A defining feature of the northern California coast is a large bulge that protrudes westward into the Pacific Ocean. Along this bulge are two points, separated by roughly eleven miles, which extend farther west than any other points along the Golden State’s lengthy shoreline. The northernmost of these points is Cape Mendocino, and the southernmost is Punta Gorda, Spanish for substantial point.

As ships hugged the California coast traveling northward, it is understandable how several ran aground on Punta Gorda. A lighthouse was established on Cape Mendocino in 1868, and twenty years later the Lighthouse Board first requested funds for a light on Punta Gorda:

Between Shelter Cove and Punta Gorda there are several dangerous sunken rocks off the shore that add to the hazards of navigation. In ordinary dark nights the overhanging mountains keep the shore-line in dark shadow and confuse the best navigator as to his distance from shore, so that it is impossible to make out this high rounding point either from the south or from the north. Moreover, from reports made to the Coast and Geodetic Survey it appears that little is known as to the currents of this part of the coast. The conclusion is reached, therefore, that the interests of commerce and navigation require that a light and fog-signal be established at or near Punta Gorda, California.

Punta Gorda - fog signal, oil house, lighthouse, and dwellings Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The Lighthouse Board repeated its request numerous times, but it wasn’t until after a fog-induced collision between the passenger liner Columbia and the steam schooner San Pedro on July 21, 1907, which claimed eighty-seven lives, that Congress finally appropriated $60,000 for a lighthouse on Punta Gorda. Between 1899 and 1907, at least eight other ships had met their end in the area, including the St. Paul, whose rusted boilers can still be seen in the surf at Punta Gorda.

Contractors were invited to submit sealed proposals for building Punta Gorda Light Station at the office of the Lighthouse Engineer in San Francisco before March 25, 1910, and later that year construction materials were landed at the point by schooner. After being highlined to shore, the materials were loaded onto horse-drawn sleds, and dragged less than a mile south to the construction site. Within a year, a frame fog signal building, a barn, three substantial dwellings with companion storage sheds, and a blacksmith/carpenter shop were completed.

The station’s first-class air siren, driven by gas engines, was placed in operation on June 22, 1911, but it would be approximately seven more months before the twenty-seven-foot-tall, reinforced-concrete lighthouse was completed. The light from the lighthouse’s fourth-order lens and oil-vapor lamp was first exhibited on January 15, 1912 by Head Keeper Frederick A. Harrington and his assistants Paschal Hunter and W.E. Greer. The fog signal produced a two-second blast every fifteen seconds as needed, while the bivalve lens emitted a double flash every fifteen seconds. The total cost for the station came to $59,814.51. Keeper Harrington had previously served as first assistant keeper at Table Bluff Lighthouse, and his father was currently serving as head keeper of Trinidad Head Lighthouse.

The isolated light station sits on a narrow bench bordered by hills rising abruptly to the east and the Pacific Ocean spreading out to the west. An eleven-mile journey by horseback or wagon was required to reach the small town of Petrolia, and this trip was only possible when weather and tides permitted. The first oil wells in California that produced crude to be refined and sold commercially were drilled near Petrolia, hence the name of the town.

At 1:08 a.m. on January 22, 1923, the sleepy residents at Punta Gorda were jolted awake by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake, which had an epicenter off Cape Mendocino. The tremor cracked the foundation of the head keeper’s dwelling and opened up some old cracks in a second dwelling. In the lighthouse, some mercury on which the lens revolved escaped, and about thirty gallons of oil sloshed out of the oil tanks in the oil house. A landslide triggered by the earthquake leveled a telephone pole near the station.

Punta Gorda dwellings with storage sheds Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Wayne Piland, accompanied by his wife, a son, and a daughter, was transferred to Punta Gorda in the 1930s. Piland would later serve at three offshore stations, but he rated the task of getting supplies to Punta Gorda as “the toughest job you ever saw.” During the summer months, a team of horses could pull a supply wagon to Petrolia, but when winter set in, rushing streams and high surf limited travel to horseback.

For several decades, “Old Bill” served as the stations four-footed link to the outside world. Old Bill was well acquainted with life at a lighthouse. He was born at a light station, served at Point Reyes, and arrived at Punta Gorda aboard a lighthouse tender. Wayne Piland’s daughter Nancy described Old Bill as “mean and ornery.” The horse also had a quirk that made him difficult to ride. Whenever he approached a puddle, no matter the size, he would try to jump across it. Fortunately, Keeper Piland was experienced with horses, and after he braided a small whip, Piland and Old Bill got along just fine.

