Point Resistance is a headland on Drakes Bay at the north end of Kelham Beach in the Phillip Burton Wilderness of Point Reyes National Seashore and on the western shore of the Marin Peninsula, 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 U.S. Geological Survey, presumably for the erosion resistance of the rocky point. The submerged part of the point 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 aerial part of the point consists of marine terrace deposits from the late Pleistocene with sand, gravel, and cobbles that were deposited on wave eroded platforms and later uplifted to present-day elevations. In January 2023, severe coastal erosion of the bluffs backing Kelham Beach, which are composed of the same marine terrace deposits as at Point Resistance, made the beach inaccessible. Point Reyes has a long history of human occupation. The Coast Miwok people lived on the peninsula for thousands of years. The traditional Coast Miwok diet consists of several species of fish including halibut and rockfish, and invertebrates such as 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) given 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. Thereafter, title to the land became ensnared in litigation and was eventually passed on 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 state dairy production by volume into the 1890s. Members of the Shafter family owned major portions of Point Reyes from 1857 to 1939. The first of the Point Reyes property to leave the Shafter family included the estate of Charles Webb Howard, which included the uplands adjacent to Point Resistance. In 1919, his four children disagreed on how to share the estate, and sold to John G. Rapp of San Francisco. In 1925, Rapp traded the ranch for valuable shares in a wholesale hardware business to Colonel Jesse Langdon. The Langdon familys lost most of their wealth during the Great Depression. They managed to stay on the ranch until 1943 when they were evicted after the ranch was sold to Eugene Compton of Nevada. In 1949, Compton sold the ranch to Grace H. Kelham, heiress to the Spreckels sugar fortune. They operated a cattle ranch near Point Resistance, grazing animals there until the National Park Service purchased the ranch in 1963.
In 1999, California began a historic effort to establish a science-based, statewide network of marine protected areas through a collaborative effort that includes the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California State Parks. Marine protected areas conserve and restore wildlife and habitats in the ocean, similar to state and national parks that protect wildlife and habitats 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. Point Resistance Rock Special Closure is situated a few hundred feet off the mainland coast. The goal of special 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 that are extremely vulnerable while breeding due to the heavy investment by both parents, that dedicate 90 to 135 days to raising one chick each breeding season. The special closure is intended to protect the nesting habitat and abundant food sources to improve the survival of both parents and young. Read more here and here. Explore more of Point Resistance and Point Reyes National Seashore here: