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| Landmark #951-3 | Monterey County | Visited: January 17, 2015 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | An awesome lighthouse on a tall volcanic plug! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: Spanish explorers and later New England hide and tallow traders found the Big Sur coastline a great hazard. Heavy fogs and extreme winds caused the wreck of many vessels on this coast. The Gold Rush of 1849 dramatically increased coastal shipping. A lighthouse was clearly needed. President Andrew Johnson signed the Executive Order which reserved the site for lighthouse purposes in 1866. Construction began in 1887 and the lamp was lit on August 1, 1889.
OTHER TIDBITS: This lighthouse is pretty remote now, but imagine it in the days before the Pacific Coast Highway! Nineteen miles of rugged coastline took a lot longer to travel with a horse and buggy, so supplies only came to the lighthouse every four months or so. That meant the lighthouse keepers had to be super self-sufficient! The families who lived here each had a garden for vegetables, but the rest of the supplies were mostly delivered by skiff! This haunting lighthouse overlooks the wreck sites of the Los Angeles, the Majestic, the Shna-Yak, the Thomas L. Wand, the Babinda, the Rhine Maru, the Panama, the S. Catania, and the Howard Olson. It was also present for the crash of the airship, U.S.S. Macon, which brought about end end of naval airships! This landmark is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: State Hwy 1 23 mi S of Monterey and 3 mi N of Andrew Molera State Park ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~343mi (553km) — 5.8hrs |
| When should I go? | Tours are given Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00 AM all year! Wednesday tours take place at 1:00 PM in the winter and 2:00 PM in the summer, and in July and August, there’s an additional 10:00 AM tour added on Thursdays! |
