We attended a State Park Foundation event here which included
a talk by Joanne Semones, author of a number of books on lighthouses and
California coast history.
Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park
"After a struggle to secure property at the
point, Congress appropriated a sum of $90,000 in March 1871 for a first-class
lighthouse and fog signal on Pigeon Point. The fog signal and Victorian
fourplex were completed first, and the twelve-inch steam whistle, with
four-second blasts separated alternately by seven and forty-five seconds, was
fired up for the first time on September 10, 1871. Torrential rains and
difficulty in assembling the spiral staircase, which had been fabricated by
Nutting & Son in San Francisco, contributed to delays in completing the
tower. After the lantern room was in place atop the tower, the delicate lens
was assembled inside, and the light was exhibited for the first time on
November 15, 1872, over fourteen months after the fog signal was completed. At
sunset that evening, Keeper J. W. Patterson started the brass clockwork
ticking, ignited the lard oil in the lamp, and soon the lighthouse according to
Patterson was “exchanging winks and blinks with its neighbor of the
Farallones.”
