Franklin Point is located in Año Nuevo State Reserve, 7.3 miles (11.7km) south-southeast of Pescadero and 22 miles (35.4km) northwest of Santa Cruz, California. It is named after the clipper ship Sir John Franklin, which ran aground there in dense fog in 1865. Today, Franklin Point and Franklin Point Beach are popular destinations, accessible via a trail through natural vegetation in the northern part of Año Nuevo State Reserve. The reserve hosts a large colony of northern elephant seals that come ashore to give birth and mate from mid-December through March.

Sir John Franklin was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who disappeared in 1847 while attempting to chart the Northwest Passage. On January 17, 1865, a ship named in his honor was bound for San Francisco when it struck rocks off the point in heavy fog. The ship was destroyed, and the captain along with eleven sailors died. Only six bodies were recovered; the seamen were buried on the point, while the officers were laid to rest in San Francisco. A monument was erected at Franklin Point to commemorate the lost lives, especially in memory of Edward J. Church, a 16-year-old crewman.

In 1980, dune erosion exposed buried human remains, prompting an archaeological excavation in 1982 that removed four burials. A subsurface survey in 1993 identified more burial sites, and further dune erosion in 1997 exposed additional remains. Excavations in 1999 uncovered nearly complete skeletons of two adult males in redwood coffins. Artifacts included a pocket knife and an iron ring. The burials were contemporaneous and believed to be victims of the same shipwreck, though the specific ship remains unidentified. The four coffin burials found in 1982 likely belonged to ordinary seamen from the wreck of Sir John Franklin. The 1999 burials could be from the November 24, 1866, wreck of the Coya, which killed 27 people, 13 of whom were buried on the point, or the November 21, 1868, wreck of the Hellespont, which claimed 11 lives. Read more here and here. Explore more of Franklin Point and Año Nuevo State Reserve here: