Point Cabrillo Light
| Point Cabrillo Light | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Place: | Between Mendocino and Caspar on the Pacific coast of California | |
| Location: | California , United States | |
| Geographical location: | 39 ° 20 '54.9 " N , 123 ° 49' 34" W | |
| Fire height : | 25.6 meters | |
|
||
| Identifier : | White every 10 seconds | |
| Scope knows: | 14 nm (25.9 km ) | |
| Optics: | 3rd order Fresnel lens | |
| Function: | Sea fire | |
| Construction time: | 1908-1909 | |
Point Cabrillo Light is a lighthouse located between the towns of Mendocino and Caspar on the California Pacific coast . Twelve of the formerly 15 buildings that belonged to the entire complex are still preserved today. The Point Cabrillo Lighthouse Station is one of the best-preserved lighthouse structures in the United States . The lighthouse started operating in 1909 and was automated in 1972. With the Fresnel lens in use today (restored in the 1990s), the beacon has a range of 14 miles . On September 3, 1991, the complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic District . A museum is now housed in the lighthouse and Nebelhorn building.
Location and importance for shipping
Point Cabrillo Light is located on a headland on California's Pacific coast, about three miles (4.8 kilometers) north of the village of Mendocino and about one mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Caspar. Immediately to the north of the lighthouse is the small bay Frolic Cove, named after the brig Frolic , which sank here laden with opium in 1850 . The Point Cabrillo headland itself is named after the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo , who sailed the coast of California in 1542.
The headland on which Point Cabrillo Light was erected is one of a series of sandstone terraces lifted out of the water by the tectonic activity of the Pacific and North American plates . A total of five of these terraces can be seen between Albion and Fort Bragg , with the Point Cabrillo headland being the youngest of them.
A new era began for shipping along the Point Cabrillo coastline when gold was found in California in 1848. The California gold rush resulted in high demand for lumber, which was available in high quality along the northern California Pacific coast in the form of coastal redwoods . And to meet demand, sawmills were built at numerous points along the coast , the production of which was transported on ships to the Bay of San Francisco . This led to a strong increase in coastal shipping in the second half of the 19th century.
.jpg)
history
Early years
After a series of shipwrecks off the coast of Point Cabrillo, the United States Lighthouse Service Board recommended the construction of a lighthouse south of Caspar in October 1904. In January 1905, $ 50,000 ( $ 1,496,000 in today's purchasing power) was allocated for construction, and construction was approved on June 20, 1906. Two years later, in August 1908, construction began on a lighthouse with a foghorn, three residential buildings for lighthouse keepers and a cattle shed. At the same time, streets, sewers, a water tower, a blacksmith's workshop and other buildings were laid out.
After the construction work was completed in February 1909, Wilhelm Baumgartner, a German-American from Bavaria , was the first lighthouse keeper to move to Point Cabrillo. Together with his two assistants, Baumgartner was responsible for operating the Fresnel lens. The lens was rotated by a clockwork-like drive that had to be wound by the lighthouse keepers about every two hours. Initially, a kerosene lamp served as the light source . The lamp oil required for operation was stored in a specially built oil house in the winter of 1909/10.
In 1934 Point Cabrillo Light was connected to the mains. In the course of this change, the kerosene lamp was replaced by an electric lamp in 1935 and the clockwork drive of the lens was replaced by a motor-driven rotating mechanism.
From 1963 until the Point Cabrillo Light Keeper Association was founded
The operation of the lighthouse was ensured by lighthouse keepers until 1963. After the last keeper retired, the United States Coast Guard took responsibility for the continued operation. In 1972 the previous Fresnel lens was decommissioned and replaced by an automatic beacon that was easier to maintain.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the land around the lighthouse came under pressure from land speculators. Shortly before the plans for 55 homes could be implemented, negotiations began for the state of California to purchase the land. This purchase was finally completed in 1991/92. The North Coast Interpretive Association (NCIA), a non-profit organization , took over management of the property. Nine years later, the NCIA was transferred to the also non-profit Point Cabrillo Light Keeper Association (PCLK), which maintains the property to this day.
Restoration work since 1996
Since 1996 the buildings of the Point Cabrillo Light have been restored. In 1998, restoration work began on the old Fresnel lens, which resumed operation in August 1999 on the 90th anniversary of the lighthouse's construction. Shortly before the opening for tourism, the lighthouse was used as part of the filming of the feature film The Majestic with Jim Carrey . In 2002, the Point Cabrillo Light Station and Nature Preserve was acquired by the California Department of Parks and Recreation . The rest of the restoration of the facility is carried out by volunteers.
Lantern and optics
The third-order Fresnel lens used in the lighthouse was made in Birmingham , England by the Chance Brothers company and shipped around Cape Horn to Point Cabrillo. The lens is installed at a height of 32 feet (9.4 meters) in the lighthouse, which is about 84 feet (25.6 meters) above sea level. The lens construction has a total weight of 6,800 pounds (approximately 3.1 tons).
The light intensity of the original combination of kerosene lamp and Fresnel lens was 680,000 Hefner candles . The light beam that is bundled today by the optics of the Fresnel lens is generated by two electric 1,000 watt bulbs. When the view is clear, this light beam generated by the lens every ten seconds has a nominal range of 14 miles (around 22.5 kilometers).
literature
- Bruce Rogerson / Ginny Rorby / Jim Kimbrell: Point Cabrillo , in: Mendocino Historical Review 23 (2009), pp. 1-24.
- Bruce Rogerson / Jim Kimbrell: Point Cabrillo Light Station, California , in: The Keeper's Log 23.4 (2007), available online as a PDF on the website of the United States Lighthouse Society.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Point Cabrillo Light Station is one of the most complete light stations in the United States currently retaining twelve of the original fifteen buildings and structures", in: Point Cabrillo Light Station ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 71 kB) , Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS NO.CA-54), Oakland 2010, accessed February 24, 2013.
- ↑ Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , accessed June 1, 2016
- ↑ On the frolic cf. Thomas N. Layton, The Voyage of the Frolic. New England Merchants and the Opium Trade , Stanford 1997.
- ↑ cf. Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , p. 9.
- ↑ On this and the following cf. Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , p. 8.
- ↑ On Baumgartner cf. Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , p. 22.
- ↑ See Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , p. 9.
- ↑ On this and the following cf. Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , pp. 10f.
- ↑ See Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , p. 12.
- ↑ See Rogerson / Rorby / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo , pp. 13-15.
- ↑ See Rogerson / Kimbrell, Point Cabrillo Light Station , pp. 6f.