Like many other light stations along the California coast, Punta Gorda was used by the military during World War II. The station’s population increased for a few years as several Coast Guard recruits were sent to patrol the beach south of the station towards Shelter Cove, but the beach patrol was discontinued at the end of the war.

The government finally built a road from the Mattole River along the foot of the bluffs to Windy Point in 1935 and another section from Windy Point to the lighthouse. With a jeep and a tractor, life at the station seemed much easier, but then the winter storms arrived. After heavy rains, water would stream down the canyons, severing the road in several places, and powerful, storm-driven surf would deposit large logs and other debris on the roadway. It was a good thing Old Bill was still on hand for an occasional supply trek to civilization.

Ron Thomas, a 115-pound, seventeen-year-old from Los Angeles who had to wear platform shoes to meet the Coast Guard’s height requirement, was assigned to Punta Gorda Lighthouse in November 1949, when Samuel Mostovoy was serving as the Coast Guard Officer-in-Charge. A fellow coastguardsman named Blossfield picked Thomas up at Humboldt Bay and drove him to the Mattole River, where he first met the station’s three horses: Tom, Jerry, and Bill. Blossfield fastened Thomas’ sea bag on Bill’s pack saddle and set the horses free. After seeing the horses disappear over a hill, Thomas asked Blossfield how far it was to the lighthouse. “Seven miles,” responded Blossfield, and Thomas thought his sea bag was gone for good.

Punta Gorda barn and horses in 1912 Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

After driving through several gates along the Mattole River and the beach, the men finally arrived at the station. Thomas was introduced to the officer-in-charge and then shown to his room in the southernmost house, which he shared with two other men. Much to his amazement, Thomas found all of his things either hung up or in his dresser, and over fifty years later, he still didn’t know how the horses opened and closed all the gates to reach the station before them.

The station’s three single men would give their $67.50 monthly food allowance to the officer-in-charge’s wife, who would then cook all their meals. This was a good deal until Thomas found dog hair from the officer-in-charge’s Scotty in his food. Unable to tolerate the hair, Thomas was forced to cook his own food, and the other two bachelors soon wanted to join him when they saw the meals he prepared. Thomas put on sixty pounds with his diet of fresh abalone, trout, deer meat, and milk from the station’s cow.

Electricity eventually did reach Punta Gorda, but the power line was unreliable and multiple generators had to be kept on hand. The remoteness of the station made it one of the more costly to maintain, so when improvements in navigation lessened the need for a manned lighthouse in the area, the Coast Guard placed a lighted buoy offshore, removed the Fresnel lens, and boarded up the structures. After having spent more years at Punta Gorda than any keeper, Old Bill was sold to a lady in Ferndale.

When the Coast Guard left Punta Gorda, after the station was decommissioned in May 1951 under Officer-in-Charge Samuel Mostovoy, control of the station passed to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A counter-culture group, described as long-haired hippies, took up residence in the dwellings during the 1960s. After chasing the squatters off several times, the BLM decided to burn down all of the wooden structures in 1970. All that remains of the station are the concrete lighthouse and oil house, and a few concrete pads where other structures once stood. The residences and storage sheds at Punta Gorda resembled those built just one year earlier at Point Cabrillo, and fortunately those at Point Cabrillo have survived and been restored.

The lighthouse and oil house were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and shortly thereafter the Honeydew volunteer fire department spent time at the station repairing cracks in the masonry, welding breaks in the lighthouse’s staircase and railings, and sandblasting and painting the structures. The station received further attention in 1989 when the California Conservancy Corps restored and painted the structures.

In 2022 – 2023, thanks to the Great American Outdoors Act, the surviving structures at Punta Gorda were rehabilitated. A new circular staircase was installed in the lighthouse and cracks in the concrete walls were repaired. This photograph shows the freshly restored and painted structures.

Hikers along California’s Lost Coast are a bit surprised to encounter a couple of rustic cabins near Fourmile Creek, but had all of the picturesque structures at Punta Gorda remained standing, one can only imagine what a contrast the craftsman-style buildings would be to what is otherwise very remote and unspoiled territory.

