Piedras Blancas Light Station

Built in 1875. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1919.

From the record

“Piedras Blancas Light Station is located at Point Piedras Blancas, about 5.5 miles (9 km) west by northwest of San Simeon, California. It was added to the California Coastal National Monument in 2017.”
Wikipedia article Piedras Blancas Light Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 32 National Register listings published here for San Luis Obispo County · listed in 1991 · category: District · built in 1875.

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

The listing

Address. CA 1 on Point Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, 93452
When was it listed? September 1991
Category. district
Also known as. Light Stations of California MPS
Census division. North Coast
When was it built? 1875
National Register reference number. 91001095 - 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

15 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Piedras Blancas Light Station between 1993 and 2018, burning about 142 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Recreation and ceremony	3
Smoking	1
Debris and open burning	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
2 September 2014	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	San Luis Obispo Unit	SEAL
28 August 1996	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	San Luis Obispo Unit	3225
27 August 1997	Smoking	7.0 acres	San Luis Obispo Unit	SAN SIMEON
15 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Central California District	SLU6587
17 July 2005	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Central California District	HEALEY
8 June 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Central California District	UNNAMED FIRE 1896
31 May 2014	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	San Luis Obispo Unit	not named
21 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	PIEDRAS

Every fire recorded in San Luis Obispo County

Maps showing this location

10 surveys

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

1919 USGS Piedras Blancas quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1927 USGS Piedras Blancas quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1947 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
1948 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
1956 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000 - 5 printings
1957 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Piedras Blancas quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1959 USGS Piedras Blancas quadrangle1:62500
1980 USGS Cambria quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

1 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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Hearst San Simeon Estate	6.6 miles	1972

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 91001095 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
San Luis Obispo County	All 32 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.