Like most of the California coast, this section has many large rocks on or just off the beach. The beach sand is dark due to the type of rock that forms its shoreline. The beaches are littered with driftwood resulting from heavy logging activity nearby and debris being carried to the sea by the many rivers. The area is noted for seals and migrating whales that pass just off shore twice a year, but I didn't see either during my brief stay here.
For an important fishing community, the town's harbor was treacherous to enter at night, and passing ships had to navigate far off shore to avoid disaster. In 1855, Congress authorized $15,000 for construction of a lighthouse on Battery Point. The lighthouse survived many storms, as well as the tsunami created by the 1964 earthquake in Alaska. The keeper and his wife were outside that night and witnessed water being sucked out of the basin for some three-quarters of a mile, then being returned in a twenty foot wave, Eleven people were killed, twenty-one boats destroyed and 91 homes damaged by the tsunami. Remarkably, the keeper and his wife survived to tell about it. The lighthouse has been decommissioned, but still serves as a private aid to navigation.
The town has some neat murals on commercial buildings. I especially liked the one showing mountain man Jedediah Smith in the nearby redwoods, and the one depicting the Battery Point lighthouse. The second lighthouse shown in the mural is actually located six miles up the coast and I never saw it.
Some random things found while driving around the area: a small herd of elk; a beautiful rhododendron bush in full bloom; and, a thunderhead developing off shore that would later bring more rain.
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