In 1862 the Brother Jonathan, a steamer out of San Francisco Bay, crashed on St. George Reef, just south of the Oregon border. Only 19 of 166 or more passengers and crew survived. This reef is part of an underwater volcanic mountain six miles offshore. Heavy spray from waves crashing against rocks can hide them from view. This disaster sparked a campaign to build a lighthouse on the reef, but because of the high cost and perilous working conditions, 30 years passed before the St. George Reef Lighthouse could cast a warning beacon to mariners. It was constructed of massive granite blocks from a quarry on the Mad River, north of Humboldt Bay. A three-ton first-order Fresnel lens, brought from France, beamed from the lantern room atop its 134-foot light tower.

Isolation and extreme weather took a heavy toll on the lighthouse keepers. In 1937, a particularly harsh winter kept the five-man crew cut off from shore for almost two months. The strain was such that they reached a point at which they couldn’t stand to look at or talk to each other. It’s said that at meals they sat facing away from the table, and even asking someone to pass the salt was perceived as a personal attack. When the weather cleared and supplies were delivered, their relations returned to normal. In winter 1952, the harshest on record at the reef, 160-foot waves washed over the lighthouse, shattering a window in the lantern room.

In 1975, a large navigational buoy was anchored near the reef and the lighthouse was decommissioned. The Fresnel lens is now in the Del Norte County Historical Society museum in Crescent City. The St. George Lighthouse Preservation Society, which now owns the lighthouse, offers occasional helicopter rides and tours of what may be the most dangerous lighthouse in the country. You can see it from the shore just north of Crescent City.

For more information contact the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society, headed by Guy Towers, at (707) 464-8299 or go to http://stgeorgereeflighthouse.us/

—HMH