Point Resistance is a headland on Drakes Bay, on the western shore of the Marin Peninsula, at the north end of Kelham Beach in the Phillip Burton Wilderness of Point Reyes National Seashore, about 27 miles (44 km) northwest of San Francisco and 3.5 miles (7 km) southwest of Olema, California. The point was named in 1981 by the US Geological Survey, presumably for the erosion resistance of its rocky outcrop. The submerged part of Point Resistance consists of sedimentary rocks from the late and middle Miocene and may include Santa Cruz Mudstone, San Margarita Sandstone and the Monterey Formation, with shale and sandstone. The exposed part of the point consists of late-Pleistocene marine terrace deposits—sand, gravel and cobbles laid down on wave-eroded platforms and later uplifted to today’s elevations. In January 2023 severe coastal erosion of the bluffs backing Kelham Beach, composed of the same marine terrace deposits as those at Point Resistance, made the beach inaccessible. Point Reyes has a long history of human occupation: the Coast Miwok lived on the peninsula for thousands of years. Their traditional diet includes several species of fish (such as halibut and rockfish) and invertebrates (including crabs, clams, mussels, abalone and oysters).

The first European explorers to land in northern California came ashore in 1579 with the Francis Drake Expedition, in an area now known as Drakes Estero. The fertile land near Drakes Estero was subsequently settled by Spanish colonists during the Mission period, until Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. Rancho Punta de los Reyes Sobrante was a Mexican land grant of 48,189 acres (19,501 ha) awarded by Governor Manuel Micheltorena in 1843 to Antonio Maria Osio. It comprised much of what is now the western portion of Point Reyes National Seashore, with the southern boundary at or near Point Resistance. In 1850 Osio sold the rancho to Andrew Randall, who had financial trouble and was fatally shot by Joseph Hetherington in 1856. Title to the land then became ensnared in litigation and eventually passed to the San Francisco law firm Shafter, Shafter, Park, and Heydenfeldt. The Shafter family developed the fertile part of the property into dairy farms that led the state in dairy production into the 1890s. Members of the Shafter family owned major portions of Point Reyes from 1857 to 1939. The first Point Reyes property to leave the Shafter family was the estate of Charles Webb Howard, which included uplands adjacent to Point Resistance. In 1919 Howard’s four children disagreed on how to share the estate and sold it to John G. Rapp of San Francisco. In 1925 Rapp traded the ranch for valuable shares in a wholesale hardware business, transferring it to Colonel Jesse Langdon. The Langdon family lost most of its wealth during the Great Depression but remained on the ranch until 1943, when they were evicted following its sale to Eugene Compton of Nevada. In 1949 Compton sold the ranch to Grace H. Kelham, heiress to the Spreckels sugar fortune. She operated a cattle ranch near Point Resistance, grazing animals there until the National Park Service purchased the property in 1963.

In 1999 California began a historic effort to establish a science-based, statewide network of marine protected areas, in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California State Parks. These areas conserve and restore wildlife and habitats in the ocean, much as state and national parks protect them on land. Point Resistance is surrounded by tidepools and a shallow intertidal zone filled with surfgrass, sea stars, mussels, barnacles, owl limpets and small fish. A few hundred feet off the mainland lies Point Resistance Rock Special Closure. The goal of such closure sites is to minimize human disturbance at significant marine mammal haulouts and seabird rookeries by restricting boating and access, seasonally or year-round. Point Resistance is an important feeding area and nesting habitat for common murres, which are highly vulnerable while breeding because both parents invest heavily—spending 90 to 135 days raising a single chick each season. The special closure is intended to protect this nesting habitat and its abundant food resources, improving the survival prospects of both parents and young. Read more here and here. Explore more of Point Resistance and Point Reyes National Seashore here: