coast of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is the oldest continuously operating

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

on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous U.S ...

and even the lens is original.

Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military pris ...

Lighthouse preceded Point Pinos by eight months, but was replaced in 1909 by the expanding military prison. The Point Pinos Lighthouse is still an active

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

aid to navigation. On-site museum exhibits and other lighthouse related functions are operated by the city of Pacific Grove,

Monterey County 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. Montere ...

. The lighthouse is surrounded by the

Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links is a public 18-hole golf course owned by the city of Pacific Grove, California. Originally designed by Chandler Egan in 1932, the first nine holes are laid out through the forested areas of Pacific Grove. The ...

Description

The present light source, located above sea level, is a 1 kilowatt bulb, which produces a 50,000 candela beam visible under favorable conditions up to distant. Formerly, the light had a rigid schedule of being lit one hour prior to sunset, and extinguished one hour after sunrise. With automation completed in 1975, a small battery-operated back-up

strobe light A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope. The word originated from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning ...

was installed outside the tower, and the main light was turned on permanently. The present signal has a simple 4-second cycle signature of on/3-seconds, and off/1-second. As a further navigational aid, a Class D radio beacon operated continuously which had a range of up to 20 miles (30 km). A foghorn was also located below the lighthouse closer to shore which could be turned on manually by the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

personnel when lack of visibility warranted its use. With the advent of global positioning satellite navigation in 1993, the radio beacon and

foghorn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. W ...

were deactivated.

History

The light is a third-order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

with

lenses A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

, prisms and mechanism manufactured in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1853. A larger, second-order light had been planned, but delay in shipment caused the present light, originally destined for the Fort Point Lighthouse in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, to be installed instead. The first light source was a whale oil lantern set inside the lens, whose tank the keeper had to climb the tower to fill several times a night. Whale oil was very expensive and was soon replaced by liquified lard oil which gave way to kerosene in 1880. At the turn of the century, an incandescent vapor lamp was used, followed by electric lights in 1919. From 1912 to 1940 a falling weight mechanism rotated a metal shutter around the light causing the beam to be cut off to seaward for 10 out of every 30 seconds. Thereafter a timed flasher provided the "on/off" characteristic. In 1874 Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove, named for the Point Pinos Lighthouse, was laid out to ferry supplies and construction materials from the port at Monterey to the lighthouse. The point was a part of the Rancho Punta de Pinos

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

made to José María Armenta in 1833, and regranted to José Abrego in 1844. In 1850, after the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

and the American acquisition of

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

, Congress appropriated funds for the construction of lighthouses on the West Coast. In 1852, the

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

ordered the building of seven beacons along the California coast, one of which was to be located at Point Pinos, the dangerous southern entrance to the

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

. The government purchased of the Rancho Punta de los Pinos for this purpose, with an additional being purchased later on. Construction began in 1853, but difficulties with the delivery of the lenses and prisms from France delayed the opening of the lighthouse until 1855. The first lightkeeper was Charles Layton, appointed to the post at $1,000 per year. He was killed in 1855 while serving as a member of the sheriff's posse chasing the notorious outlaw, Anastacio Garcia. He was succeeded by his widow, Charlotte, who remained head lightkeeper until 1860, when she married her assistant lightkeeper, George Harris.

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

wrote of visiting lightkeeper Allen Luce in 1879 after a long walk through the woods from

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

, praising Luce's hospitality, piano playing, ship models and oil paintings. He wrote about the light in his book ''

From Scotland to Silverado From may refer to: * From, a preposition * From (SQL), computing language keyword * From: (email message header), field showing the sender of an email * FromSoftware, a Japanese video game company * Full range of motion, the travel in a rang ...

''. The most famous lightkeeper was Mrs.

Emily Fish Emily Maitland Fish (22 February 1843–24 June 1931), sometimes called the "socialite keeper", was an American lighthouse keeper. A native of Albion, Michigan, she married Melancthon W. Fish, her sister's widower, at the age of 17. Melancthon ...

, who served from 1893 to 1914. She was called the "Socialite Keeper" due to her love of entertaining guests at the lighthouse.

Today

Point Pinos Lighthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is open for tours Saturday and Sunday.SeeMonterey: Point Pinos Light Lighthouse
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Image gallery

Image:Point Pinos Lighthouse 1871.jpg, Point Pinos lighthouse in 1871 Image:USCGpointpinos.JPG, Undated

USCG The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

photo Image:Point Pinos Lighthouse.jpg, Lighthouse showing

in lantern house. Image:Point Pinos Lighthouse CA.jpg, Another view of the lighthouse as it appeared in 2009.

References

External links

Point Pinos Lighthouse

Point Pinos Lighthouse
on the City of Pacific Grove website] {{DEFAULTSORT:Point Pinos Light Lighthouses completed in 1855 Houses completed in 1855 History of Monterey County, California Transportation buildings and structures in Monterey County, California Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Museums in Monterey County, California Lighthouse museums in California Pacific Grove, California National Register of Historic Places in Monterey County, California