SLO County’s first lighthouse changed hands 20 years ago. This is why
Fall is nostalgia time, offering a last look back at the year before we head into the hard-core holiday season.
Oct. 12 marked the 20th anniversary of the changing of the guard at the Piedras Blancas Light Station. Located off Highway 1 about 6.5 miles north of San Simeon, San Luis Obispo County’s first lighthouse offers stunning views.
The lighthouse was built at 15950 Cabrillo Highway by the U.S. Lighthouse Board in 1874 and was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939.
By the 1990s, the guard was downsizing its costly lighthouse responsibilities and began searching for another agency to take over the Piedras Blancas station, which was the preferred option.
A trio of U.S. Bureau of Land Management chaps came to Cambria to check the 18-acre promontory site, the tower and other buildings — already designated as being of national historic significance — and to canvas community sentiment.
As soon as they strode into The Cambrian’s office, we knew BLM had sent the right fellas for the job, with John Bogacki’s contagious enthusiasm, construction knowledge and head full of ideas; Bob Rheiner’s quieter way of making things work and Ron Fellows’ in-depth research, schmoozing ability and steadying hand.
The Piedras project “was the highlight of my career,” Bogacki said via phone recently, his voice full of emotion has he discussed accomplishments at the lighthouse site.
The three men were great listeners skilled at connecting with people, hearing their concerns responding to questions, and when asked, acknowledging when they didn’t know something but were more than willing to find the answers.
Piedras Blancas Light Station transferred to BLM control
On October 12, 2001, Piedras Blancas Light Station was officially transferred to BLM control.
A formal transition ceremony was held on May 25, 2002, and a new areo beacon was installed atop the tower and lit, replacing the faded blinks from a smaller, inadequately bright light that had been substituted for the stronger beams of the original First Order Fresnel lens.
The Coast Guard had removed the Fresnel lens in 1949, because of tower damage. The lens is on display alongside Cambria’s Veterans Memorial Building, housed in a special, glass enclosure that’s in dire need of repairs.
It’s usually not a cause for public celebration when one government entity assumes from another the supervision and control of something or other.
That certainly wasn’t the case 20 years ago on that warm, sunny October afternoon. With a festive dedication ceremony, the public land agency formally assumed responsibility for managing, maintaining, repairing and showcasing the light station and its historic buildings.
The shared joy that day was palpable.
There have been so many accomplishments between then and now.
Former U.S. Rep. Lois Capps eventually got the light station included in the California Coastal National Monument and then, in 2008, arm-twisted Congress into designating the site and some additional acreage as a U.S. national outstanding natural area.
Other key players included then-San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Shirley Bianchi, her legislative aide Richard Macedo, various members of the Cambria Historical Society and BLM official Mike Pool. Former manager Jim Boucher forged his own legacy at the light station, followed by current manager Ryan Cooper.
BLM is continuing to restore the light station and tower to their former glory. Public tours of the property restarted in February after a coronavirus-related closure.
Memories of San Simeon lighthouse
Many people love the station and its truncated lighthouse with no lantern room. .
Between my job as a reporter for The Cambrian and my work volunteering for the historical sociaty, I’ve been lucky to be out there off and on for nearly 30 years.
I first saw the site from afar in 1970, and was on the point itself first in 1991, interviewing scientists there. I’ve been at the top of the lighthouse tower several times, and what a view it has!
The years leading up to the 20th anniversary produced so many memorable images.
I can vividly picture Carole Adams and her valiant troupe of volunteers pulling up and hauling away so much invasive ice plant that they were honored nationally and locally for their efforts. They’ve since encouraged the growth of native plant life, identifying and labeling key specimens.
Those volunteers have worked hard to restore the historic buildings and improve the trails around them.
As Adams wrote in a recent email to volunteers, “We will never forget the teamwork and positive energy that provided the foundation for success.”
“We would have not gotten to first base without the volunteer effort that went into that job,” Bogacki said. “We had more than 100 of them at one time, including self-trained biologists, cultural-history people, talented builders … everything we needed to get started without a budget ... The community did it. We were just the ones who opened the gate in the morning.”
There are overlapping memories of Bogacki in his lightkeeper’s uniform, leading the first public tours. He was surrounded by dedicated, costumed volunteers —including the late Abel Martinez and his wife, Toni Martinez — all of them anxious to show off their prized area.
Pool is in my Piedras Blancas memory bank, too. I recall him exulting about the beauty of the site as he addressed the first meeting of the Piedras Blancas Light Station Association, which I attended as a founding member.
We all honor Boucher’s quiet, dogged devotion to the light station, its terrain and his plans for making it better.
Sometimes, I feel the late BLM manager’s soul beside me on the 1.9-mile trail that bears his name, leading from the north end of the elephant seal rookery to a half mile north of the light station.
I also have years of memories of Wayne Perryman and his collaborator biologists, doggedly counting mom and baby gray whale pairs heading north past the point each spring.
But the aftermatch of the 2001 dedication ceremony stands out in my memory. Many of us were unspeakably thrilled as we watched as the new aero beacon beam its strong light through the night sky for the first time.
As I wrote to a friend the next morning, “John Bogacki told me that, after we all left the lighthouse about 9 p.m. or so, he and his wife Toppy pulled over by the side of the road to watch the light, and they both wound up in tears. While Ron Fellows drove, Mike Pool ‘craned his neck all the way to San Simeon,’ John said.”
May that intense BLM devotion and pride continue to keep the lights on, tours and repairs happening and the future bright at Piedras Blancas Light Station.
For tour information, go to www.piedrasblancas.org/tours.html.
For more about the history of the Piedras Blancas lighthouse, check out past Photos from the Vault columns at https://bit.ly/3btwldM and https://bit.ly/3EvF5wq.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 5:05 AM.
