ESE 5.1 8.0 - - - - 29.87 -0.04 57.7 55.8 AT 37.997 N 122.975 W
(37°59'48" N 122°58'30" W)
..
Latitude: 37.69915 N
Longitude: 123.00179 W LIGHTHOUSE
Description: Thirty miles west of San Francisco a collection of small,
rocky islands is found. Discovered by Spaniards, the islands were
given the name Los Farallones, which means small, pointed isles. The
name of the islands has now been Americanized to Farallon Islands. The
largest and tallest of the islands is southeast Farallon, which rises
to a height of 358 feet. It was atop this island that the Farallon
Island Lighthouse was constructed.
Farallon Island Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
Like most of the early California lighthouses, this light was to be of
the Cape Cod design, with the tower protruding through the roof of the
keeper's dwelling. However, due to narrowness of the island's summit,
only a tower was placed atop the peak, while the keeper's quarters was
built on a large plateau on the eastern side of the island. After the
tower was complete, it proved too small to house a first-order Fresnel
lens, and the tower had to be torn down and rebuilt. Hauling the
building supplies up the crumbling slopes was an arduous task. After
staging a sit-down strike, the construction worker's pleas were
answered and a seasick mule named Jack arrived on the island to help
pack the supplies up the steep slope. The lighthouse was lit for the
first time in December of 1855.
Even with the light, in 1858, the ship Lucas foundered on the island
during dense fog, prompting the call for the establishment of a fog
signal. Hartman Bache, who had supervised the construction of the
lighthouse, returned to the island and proceeded to build a novel fog
signal. Intrigued by a large blowhole, Bache harnessed this natural
source of forced air, by placing a whistle atop a chimney constructed
over the blowhole. Unfortunately, the high surf needed to power the
signal did not always coincide with the periods of dense fog. In 1875,
a powerful storm produced a strong surge, which blew the chimney off
its foundation and ended the days of the ingenious fog signal. In the
early 1880s, a more predictable steam siren was put into service on
the island. The signal now required human intervention to produce the
blasts of compressed air, and two Victorian duplexes were constructed
near the original dwelling to house the increase in keepers, who came
to the island with their families.
Farallon Island Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
Life on the islands was difficult. To provide drinking water, a large
cistern was built to catch rainwater collected from the roofs of the
dwellings. As a storm approached, the keepers would scramble up on the
roofs to remove the bird guano and salt residue that would contaminate
the water. At various times, trees were planted to spruce up the
island, but few of them survived for long in the harsh conditions.
Strong gales would pick up small pieces of granite on the island and
sandblast the buildings, requiring gallons and gallons of touch-up
paint.
On Christmas Day, 1898, Royal Beeman, the eleven-year-old son of
Keeper William Beeman became gravely ill. By the next day, it was
clear the child was not suffering from simply too much Christmas
dinner. Royal's mother, Wilhelmina, recalled "He was in constant pain,
moaning and crying pitifully until I could hardly stand it." A violent
storm had been lashing the island for days, but since no supply vessel
was scheduled for some time, Royal's parents decided the only chance
for his survival was to attempt to get him to a hospital in San
Francisco aboard the station's fourteen-foot rowboat that had been
rigged with a homemade sail. Royal was wrapped in blankets and
oilskins and placed in the bottom of the boat. Assistant Keeper Louis
Engelbrecht volunteered to accompany Royal's parents, and the
two-month-old, still nursing Isabel Beeman was the fifth passenger in
the tiny ship.
Wilhelmina gave the following description of the passage: "A rain
squall came up and rain drops as big as ten-cent pieces beat down on
us . . . then the rain changed to hail, and the hailstones clattered
down on us as if someone were shoveling pebbles. The sea washed in on
us several times and we were all shivering and wet." Eight hours after
leaving the island, they reached the San Francisco Lightship, and the
vessel's pilot boat rushed the company to San Francisco. Despite the
heroic trek and the best efforts of a team of doctors, Royal passed
away on January 3rd.
In the early 1900s, a radio station was established on the island by
the Weather Bureau to relay meteorological data to the mainland.
Realizing the prime location of the islands for monitoring ship
traffic, the Navy also came to the island and set up a radio station
in 1913. In 1939, the Coast Guard took over the lighthouse and when
World War II started just a few years later, the population on the
island grew to over seventy. After the war, the Navy left the island,
but the Coast Guard maintained a presence until 1972. A plaque affixed
to the workroom adjacent to the tower notes that the lighthouse was
reconstructed in 1969. By that time, the top of the tower and the
Fresnel lens had been removed, and an automated aero beacon was placed
atop the shortened tower.
