Point Arena Light is a lighthouse in Mendocino County, California, two miles (3 km) north of Point Arena, California. It is approximately 130 mi (210 km) north of San Francisco, in the Fort Point Group of lighthouses. The lighthouse features a small museum and gift shop. Guided tours of the light station as well as self-guided tours of the grounds are available daily. In April 1906, the San Francisco earthquake struck the light station. The keeper's residence and lighthouse were damaged so severely that they had to be demolished. The United States Lighthouse Board contracted with a San Francisco-based company to build a new lighthouse on the site and specified that it had to withstand earthquakes. The company chose normally built factory smokestacks, which accounts for the final design for the new Point Arena Lighthouse, featuring steel reinforcement rods encased in concrete. This was the first lighthouse built this way. The new lighthouse began operation in 1908, nearly 18 months after the quake. It stands 115 ft (35 m) tall, and featured a 1st Order Fresnel Lens, over six feet in diameter and weighing more than six tons.
Point Arena Lighthouse Front
Point Arena Lighthouse Back