Keepers:

• Head: Frederick A. Harrington (1911 – 1919), James Dunn (1919 – 1921), Herbert H. Luff (1921 – 1928), Charles W. Lindley (1928 – 1939), Perry S. Hunter (1939 – 1940), Harmon A. Day (1940 – 1942), Edmond P. Perry (1942 – 1944), John E. Evenden (1944 – 1945), Neil F. McNab (1945 – 1946), Fernell W. Teeple (1947 – 1949), Samuel “Hank” Mostovoy (1949 – 1951).
• First Assistant: Paschal Hunter (1911 – 1912), Albert N. Speelman (1912 – 1917), Leander W. Holmes (1917 – 1920), Joseph Harrington (1920 – 1925), Charles W. Lindley (1925 – 1928), Fred C. Saunders (1928 – 1929), Clarence C. Snodgrass (1929 – 1930), Frank W. Ritchie (1930 – 1931), Perry S. Hunter (1931 – 1939), George C. Lee (1939 – 1940), Andrews C. Platt (1940 – 1941), Edmond P. Perry (1941 – 1942).
• Second Assistant: William E. Greer (1911 – 1912), Albert N. Speelman (1912), Leopold Jordan (1912), Fletcher Wills (1912 – 1914), William P.D. Holmes (1914 – 1916), Leander W. Holmes (1916 – 1917), Joseph Harrington (1917 – 1920), Hugh Tighe (1920), Charles W. Lindley (1920 – 1925), Joseph T. Martinez (1925 – 1927), Fred C. Saunders (1927 – 1928), Clarence C. Snodgrass (1928 – 1929), Perry S. Hunter (1929 – 1931), Edmond P. Perry (1931 – 1935), Wayne R. Piland (1935 – 1936), Robert L. Schafer (1936 – 1937), George C. Lee (1937 – 1939), Olaf Rasmussen (at least 1940 – at least 1942).
• USCG: Charles P. Hanrahan (1943 – 1945), Harold Schoelen ( – 1951), Paul C. Blossfield ( – 1951), Frederick Thomas ( – 1951).

References

1. Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
2. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Lighthouses, various years.
3. Lighthouse Service Bulletin, various years.
4. Lighthouses and Lifeboats on the Redwood Coast, Ralph Shanks, 1978.
5. The Keeper’s Log, Winter 1997.
6. Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1993.

From Highway 101 in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, take the Honeydew/Dyerville Exit, and go west, following the signs, for just under 30 miles to Honeydew. In Honeydew, continue northwest on Mattole Road until just before Petrolia (14 miles), where you need to turn west on Lighthouse Road. Follow Lighthouse Road for five miles to its end at Mattole Beach. Park your vehicle and hike south along the beach for just over three miles to reach Punta Gorda Lighthouse, the interior of which is open to visitors.

This is a strenuous hike, a good portion of which is through loose sand or pea-sized rocks. We found that hugging the hillside as much as possible is easier than walking on the beach. Access around one outcropping (Wind Point, which is roughly two miles into the trip) may not be possible right at high tide, so consult a tide table before you set out on the adventure. During the winter, you may need to cross several creeks that stream down from the canyons. Most of these are quite small, but we had to wade through chilly Fourmile Creek. You can call the King Range Bureau of Land Management office at (707) 986-5400 to check on trail conditions.

The lighthouse is owned by the Bureau of Land Management and is part of the King Range National Conservation Area. Grounds/tower open.

Find the closest hotels to Punta Gorda Lighthouse

Kraig writes:

Still visible in the surf in front of the station are pieces of the St. Paul, which was lost near the point in 1905 before the station was established. Be aware that poison oak is present along the trail. I thought I was being quite cautious but somehow managed to brush against it. A few days later, I was fighting an intense desire to scratch and had to seek medical help to get the weepy sores under control.

Marilyn writes:

This is a flat hike, but one that separates the men from the boys. The photo is deceptive in that it shows a path on hard ground which is true the last few hundred feet. Be prepared to tax your body a little as the sand on the rest of it is not the packed down kind that you run on along the beach. It is more of the "my-foot-sunk-down 12 inches-and-now-I-have-to-lift-it-back-out only-to-do-it-again kind of hike. I would recommend taking water and a lunch for a picnic at the lighthouse as you will need the break and the restored energy. It is worth the effort.