Pigeon Point is a prominent headland and historic lighthouse site between Bolsa Point to the north and Franklin Point to the south, roughly 25 miles (40 km) north-west of Santa Cruz and five miles (8 km) south of Pescadero, California. The point is named after the Carrier Pigeon, a 175-foot (53 m) clipper ship with a gilded pigeon figurehead, launched at Bath, Maine, in autumn 1852. The headland consists of pebbly sandstone, and mudstone bedrock exposed as wave-cut platforms extending ten miles (16 km) along the coast. These rock formations developed during the Late Cretaceous period (about 100 million to 66 million years ago) as turbiditic submarine fan deposits. They form part of the Salinian Block, a geologic province lying west of the San Andreas Fault system’s main trace, represented at Pigeon Point by the Seal Cove-San Gregorio Fault. Marine terrace deposits cover the bedrock between Bolsa Point and Pigeon Point; these emerged 85,000 to 80,000 years ago, probably through repeated slip earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault.

The first humans settled along California’s coast around 14,000 years ago. In 1769 the first Spanish overland expedition, commanded by Gaspar de Portolá, traveled north from Baja California. Local peoples, including the Quiroste Ohlone near Pigeon Point, provided food along the route. In 1791 Franciscan priest Fermín Francisco de Lasuén established a mission at Santa Cruz, and cattle grazed the marine terraces. After Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1822, the First Mexican Republic secularized the missions and granted large coastal properties to military veterans, influential families and politicians. In 1842 Governor Juan B. Alvarado granted Simeon Castro the 17,753-acre (7,184-ha) Rancho Punta del Año Nuevo. This grant stretched along the Pacific coast from Rancho Butano and Arroyo de los Frijoles in the north, past Pigeon Point and Franklin Point, to Point Año Nuevo in the south. California’s gold rush and subsequent statehood in 1850 attracted settlers who started row-crop farms that continue today.

On January 28th 1853 the Carrier Pigeon departed Boston on her maiden voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco. On the morning of June 6th the vessel was off Santa Cruz, but thick fog developed during the day. The captain, believing he was well clear of land, steered shoreward, struck rocks and sank the ship. At least three more vessels were lost near Pigeon Point in the 1860s. In 1871 a light station was built at Pigeon Point with a white masonry tower 115 feet (35 m) high—one of the tallest lighthouses on America’s west coast, visible 28 miles (44 km) at sea. Since the 1960s the keepers’ housing has served as a hostel for travelers. In 2004 California State Parks and the Peninsula Open Space Trust filed a joint application and were granted ownership of the lighthouse and surrounding land as Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park. Read more here and here. Explore more of Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Pigeon Point here: