California

Located at latitude 38° 57' 10", longitude 123° 44' 42", Point Arena has long been a prominent point on the California coast. The earliest known European explorers of the area, Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo and Bartolomi Ferrelo of Spain, sailed the California coast from Cape Mendocino to Baja California in 1542-43. The expedition was arduous, with disease and death striking the crew. After the untimely death of Cabrillo, Ferrelo took charge of the vessel.

J.C. Ryan, the late head keeper of the fog signal station at Point Reyes, tells a story which reflects but little credit on Captain U.N. Ludlow, the United States Lighthouse Inspector. Ryan held three positions as keeper. In July, 1883, he was at Ano Nuevo Lighthouse, in January, 1886, at Point Arena and in December, 1887, was appointed to the late office which he held till February 10 last.

Shortly after gold was discovered in California, the federal government was pressed to construct suitable aids to navigation along the west coast to safeguard maritime commerce. The initial appropriation for west coast lighthouses was passed in the fall of 1850. It authorized the construction of six stations in California and one in the Washington Territory. The next year Humboldt Bay, CA, was added to the initial list. The contract for the construction of those stations was awarded to the firm of Gibbons and Kelly of Baltimore, MD which built them between 1854 and 1856.

The California coast north of Point Arena indents to the east in a long sweeping arc for some 75 miles before emerging at a bump known as Punta Gorda. Some ten miles north of this protrusion is Cape Mendocino, one of the most westerly points on the west coast and a major turning point for vessels that engaged in the coastal trade in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The most obvious place for a light station was Cape Mendocino and a lighthouse was constructed there in 1870.

Farallon Light Station, August 15, 1858. Dear Brother Horace, Your letter of July 1st was sent out to me a few days ago by Sodowick and I can assure you I was glad to hear from you, as I always am to hear from home. Since I wrote you last I have been to town [San Francisco] spending the Fourth with Sod. and settling up the accounts of the Light House for the last fiscal year. The late keeper was an ignorant man and the accounts were all hurly burly but they are straight now, and correct up to the close of the fiscal year (30th June).

Point Hueneme and Anacapa Island mark the eastern entrance to Southern California's Santa Barbara Chan nel. Long recognized as a dangerous channel, Spanish explorers and early California mariners elected to steer a course south of the Channel Islands rather than risk the sudden onset of dense fog, shifting winds and uncertain currents. It wasn't until after the discovery of gold in 1848, and the rapid settling of the coastal communities Hueneme, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, that the navigation of the channel became necessary.

It wasn't much of an island and it was a rather unusal site for a lighthouse, still it served mariners heading up and down river for 54 years. Roe Island, a low marshy tract often inundated, is situated in the southern center area of Suisun Bay, California. The island abuts the northern edge of the shipping channel linking San Francisco Bay with ports of the Sacramento Delta. Being some 33 miles inland the island would, at first blush, seem an unlikely place for a lighthouse.

Jan. 17, 1934 - Keeper hurt foot.
Jan. 18 - Assistant went for mail and on return while hoisting the launch Mrs. Joost caught her finger between the drum and the line crushing it. Took her to Fort McDowell hospital. Keeper still lame but on duty.
Jan. 19 - Assistant Petersen took Mrs. Joost to hospital.
May 1 - Mr. Simonson of Pt. Cabrillo transferred to this station. Petersen, my assistant, is going to Point Cabrillo.

My father joined the U.S. Lighthouse Service in California in 1924. He and my mother were 24 at the time, I was one-year-old and my brother Norman two. Prior to entering the service dad had been in the Merchant Marine, so the sea was no stranger to him. Our first lighthouse home was the Point Reyes station, just north of San Francisco where he was the 3rd assistant to the keeper. Two years later we were transferred to the Los Angeles Breakwater lighthouse where he was assigned as 2nd assistant.

Dear Brother Horace, As I have not written to you for some time, and have received several letters from you in the interium, I suppose it is about time to "spread myself' for the purpose and here I am....I have heard from town (San Francisco) but once this month, and I will tell you, I am getting awful tired of this loneliness, it is almost as bad as the state prison, but I am in hopes that government will make some arrangements to have a vessel visit us regularly. I am trying hard for it and have written one or two "official" letters on the subject.