Guiding the way.

I lived on the Central Caost of California for three years from 1989 until 1992, and many is the timeI would see it's beacon flashing and illuminating the fog from across the bay and someday I told myself I'd take a hike out there and see it. Well, that was 17 years ago, and I never did until yesterday when I took the guided 7 mile round trip hike, and I was well rewarded for my efforts to visit the San Luis Light.

San Luis Lighthouse has been guiding ships into Avila Beach and Port San Luis for more than a century now since it's light was first lit on June 30 1890.

The need for a lighthouse in Port Harford dates back to 1873, when John Harford built a pier extending 540 feet into the water, which was later extended to 576 feet, with the addition of a narrow gauge railroad to off load passengers and cargo and deliver them to San Luis Obispo. The railroad itself was an extension of the Pacific Coast Railway that connected to Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande, Guadalupe, Santa Maria, Los Alamos, and terminating at Mattie's Tavern in Los Olivos, where travellers could rest before taking the stage coach into Santa Barbara.

Getting the money for the construction though proved very problematic. The first mention of a light came in 1867 under President Johnson who signed an executive order calling for lighthouses to be built along the entire west coast of the United States. At the time however, Congress as in the middle of paying off the debts incurred for the Civil War and Reconstruction. Not until Congressman Romualdo Pacheco introduced a bill in 1877 to build the lighthouse. However the project still had quite a ways to go before the port would see construction begin, in fact it would not be until 1886 that Congress would finally pass the bill and allocate $50,000 for the contruction.

The project however was still not out of the woods yet. Obtaining the land to build the lighthouse proved to be the hardest hurdle, and adding to that, the cost of the bids that came in to build the light were too high by Government standards which would have further delayed construction had an incident in 1888 not brought the need for a lighthouse to the forefront.

May 1, 1888. The coastal steamer, Queen of the Pacific was sailing down the coast when she started to take on water fifteen miles from the coast. Looking at the charts, her captain decided to make for Port Harford where they could put in. But with no light to guide her, and under dark evening skies, the captain was forced to slow the speed of the vessel. A mere five hundred feet from the edge of the pier, the Queen finally sank and settled onto the ocean bottom up to her waterline. Thankfully catastrophe was averted and all on board were safely off loaded onto dry land. The desparate need for a light at Port Harford was finally given the attention it needed to get the project off the ground.

Construction of the light commenced in 1889 and finished in June with a wooden dwelling of two floors and a tower fixed with a 4th order Fresnel lantern which was hand made in France and then shipped from New York. Nearby a duplex dwelling was built for the two assistant lightkeepers and their families, along with a kerosene shed and a steam powered fog signal building. Two, fifty thousand gallon cisterns were also contructed to provide drinking water using a rainwater runoff system.

The lantern was lit every night and extinguished each morning when the lantern room and the lens were washed to prevent the build up of soot from the kerosene. The lens used approximately a 1/2 gallon of kerosene each night and was rountinely checked throught the night. In 1915, the steam boilers for the fog signal were replaced by a compressed air system, which remained in place until 1933 when the lighthouse and the lantern were electrified, and in 1942, a radio listening station to track Japanese transmissions was built and a second duplex was added for armed forces personel.

The 1960's and '70's saw the end of the line for the San Luis lighthouse. The duplex next to the light was torn down owing to age and the effects of the elements in 1961 and in 1969, the lens was taken from the tower and replaced with a eletric lighting system. In 1974 the order came from the Coast Guard to shut the lighthouse down and the last keeper was moved out. For 25 years the lighthouse sat abandoned to the elements and vandals until 1992 when the 30 acre parcel was handed over to the San Luis Harbor District from the Federal Government with the proviso that the lighthouse and ground be restored. In 1995 official responsibility for the maintence and restoration of the lighthouse was given to the non profit Port San Luis Lighthouse Keepers Corporation.

Today the lighthouse is open the to the public but only by appointment two weeks in advance and by docent led tours. Plans are in the works however to repave the road leading from Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant to allow van tours to those who are not able to make the 7 1/2 mile round trip hike.

For further information, or to book your own hike to the lighthouse, check out the Point San Luis Lighthouse pages or Lighthouse Friends.Org