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Virginia Graziani
Redwood Times
If the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse Preservation Society has its way, the original Fresnel lens will be reunited with the Cape Mendocino lighthouse structure at Mal Coombs Park in Shelter Cove within the next couple of years.
The Coast Guard, which owns the lens, has determined that it is deteriorating in its present location at the county fairgrounds in Ferndale. To prevent further damage, the lens must be housed in a secure, climate-controlled environment.
Board members of the Preservation Society have proactively drawn up plans for such a building close to the original lighthouse structure in Shelter Cove. They will present their plans to the Coast Guard in hope of being allowed to acquire the lens.
”We're factfinding, we're doing the paperwork,” declared Bog Tarabanovich of the Preservation Society board. “We want to be ready when the Coast Guard is ready to choose a new location. When that happens, we don't want to be saying, ‘I wish we had done this planning earlier.'”
The lens, which can currently be seen in a plywood replica of the lighthouse at the entrance to the fairgrounds, is a nine-foot tall, six-foot in diameter, 16-sided, hollow crystal structure mounted on a clockwork mechanism.
Back when it was in operation in the top of the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse, the lens rotated around a flame, fueled first by whale oil and later by kerosene. The lighthouse keeper or his assistant had to rewind the turning mechanism every three hours and fifteen minutes.
As the lens rotated, the faceted and beveled crystal directed the light towards the 16 round “bulls-eyes” at the focal plane of the lens. This concentrated the light into flashing beams that could be seen nearly 30 miles out.
By timing the flashes, sailors knew not only the direction of coastal hazards but also their exact location on the coast, as every lighthouse has an individual pattern of light.
”It's like a work of art, a piece of sculpture,” said John Benton, architect and Preservation Society board member. Benton has designed a “museum-quality” lens house where the lens can be safely preserved and can also be accessible to the public.
Benton explained that the Coast Guard does not allow lighthouse lenses to be re-installed in the original lighthouses once they have been removed. His proposed lens house will look like a typical lighthouse keeper's home and will be located a short distance from the lighthouse in Mal Coombs Park.
The lens house will have room for visitors to walk all around the lens, as well as space for displays of historic photos, artifacts related to lighthouse keeping, and interpretive materials. Docents will be on hand to answer questions.
For now, the Coast Guard intends to remove the lens from its present location and take it to the Coast Guard station in Petaluma for repairs and reconditioning. If a satisfactory location for the reconditioned lens is not found, it will go into storage at a Coast Guard facility, where it will not be available to the public.
”It just makes sense that the lens should be in the same location as its lighthouse,” said Mike McClure, another member of the Preservation Society board and a former commercial fisherman. “When we heard the Coast Guard was going to relocate it, we went to work.”
Currently the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse Preservation Society, a non-profit organization comprised of a nine-member board, takes responsbility for the maintenance of the lighthouse in Shelter Cove. They also provide volunteer docents to greet visitors and answer questions during the summer season.
The lighthouse originally stood on a cliff 400 feet above sea level on the rugged coast at Cape Mendocino. Because of its elevated site, the lighthouse lacked the tall tower of a lighthouse built nearer to sea level. Nevertheless, with its focal plane at 420 feet above sea level, the lighthouse was at one time the highest in elevation in North America.
It was built by Joseph Bein, who also built the Point Reyes lighthouse, and was completed 142 years ago, in 1868. It was shipped from France to California on a square-rigged sailing ship.
In 1948 the lighthouse was electrified, and in 1951 the lens was removed and replaced by an airway beacon.
In 1971, the Coast Guard abandoned the lighthouse altogether, moving the beacon to a different location. Following the earthquakes in spring 1992, the Coast Guard decided to remove the structure to save it from further deterioration and the likelihood that it would slide off the cliff in the next major quake.
At that point, the Coast Guard essentially offered the structure as surplus property. Four southern Humboldt residents - Roy Heider, Bea Anderson, Charlie Woods, and Jack Sanford - took charge of efforts to bring the lighthouse to Shelter Cove. The cities of Eureka and Ferndale also vied for possession, but in 1997 the Coast Guard awarded it to Shelter Cove because it would be right on the ocean, the best place for a lighthouse.
With a tremendous amount of volunteer effort and support from local residents and businesses, pieces of the lighthouse, which had been disassembled when it was removed from its original site, were painstakingly reassembled.
In its new location at Mal Coombs park, the lighthouse was dedicated in September 2000, and opened to the public on Memorial Day 2001.
These days the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day from Memorial Day to the end of September. Visitors can walk around the inside and outside of the lighthouse and learn about its structure and history from the docents on duty.
There is no charge to enter the lighthouse, but in exchange for donations visitors can obtain a commemorative pin or a “passport” that is stamped with the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse stamp. Approximately 300 people a week visit the lighthouse during the hours it's open, according to the Preservation Society, with unknown numbers of visitors viewing it at other times.
Efforts to obtain the lens are still in the early stages, as board members noted, but the Preservation Society plans to open a bank account to receive donations to pay for the new lens house, with costs estimated at $350,000 to $400,000.
If the Coast Guard decides to place the lens elsewhere, the society will return all donations.
submitted graphics
1. Lens house
2. The proposed location of the lens house is shown here in relation to the existing lighthouse.
3. Schematic of a first order Fresnel lens and pedestal, circa 1860. This lens, which stood over 20 feet tall, was capable of producing a light that was visible from a vessel up to 22 miles away. The lens was turned by a clockwork mechanism that needed to be wound by a lighthouse keeper several times a night.
