24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY APRIL 3-9, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com volunteers put in additional work, assisting the lampist by building specially designed wooden crates to safely store the disassembled lens. “I think [the U.S. Coast Guard doesn’t] have the capacity for managing these lenses,” says Matt Bischoff, cultural resources manager of California State Parks Monterey District. “We have that expertise. So in our case, it makes sense that we manage and maintain it for them.” With the lens in storage and knowing that Point Sur would be interested in having it, CCLK members approached the museum curator for the U.S. Coast Guard to inquire about returning the lens. The curator agreed: The Fresnel lens could go back into the lighthouse, provided several conditions were met. CCLK had to prove that the lighthouse could safely house the lens as an artifact, not just as a piece of equipment. “Our nonprofit actually flew the curator out here so she could meet with us and see what we could do,” O’Neil says. “They convinced her that we could take the lens and put it back in the tower, you know, make it like a museum.” Despite the hurdles, O’Neil explains this story simply, just a matter of process and time. Restore the bridges, retrieve the required permitting—protecting a rare blue butterfly in the process—and last, but certainly not least: seismically retrofit the lighthouse building. The bridges were restored to ensure safe passage and facilitate the transport of materials, forcing tours to shut down for about 14 months. Just as the light station was set to reopen, the pandemic extended the closure. The butterfly habitat—there was a pause. “We had some kind of buckwheat along the road and hillside, and that is habitat for the rare Smith’s blue butterfly,” O’Neil says. “It’s kind of a ‘don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to,’ but it ended up costing millions.” As part of bridge renovation permits, CCLK paid thousands to the state’s only approved blue butterfly expert to prove there were no Smith’s blue butterflies, despite the presence of buckwheat. The expert found no butterflies—a hurdle CCLK and State Parks officials thought was cleared. But the required authorization letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service never reached the right hands in time, O’Neil says, stalling the process. Missing the deadline set off a chain reaction of delays, ultimately costing them their contractor and increasing the cost four-fold. What was initially estimated to cost a little over $1 million—to reconstruct the five bridges—ended up costing around $4 million. “We need to comply with a variety of state laws and policies, and protect all resources, not just cultural,” Bischoff says. “The Smith’s blue butterfly habitat is just one of the resources that we’re charged with caring for. So it can be a very difficult environment.” Five planting sessions and $500,000 later, State Parks officials had successfully planted the buckwheat in a place where the wind and sand would not cover their efforts. To this day, volunteers with CCLK have never seen a blue butterfly. The biggest challenge—and the reason it’s taken so long to return the lens to the lighthouse—lies in the need to retrofit the structure for seismic activity, yet preserve its historic integrity. State Parks and CCLK have been working with an engineer to finalize the treatment, navigating through a complex set of plans to fortify the buildings on Point Sur against earthquakes, ensuring both the lighthouse and its iconic lens are protected from catastrophic damage. The engineer, as it turns out, is actually a descendant of one of the lighthouse keepers. “It’s not just about the lens, it’s about the lighthouse. It’s a beautiful building with an incredible story to tell, and we need to preserve that artifact as well as the lens,” Bischoff says. “It’s a tough balance, it really is.” A daunting task, but CCLK and State Parks believe seismic retrofitting is not only possible—even in a rugged place like Point Sur—but possibly achievable within the next year or two. The initial cost estimate was $1.5 million, though Bischoff notes those numbers will be refined as plans are finalized. “You can’t protect 100 percent—if the epicenter is right under the rock, there’s no guarantee. But you mitigate risks as best you can with the least impact on the building,” he adds. The irony in all of this is that, to this day, the lens sits in storage in Monterey in crates custom built by CCLK. It begs the question: What is the true worth of such an artifact? And whether, if taken elsewhere and brought out of storage, this massive piece of equipment would carry with it the same meaning. Fresnel lenses exist all over the world that have belonged to their own lighthouses, but this one is Point Sur’s. For those who visit Point Sur, the journey is intentional. Visitors go out of their way to show up early for firstcome, first-serve tours, waiting alongside Highway 1 after a drive of sometimes hours along the coast, then hike up 300 feet to learn about the lighthouse, the keepers, the Fresnel lens and the rock itself. Point Sur has also appeared on television, most famously in the paranormal investigation series Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, as well as in California’s Gold, hosted by Huell Howser in 2000. Perhaps, in a future without CCLK, if the condition of the lighthouse were in shambles, there could be some justification for the lens to remain in crates, waiting for someone to care for it. Still, after the millions of dollars spent, the restoration of butterfly habitats for species never actually seen in Big Sur’s sandy, windy environment, the lens remains unseen, locked away. Lighthouses and their history are found in places like Point Sur. They’ve always been in relatively rugged, remote locations. If Point Sur can’t be seismically retrofitted to survive an earthquake, might it not be the most fitting fate for the lens to stay where it belongs, in the place that suits it best? Alternatively, if the group had existed at the time of its removal, would the lens still be sitting in the tower today, with no renovations, no alarm systems and no seismic retrofitting plans in place? While the U.S. Coast Guard is technically responsible for such artifacts, its care and fate have largely been in the hands of the volunteer group. These queries are not necessarily those of the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers—though O’Neil does not wholly disagree. In any event, the group trudges onward, close yet still far from reclaiming the magic of their lens. “These lenses are very valuable,” O’Neil says. “But [the lighthouse] is where it belongs.” PAST TO PRESENT A brief history of key dates in the timeline of Point Sur Lighthouse. 1849: The discovery of gold changes everything in California 1866: Point Sur is set aside for a future lighthouse by the U.S. Lighthouse Service 1887: Construction on the Point Sur lighthouse begins 1889: The light in the tower is officially lit 1939: The U.S. Coast Guard replaces the Lighthouse Service 1972: The station is automated and the keepers become unnecessary 1978: The Fresnel lens is disassembled and moved to the Allen Knight Museum, in the basement of the Monterey Museum of Art 1984: State Parks acquires the lighthouse from the U.S. Coast Guard 1986: Point Sur State Historic Park is established 1987: Volunteers begin to give tours at the site 1992: The Fresnel lens is moved to the Maritime Museum of Monterey 1993: The Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers is established 2001: CCLK restores the lantern room 2017: The lens is moved into storage with State Parks in Monterey 2019: All five bridges at the location are fixed A docent stands next to one of the newly renovated bridges, one of the tasks the CCLK took on after Point Sur fell into disrepair, and one of the requirements needed to ensure the lens could return safely to the lighthouse. KATIE RODRIGUEZ
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==