Photograph of Point Arena Light — Photograph by Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Point Arena Light Station

Built in 1870. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1943.

From the record

“Point Arena Light is a lighthouse in Mendocino County, California, United States, two miles (3 km) north of Point Arena, California. It is approximately 130 mi (210 km) north of San Francisco, in the Fort Point Group of lighthouses.”
Wikipedia article Point Arena Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 42 National Register listings published here for Mendocino County · listed in 1991 · category: District · built in 1870.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Lighthouse Rd., Point Arena, 95468
When was it listed? July 1991
Category. district
Also known as. Point Arena MPS
Census division. Point Arena
When was it built? 1870
National Register reference number. 90002189 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

66 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of Point Arena Light Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 108 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	20
Debris and open burning	17
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Recreation and ceremony	5
Arson/incendiarism	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Other causes	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Smoking	2
Natural	1
Fireworks	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2000	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Central California Agency	PT.ARENA
7 September 2000	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Central California Agency	WNDY
3 September 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Northern California District	WINDY
29 September 1997	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Mendocino Unit	WINDY
28 September 1998	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Mendocino Unit	BIA #9
23 September 1995	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Central California Agency	BIA #25
2 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Northern California District	MINER
13 September 2001	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Mendocino Unit	KINNY

Every fire recorded in Mendocino County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Point Arena Light Station: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Ellison Gravel Company	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Garcia Creek Pit & Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Mendocino County

Maps showing this location

9 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1943 USGS Point Arena quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1947 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
1949 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS Point Arena quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1960 USGS Point Arena quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
1964 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:250000
1981 USGS Point Arena quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Manchester Schoolhouse	3.0 miles	1979
Arena Cove Historic District	3.3 miles	1990
Point Arena High School	3.6 miles	1990
E. P. and Clara Gillmore House	3.7 miles	1990
St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church	3.8 miles	1990
LeGrand Morse House	3.9 miles	1990

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 90002189 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mendocino County	All 42 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.