Saving a Sentinel
After eight months hidden by construction scaffolding, the Pigeon Point Lighthouse is once again visible as the sun sets in the west on Jan. 29.
Sam Cansdale strips paint from the brass fixture that once allowed heat from the burning oil that powered the original beacon to escape.
Steve Espinosa and Patrick Barry cut away rotted iron railing from the upper deck of the rusting structure Oct. 30.
Like mountain goats atop the 115-foot tall lighthouse roof, Sam Cansdale, Mike Armstrong and J.P. Pelletier gently remove the gas vent ball Sept. 5.
The crew renovating the Pigeon Point Lighthouse pause on the 136 cast iron steps that lead to the sentinel’s lantern room Friday. Julie Barrow, special projects coordinator for state parks, third from left, and foreman J.P. Pelletier, second from right, head the crew. Nine months into the two-year, $18 million project, the treads will be painted during the final phase.
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The Pigeon Point Lighthouse has long kept a lonely vigil along the rugged coastline of San Mateo County, protecting ships from the fate that befell the clipper Carrier Pigeon, which capsized here in 1853. But even as a century and a half of harsh elements ate away its bricks and iron and modern seafaring technology, rendering it a mere anachronism, preservation advocates and the California State Parks have joined together on a multiyear project to save the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States.
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