Farallon Island Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy San Francisco Public Library
The Farallon Islands have long been a haven for several species of
wildlife, which, for various reasons, have always attracted man to the
islands. During the early 1800s, Russian and Aleutian seal hunters
established a camp on the island where they harvested hundreds of
thousands of seals for their fur and meat. By the mid 1800s, the seal
population had been reduced to the point that the venture was no
longer profitable, and the hunters left the islands. About this time,
the population of San Francisco experienced a growth spurt due to the
influx of gold seekers. A few entrepreneurial men set out from San
Francisco to again exploit the wildlife on the Farallons. This time
the plan was to collect the eggs of the murre, a small seabird, and
sell them back in San Francisco as a food source. A dozen of the eggs,
which reportedly taste quite similar to chicken eggs, could fetch over
a dollar. This enterprise proved quite profitable, and egg pickers
were found traversing the island in search of eggs during the
egg-laying season, which ran from May to July. Competition for the
eggs was fierce, and two men were killed in an armed conflict between
rival groups, which has become known as the Egg War.
Some lighthouse keepers, trying to enhance their meager earnings,
moonlighted as egg pickers on their own account, which added to the
struggle over the eggs. Keeper Amos Clift penned the following to his
brother in October of 1859: "The egg season is in the months of May
and June, and the profits of the Company after all expenses are paid,
is every year from five to six thousand dollars. Quite an item. And if
this Island is Government property, I have a right to these eggs and I
am bound to try and get it." The next June, Clift wrote, "We are now
in the midst of the egg season, and the Egg Company and the Light
Keepers are at war." An armed group of eggers soon tried to force the
keepers from the island, assaulting an assistant keeper in the
process. Keeper Clift was removed shortly thereafter by the Lighthouse
Service for trying to monopolize "the valuable privilege of collecting
eggs." Clift probably didn't miss the island too much as the previous
year he had written, "I'm getting awful tired of this loneliness; it
is almost as bad as the state prison." In 1881, the government
declared sole-ownership of the island, evicted the egg company, and
made egg collecting illegal.
In 1950, census taker Helen Mabbott traveled to Farallon Island where
she made $2.31 for counting the island's thirty residents - seven
cents a head and seven cents for each of the island's three dwellings.
Even with a free trip provided by the Coast Guard, Helen lost $2.88 on
the outing after paying for a new par of nylons, a new hairdo, and a
cleaner's bill for her coat. If that weren't enough, she suffered two
bouts of seasickness and had to climb to the top of the island to
interview a coastguardsman at the lighthouse.
Farallon Island Lighthouse was automated on September 1, 1972, but
Coast Guard personnel remained on the island for three months to
ensure the automated light functioned properly.
Today, the wildlife on the Farallons attracts a friendlier group of
visitors to the islands. Resident researchers, who occupy one of the
keeper's dwellings, study the bird life on the island, while others
man a lookout at the lighthouse and boats offshore to study and
observe the great white sharks and giant blue whales that frequent the
waters. Since the island lacks a good harbor, a large crane is used to
launch a small boat to retrieve visiting biologists brought to the
island aboard larger vessels. Just getting out to these remote islands
is adventure enough, but couple that with a crane ride and one would
have quite the journal entry.
Head Keepers: James Powers (1854 – 1855), Nerva N. Wines (1855 –
1859), Amos Clift (1859 – 1860), Jacob Decker (1860 – 1861), Thomas
Tasker (1861 – 1871), James McCumber (1876 – 1873), S. H. Morse (1873
– 1874), E. R. Barnum (1874 – 1878), William Windsor (1878 – 1880), W.
C. Partlow (1880 – 1881), Andrew W. Livingston (1881 – 1883), Thomas
Owen (1883 – 1886), W. H. Rugg (1886 – 1887), Henry W. Young (1887 –
1890), William A. Beeman (1890 – 1900), Cyrus J. Cain (1900 – 1905),
Charles S. Kaneen (1905), Henry Rosendale (1905 – at least 1912), John
Kunder (1915 – 1920), John Kunder (at least 1930), F. W. Ritchie (at
least 1935), Oliver R. Berg (at least 1940).
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