The headlands to the northwest of Trinidad Bay became the home of this lighthouse that graced the California Coast. The tower was only 18 feet high but perched 200 feet from the sea below. Its height allowed its beam to be seen some 20 nautical miles out to sea even though it only housed a 4th order fresnel lens.
The Trinidad Head light fell between Cresent City and Humbolt Bay. By 1871, lumber had replaced the fever for gold mining. Lumber boats came to Trinidad Bay to load up with lumber from the town's two sawmills. To assure their safety a fog signal, a 4,000 pound bell was added in 1898. The platform for the bell was added behind the lighthouse, 70 feet lower than the tower. It had to be built out away from the rocks to allow for a 35 foot drop for the clock work weights used to operate the bell. The keepers had to make their way down the winding path in the fog every two hours to rewind the machinery.
December 31, 1913, a storm washed over Pilot rock (103 feet above the sea). F.L. Harrington recorded, " ... when I observed a sea of unusual hight, then about 200 yards distant, approaching. I watched it as it came in. when it struck the bluff the jar was very heavy, and the sea shot up the face of the bluff and over it, until the solid sea seemed to me to be on a level where I stood in the lantern... The sea itself fell over onto the top of hte bluff and struck the tower on the level with the balcony, making a terrible jar. The whole point was point between the tower andthe bluff was buried in water." Harrington couldn't say whether the lens was thrown off by the jar but he had the light leveled and running in half an hour. It was the only time that the light failed to shine at sunset.
A modern optic replaced the original lens and a fog bell was replaced by an air horn in 1947. The original lens was placed in a replica of the tower.
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