Table Bluff Light

Infobox Lighthouse


caption = U.S. Coast Guard Archive
location = Table Bluff, California
coordinates = coord|40|41|45.02|N|124|16|26.16|W |display=inline
yearbuilt = 1892
yearlit = 1892
automated = 1953
yeardeactivated = 1961
foundation =
construction = Wood
shape = Square
height = convert|35|ft|abbr=on
currentlens =(removed)
lens = Fourth order Fresnel lens
range =
characteristic =
ARLHS = USA-832

Table Bluff Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California,
United States, on southern Humboldt Bay, near Eureka, California. The Table Bluff Lighthouse was one of the first to be automated. The light house tower portion is now at the Woodley Island Marina in Eureka.

History

Table Bluff Lighthouse was built in 1892. A fixed, fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed from the Humboldt Harbor Light and installed in the 35 foot tower at Table Bluff. In 1911, the fixed Fresnel lens was replaced with a revolving one. A modern optic was installed in the tower, and the Fresnel lens was shipped to San Diego to be displayed in the Old Point Loma Light. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1975.

The Humboldt Bay North Spit Lighthouse had for many years been criticized as being too low. In 1892 the Lighthouse Service constructed a light station on Table Bluff, a promontory south of Humboldt Bay, but within-view of the bay. The original station consisted of a duplex Victorian quarters, fog-signal building, and a keepers quarters with light tower attached. The quarters were redwood Italianette-stick Victorian, and the keepers quarters/ light tower were almost exactly the same as San Luis Obispo Light Station — the one at San Luis Obispo. There were also two wash houses, an oil house and a carpenter shop. In 1906 the Navy established a radio station on the property and during World War II the station was expanded to include lodging for mounted beach patrols, a coastal lookout post, and a radio compass station. During the war and immediately afterwards most of the original buildings were razed along with some of the newer structures. The quarters portion of the lighthouse was razed leaving only the tower. This and the fog signal building were all that remained of the original buildings. In 1953 the rotating 4th order lens was removed and a fixed 3½ order lens installed. The 4th order optic was shipped to the Point Loma Light in San Diego which is operated as a museum by the National Park Service. The fog signal was discontinued the same year and the station automated. In 1975 the light was discontinued and the property transferred to GSA and sold. The 2½ order lens was shipped to the Smithsonian.

The lighthouse tower was cut in two and moved to Woodley Island Marina in Eureka in 1987. The lens in it now is not the original.

External links

* [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/LHCA.html USCG site]