Trinidad Head Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse on Trinidad Head on the outskirts of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Built in 1871, it is north of

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, California.

History

The low, square, brick tower, painted white, was built in 1871. The light is only above ground, but the headland on which it stands gives it an elevation of above the sea. Despite its great height above the sea, heavy seas have been known to reach it. A huge wave hit the lighthouse at about 4:40 p.m. local time on the afternoon of 31 December 1914. In early 1915, the

lighthouse keeper A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as ...

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 t ...

Captain Fred L. Harrington, who served at the light from 1888 to 1916, made the following report about the incident:

"At 4:40 p. m. I observed a sea of unusual height. When it struck the bluff the jar was very heavy. The lens immediately stopped revolving. The sea shot up the face of the bluff and over it, until the solid sea seemed to me to be on a level with where I stood in the lantern. The sea itself fell over onto the top of the bluff and struck the tower about on a level with the balcony. The whole point between the tower and the bluff was buried in water."

The wave Harrington described, likely a

rogue wave Rogue waves (also known as freak waves, monster waves, episodic waves, killer waves, extreme waves, and abnormal waves) are unusually large, unpredictable, and suddenly appearing surface waves that can be extremely dangerous to ships, even to lar ...

, was the highest recorded

ocean wave In fluid dynamics, a wind wave, water wave, or wind-generated water wave, is a surface wave that occurs on the free surface of bodies of water as a result from the wind blowing over the water surface. The contact distance in the direction of t ...

to have struck the

United States West Coast 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. ...

. According to Harrington, it washed completely over Pilot Rock offshore, and broke over the top of the bluff on which the lighthouse stood. His report the wave appeared to reach the height of the lantern and that water from the breaking wave submerged the area between the lighthouse and the bluff and reached the lighthouse's balcony suggests a possible wave height of . The impact of the wave shook the lighthouse and extinguished the light, although Harrington restored service in four hours.

Buildings and structures

The station originally consisted of the small two-story light tower, a single Victorian residence, and a small barn. In 1898, a bell house was constructed, and a bell was added that was operated by weights. A second keeper was assigned at that time, and the quarters were expanded to accommodate two families. In 1947, the fog signal was changed to an

air horn An air horn is a pneumatic device designed to create an extremely loud noise for signaling purposes. It usually consists of a source which produces compressed air, which passes into a horn through a reed or diaphragm. The stream of air cause ...

. In 1949, the Trinidad Civic Club constructed a facsimile of the tower in a park overlooking the harbor and installed the original lens in its structure as a memorial to those lost or buried at sea. The bell is displayed alongside the tower. In the late 1960s, the Coast Guard razed the original dwelling and barn and constructed the present triplex, opened in 1969. The fog signal was discontinued when the station was automated in 1974. Complaints from the citizens of Trinidad Head were so vocal that the Coast Guard installed the present ELG 300, operated by a fog detector. The new fog signal is operated in the original bell house. The original tower remains essentially unchanged. The replica building along with the original lens was moved to tribal land at the bottom of the unstable bluff to prevent possible loss due to

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

.https://m.northcoastjournal.com/NewsBlog/archives/2018/01/10/trinidad-memorial-lighthouse-moved

Head keepers

* Jeremiah Kiler (1871 – 1888) * William A. Henderson (1888) * Frederick L. Harrington (1888 – 1916) * Josephine I. Harrington (1916) * Edward Wiborg (1916 – at least 1930) * Malcolm Cady (at least 1932 – 1940) * Perry S. Hunter (1940 - at least 1946)Trinidad Head, CA
Lighrhouse Friends. Retrieved 18 June 2016

National Register listing

The lighthouse was listed as Trinidad Head Light Station on the National Register of Historic Places on September 3, 1991, reference number 91001098. The 1900 fog-signal building is a contributing building, and the 1871 lighthouse tower is listed as a contributing structure. The 1969 keeper's building, which replaced the original keeper's residence, is non-contributing to the listing.

References

External links