The Piedras Blancas Lighthouse has been standing tall on San Simeon’s coastline for nearly 150 years. Now, its original lens that sits in Cambria, is in danger of structural damage.
Ryan Cooper is with the Bureau of Land Management. We met at Piedras Blancas back in November.
“That rock, that's our namesake. That's Piedra Blanca, it means White Rock,” Cooper said.
It was a bright sunny day in San Simeon with the lighthouse towering over us. He was showing me around when he pointed at large rocks sitting in the ocean water, surrounded by marine animals.
“...And that's right now covered in thousands of birds and there's some sea lions on the bottom,” Cooper said.
Cooper said the lighthouse was built in 1875 to help mariners navigate the coast.
“They didn't have all the electronics and the technology that we have today,” Cooper said.
But the lighthouse isn’t used for navigation anymore. What was once a helpful piece of machinery, is now a beautiful memory.
The Piedras Blancas Lighthouse is not preserved exactly how it was in 1875. Its original lens now resides in Cambria, under protection of SLO County’s Coast Guard and the Cambria Lion’s Club.
Cooper described it poetically.
“I always called it a work of art. It's a 150 year old piece of machinery, it's beautiful. The cast iron and the glass that's all been beautifully ground down. It's worth a look to go check it out,” Cooper said.
The lens used to sit unprotected and out in the open. Now it sits in its own room called the Lens Lantern Room, a window enclosure placed around the lens to protect it from weather and vandalism.
Recently the enclosure was inspected by a local engineer, Bruce Elster. He has engineered some of the Central Coast’s most iconic landmarks, like the Cayucos Pier.
In his engineers report he declared the Lens Lantern Room to be quote, “in a state of severe deterioration,” unquote. Elster said the room that’s meant to protect it is deteriorating so rapidly it's in danger of collapsing on the historical lens.
The Lens Lantern Room is nearly 30 years old and made of light gauge tube steel. Elster said this means it's not fully weather resistant.
“So essentially the enclosure is believed to be sitting on the concrete slab without any resistance to sliding or overturning that maybe generated from seismic or high wind events,” Elster said.
Elster said erosion is building throughout the structure particularly in the base because of heavy rain. And after the Central Coast was hit by a series of atmospheric rivers, one of the panels on top of the enclosure flew off due to high winds.
He said the enclosure will continue to fall apart and possibly collapse on the lens if we continue to do nothing about it.
Elster said there are different ways to handle this problem. We can either ignore the damage and let it collapse on the lens, or send it into an environment that provides safety, security, humidity, temperature and UV control.
And another option is to hide it under plywood.
“So that you stabilize the environment, but you take away the public's ability to observe the lens,” Elster said.
He said these options probably wouldn’t sit right with Central Coast locals since they include getting rid of it, or hiding it away.
And, because the Coast Guard is responsible for looking after the lens, Elster said there is not too much he can do.
For now he is attempting to reconstruct another enclosure. It’s only meant to survive for five years, to give the Coast Guard time to figure out what to do with the lens.
“The Coast Guard has been really clear that they want the enclosure to be remediated or upgraded such that it provides a museum quality environment for the lens, which would include not just structural stability, but humidity and temperature control UV protection from sunlight,” Elster said.
It may sound silly freaking out over what to do with an old lighthouse lens, but it matters to people around here.
Scott Addis is with the Cambria Lion’s Club. They are helping the Coast Guard look after the lens.
“The lens was actually crafted back and you know 1784 so came from Paris France and it is one of the largest of the series of fresnel lenses that were ever placed in lighthouses around the country,” Addis said.
Locals don’t just see a lens, they see a history with stories of mariners, and a beautiful coastline.
Ryan Cooper from BLM said the lighthouse itself is a pretty special place right in our own backyard.
“We get so many first time visitors out here and I think people don't realize how neat it is. Not only just the historic buildings, but just being out here on the point where there's really no human disruption,” Cooper said.
To schedule a tour and learn more about the history of the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse visit piedrasblancas.org. The original lens sits in the Lens Lantern Room on Cambria’s Main Street.
