Port San Luis As the steamers passing are always bound into the Port Harford roadstead, and as the coast both north and south is free from outlying dangers, the light does not need to be visible from any considerable distance, and I am now of the opinion that a fourth-order [lens] would suffice. As Piedras Blancas to the north is fixed white varied by white flashes, and Point Conception to the south is flashing white every thirty seconds, it would seem desirable to introduce red at San Luis as a better distinction. The engineer noted that the lighthouse board’s supply depot on Yerba Buena Island, Ca. had a fourth-order revolving lens in stock: …sent out here as a temporary substitute for Point Conception during the changes at that station. It is arranged for flashes at intervals of thirty seconds; by making each alternative one red, the requirement of the new station would seem to be fulfilled, and an important saving effected. Absent any money to establish a light, the lighthouse board nevertheless continued to discuss its location, going back and forth about whether Whaler’s Island or “San Luis head” would be the better site and whether it would be better to put a fog signal on the island and a light on the mainland. The federal government, by executive action, had acquired Whaler’s Island and planned to purchase thirty acres on the mainland from John Harford. In 1887, the matter was settled. The lighthouse board determined both a fog signal and a light should be placed on the mainland. Congress appropriated fifty thousand dollars for the project. The board agreed the light should flash red and white alternately at thirty-second intervals. The twelfth district lighthouse inspector told the board, once again, “a fourth-order lens and revolving apparatus flashing white every thirty seconds is now stored in the depot at Yerba Buena and could be inexpensively modified here to serve the purpose.” However, before the lighthouse board decided to give the go-ahead to build a light station, a near-catastrophe occurred. On April 30, 1888, at 8 a.m., the Queen of the Pacific groped her way into Port Harford, having sprung a leak: Before dawn, the steamer listed so badly that it was difficult to walk the decks, and when the port was reached, the railing on the upper deck was submerged, and when within about thirty yards of the wharf, the steamer settled to the bottom in about twenty feet of water. Some two hundred and forty passengers were aboard, and all reached shore in safety. During the voyage, the ocean was unusually smooth, which accounts for the happy termination of the affair. Had a rough sea prevailed, it is quite probable there would have been considerable loss of life. —San Francisco Bulletin, April 30, 1888. The sinking of the Queen seemed to fast-track, April 2021 | Atascadero News Magazine
putting a fog signal and light at Point San Luis. December. On December 2, 1915, the acting The following month, the government acquired commissioner of lighthouses wrote to the third title to Harford’s thirty acres. The twelfth district district inspector in charge of the Staten Island engineer began drawing up plans. In 1899, the supply depot, suggesting the eighteenth (formerly engineer solicited bids to build the light station twelfth) district inspector could use the modern and awarded the contract to George Kenney of fourth-order lens in the lighthouse exhibit if it was Santa Barbara. not intended for use after the Exposition ended. In November 1899, the lighthouse board The eighteenth district inspector wanted it for asked the engineer in charge of the supply depot Point San Luis “where a stronger light is required.” on Staten Island, N.Y., to fit up a fourth-order Perhaps Smith had the ear of the eighteenth lens in its inventory with ruby glass panels to make district inspector while he was tending the lightit flash both red and white. Perhaps the lens once house exhibit and pressed his case for needing a in stock at Yerba Buena Island had been deployed better lens, suggesting that Point San Luis should somewhere else. The lens at Staten Island was be given the modern lens after the Exposition made by Sautter Lemonnier in France in 1878 was over. and was numbered 325. Its various pieces—lens, The third district inspector replied right away, clock, flash panels, pedestal, service table, lamps, stating that the new lens had been purchased and fitments—were contained in five cases, specifically for the Exposition, and there was no numbered 991 through 995. The cases were requisition the supply depot had received that shipped from New York to San Francisco, then would require its use elsewhere. “If the Bureau to Point San Luis. does not desire to keep the exhibit intact, this On June 3, 1890, the lighthouse board issued office sees no objection to the lens, clock, and a Notice to Mariners: pedestal being used by the 18th inspector.” Notice is hereby given that, on or about June The offer, however, was not without strings. 30, 1890, a light of the fourth order, showing red The eighteenth district inspector could have and white flashes alternately, with intervals of thirty the apparatus, but he would have to pay for it. seconds between flashes, will be exhibited from This apparently was a deal-breaker. Point San the structure recently erected at San Luis Obispo. Luis never got the Exposition lens; the original Almost from the start, there was concern fourth-order lens, the one manufactured in France about how far out to sea the red flashes could in 1878, remained in the lighthouse tower. be seen. The red glass was too dense and not The lens flashed its welcoming beam from the proper shade. The suggested remedy, to insert panels of clearer red glass like the panels in use at Point Sur, could not be achieved. Better quality red glass could not be found. Finally, in 1912— twenty-two years after the light was first lit—the Bureau of Lighthouses approved changing the “charBoard member and docent Ed Taintor, in his Keeper’s uniform, explaining the acteristic,” or flash operation of the Fresnel lens to tour guests. Photo courtesy of Bob Mihelic pattern, of the light by removing the red glass screens. About September 1890 until 1974 when an automated beacon was 10, 1912, its characteristic was changed to flashing installed on the lighthouse grounds. In 1976, the white only, every twenty seconds. lens was moved for safekeeping to the museum In November 1915, Point San Luis Keeper in San Luis Obispo’s historic Carnegie library. In William Smith traveled to San Francisco to take 1999, it was moved again, this time to the nearby charge of the lighthouse exhibit at the Pana- San Luis Obispo city-county library. Finally, in ma-Pacific International Exposition for three 2010, it was returned to Point San Luis and weeks. installed in a special room inside the fog signal Keepers chosen to staff the lighthouse exhibit building, where docents explain its history and were selected by the Pacific Coast’s lighthouse operation to guests taking lighthouse tours. district inspectors as a reward for faithful service. Those interested in viewing the lens can do so as The keeper’s job was to care for and explain the part of a docent-led virtual tour. Public tours run equipment on display. Wednesdays at 2 p.m. (my805tix.com); private tours Smith returned to Point San Luis in early can be arranged (sanluislighthouse@gmail.com). atascaderomagazine.com | 29