September 1867 a tender Shubrick came north to drop off materials and men to build the light. It was shipwrecked thirty miles to the south. A second ship made the journey a couple of months later and successfully dropped off the much needed supplies and men. One year later a barn, a brick house and a carpenter shop stood at the site. Two hundred yards down the hillside and 422 feet above the sea a concrete slab was built to hold the light tower.
Joseph Bein, built the tower in San Francisco. It was constructed of sixteen iron panels that were assembled at the site. The lantern was delivered to Eureka and loaded on to wagons and hauled 40 miles south to the site rather than risk damage by a direct delivery. The first order Fresnel light first shown on December 1, 1868.
It was a difficult site at best. It was battered by winds, shook by earthquakes regularly. Six dwellings had to be built to support it. In its first decade, an earthquake shook the first dwelling to the ground. In 1873 an earthquake ripped the ground open 15 feet from the tower. The keepers filled the split with concrete. The wind blew down chimneys and broke windows. It took three keepers to keep the light at Cape Mendocino.
1896, the Lighthouse Board described the dwellings at Cape Mendocino as " almost uninhabitable on account of its bad and unsanitary conditions." It was too small to accommodate all of the keepers. The 1906 earthquake did further damage to the site and required that two additional buildings be added to the complex.
The Coast Guard took over in 1939. The light was automated in 1951 and the Fresnel Lens was sent to Ferndale at the Humbolt County Fairgrounds. By 1960, the wooden structures at the site burned to the ground. A modern optic now stands at the site. The tower still stands at the site but has been damaged by vandals. There is talk of dismantling the tower and restoring it.
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Cape Mendocino Lighthouse Preservation Society -Shelter Cove