National Register #91001100
Point Reyes Light Station District
Point Reyes National Seashore
Built 1870 - Decommissioned 1975

The Point Reyes Light Station Historic District, comprised of 830 acres containing five buildings and four structures of historic significance, was added to the National Register in 1991.

According to the National Park Service, Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place in North America. I could not document this asseretion, but there is no doubt that the Point Reyes Headlines, which jut ten miles into the Pacific Ocean just north of San Francsico Bay, are shrouded in fog for much of the summer and have been a hazard to shipping since San Francisco became a major port.

The lighthouse was built in 1870, half-way up a six hundred foot cliff on a shelf which had been blasted out with dynamite. The lighthouse needed to be low enough to be below the bottom of the fog bank.

Historic lighthouses on the west coast:

Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City
Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Curry County, Oregon
East Brother Light Station, Contra Costa County
Fort Point Lighthouse, San Francisco
Point Arena Light Station, Mendocino County

Point Bonita Light Station, Marin County
Point Cabrillo Light Station, Mendocino County
Point Montara Light Station, San Mateo County
Point Reyes Light Station, Marin County
Pigeon Point Lighthouse, San Mateo County

St. George Reef Light Station, Crescent City
Yerba Buena Island Lighthouse, San Francisco