Pt. Sur History for Piedras Blancas

POINT SUR: BIG SUR’S HISTORICAL TREASURE By Carol O’Neil From Big Sur’s earliest recorded history, Point Sur has been a landmark. First mentioned in the logs of Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo in 1542, it was later described by Viscaino on his 1602 map as a “point that appears as a small island.” British explorer George Vancouver wrote that it was a “small, high, rocky lump of land lying nearly half a mile from shore.” These early descriptions are of the “moro” rock in its natural state that came to be called Pt. Sur. Only two images survive of the original Pt. Sur, both drawn and painted by Lt. James Alden, USN in the 1850s. Alden depicts Pt. Sur as taller, with the crest coming to a pointed ridge. Lt. Alden was part of a naval survey of the California coast, ordered by Congress after California joined the Union in 1850. The United States had acquired a state with a very long and virtually unknown coastline. These surveys identified places for lighthouses and other aides-to-navigation. Pt. Sur was a natural spot for a lighthouse: it was on a huge exposed rock barely attached to the mainland, and a natural point for ships traveling the coast to change course. The name Point Sur began to be used, probably taken from the Rancho El Sur that anchored the landward side of the rock. The horrific shipwreck of the coastal steamer Ventura in 1875 north of Pt. Sur was a catalyst to start construction on the planned lighthouse in 1887. It was a monumental feat. No road was built to the top because of the extreme cost. Instead, after blasting 80 feet off the top to provide level places for buildings, a hoist railway was erected that ran up and over the top of the rock, and out to where the lighthouse itself was constructed. Buildings to house and support the light, the fog signal, and the four keepers with their families were constructed. Only the sandstone and redwood lumber were obtained locally. All of the manufactured equipment came to Pt. Sur by ship from San Francisco, including the multi-ton First Order Fresnel Lens that was installed in the light tower. With no dock in Big Sur, materiel for the Lightstation was “surfed ashore” at the mouth of the Big Sur River and taken overland to Pt. Sur by wagons pulled by mules. To cross the sand flats at Pt. Sur, a corduroy road (like a primitive boardwalk) was constructed. All was in place, if not quite finished, when the light was turned on August 1, 1889. It has been in continuous operation ever since. The early lightkeeper families were constrained by the 392 steps to their homes at the top of Pt. Sur. Use of the hoist railway was restricted to moving supplies. Fuel for the steam-driven hoist was of greater concern than easing the life of the workers. To go almost anywhere, the people living at Pt. Sur had to climb down the stairs built adjacent to the rail, then cross the sand flats and go on several miles to the county road. In 1896, a Big Sur school teacher who boarded with a keeper at Pt. Sur described her journey to teach at the school near the Little Sur River. “I must climb down 392 steps every morning, and up every night. …It takes an hour or more to drive from here there. We came home last night, unhitched our horse and climbed to the top of the hill, getting here at twenty-five minutes before seven.” The hoist railway could not withstand the harsh elements at Pt. Sur. Several components had to be replaced within the first 11 years and upkeep was constant. By 1900, it was obvious that the previously “too expensive” road to the top would have to be built. It finally was constructed around the rock in 1900 by a local crew using dynamite and hand tools: picks, shovels and wheel barrows. Charles Bixby (Bixby Bridge) got the contract and the Post brothers (Post Ranch), Frank and Joe were part of the crew. Not unlike today, work stopped for cost over-runs and harsh winter storms. The road was completed in 1901. The original hoist railway was allowed to disintegrate in place and parts could still be seen in photographs as late as the 1930s. Until Highway One was completed from Monterey to Big Sur in 1932, the Lightstation was an isolated post for the four keepers and their families. A stage coach came to Big Sur from Monterey twice a week with mail, but most supplies and packages were delivered three times a year by Lightstation tenders. The tender arrival was a big event; though it also often brought the dreaded Lighthouse inspector, who inspected both the lighthouse and the living quarters for cleanliness and general ship-shape conditions. While the keepers got much of their fresh meat and vegetables locally, almost everything else came by tender. It anchored off shore, out of the kelp beds and the dangerous shallow rocky shoals. From the tender, supplies were transferred to smaller “whale boats” and brought to the Lightstation. In the early days, the boats landed on the somewhat sheltered beach south of the rock. After 1915, supplies were delivered to a landing built onto the south or leeward side of the rock, 40 feet above the ocean. The small whale boats unloaded their cargoes into nets that were hauled up by crane to the landing. Then the supplies were put on another hoist railway and lifted to the top of the rock. After the northern portion of the Carmel-San Simeon Highway (now Hwy. 1) was completed in 1932 and a small boat capsized in 1933 when two sailors died, supplies were delivered to Pt. Sur via truck, a safer and more cost effective system. Over the years, Point Sur employed state-of-the-art engineering in its aides-to- navigation. Its First Order Fresnel Lens (now in Monterey’s Maritime Museum) was one of the largest made. Even today, Pt. Sur’s light, monitored remotely via computer, is still in use, a low-tech back-up to high-tech satellite navigation systems. Point Sur’s lightkeepers and their families never enjoyed modern technology. Even a horse to retrieve the mail from three miles away was disapproved by the Lighthouse Service a century ago. While the lighthouse itself got electricity via generator in 1925, the keepers did not have generators until 1939. Regular power from the grid did not arrive at Pt. Sur until 1949. Today, the Point Sur Lightstation is a ghost town; its last resident lightkeepers left in 1974. Remarkably, its isolation and stone buildings meant that “modernization” largely passed it by and its buildings were left intact. Point Sur is unique, having all of its original buildings, including the largest Lightstation building in the west, the Assistant Keepers’ Quarters with three apartments. On the National Register of Historic Places, it has been a State Historic Park since 1984 and is being restored by a coalition of State Parks, volunteers and Pt. Sur’s cooperating association, the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers. Access to Point Sur is by guided tours, given several times a week by trained volunteers, who love to share the romance and mystery of Point Sur with visitors from all over. They are full of stories of the early light keepers and life on the rock. And nothing beats the views of ocean and mountains from that rock, just off shore… .

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