Point Sur Light Station stands on a 361-foot volcanic rock above the Big Sur coast in California, connected to the mainland by a strip of sand. For nearly a century keepers and their families lived on the rock, cut off from the road, and a volunteer docent says some of those families still linger. The ghost stories are recent and come from a small number of volunteers. The history is much better documented, and in places dramatic. This post keeps the two apart.
What the record shows
California State Parks says the lighthouse was first lit on August 1, 1889, and has operated continuously since. It stands on a rock that Lighthousefriends, a lighthouse history site, describes as a tombolo, a rock tied to the shore by low land that water has sometimes swept across, cutting it off. A Lighthouse Board report from 1874, quoted by that site, called Point Sur “a most important point” for a light, because about sixty miles of coast lay dark between two existing towers. A steamship, the Ventura, ran aground in dense fog just north of the point on April 20, 1875, and although all 225 passengers were saved, the ship was lost. Congress funded the station in 1886 and 1887, and a first-order Fresnel lens made in Paris lit it from the sandstone tower.
Life on the rock was isolated. Highway 1 was not completed through this stretch until 1937, according to both Lighthousefriends and KQED, so supplies came by lighthouse tender about every four months, and a doctor was a four-hour horseback ride away in Monterey. KQED adds that early residents had to climb nearly 400 stairs and trek several miles to reach a county road. Keepers’ children were taught by a live-in teacher until a one-room school went up near the highway. During World War II, roughly forty men were stationed on the rock to help protect the coast.
The coast here has been hard on ships and aircraft. KQED says more than a dozen shipwrecks have happened nearby, and the Navy airship USS Macon went down in a squall in February 1935, within sight of the station. Lighthousefriends quotes the head keeper’s testimony before a Navy inquiry on how the airship’s fin failed. The station was automated in 1972, and State Parks says keepers and families lived on the site until 1974. Parks took over most of the buildings in 1984, and the Coast Guard transferred the lighthouse itself to State Parks in 2004. State Parks describes the park as the only complete turn-of-the-century light station open to the public in California.
The legend
The ghost stories come mostly from a volunteer docent interviewed by KQED in 2018 and, to a lesser extent, from another volunteer. As reported:
- A recorded voice: The first docent says she picks up voices on a tape recorder, including a female voice saying “Pokey, go to bed.” She attributes it to a Danish-born keeper’s wife who lived there and was speaking to her daughter.
- A greeting at the door: She knocks and asks permission before entering the head keeper’s house, and says the spirit of a former resident named Ruth stays in the kitchen and closes doors there.
- A figure on the stairs: Another volunteer, who describes herself as a former skeptic, says she saw a woman in turn-of-the-century dress on a stairway landing, who turned, looked at her and vanished. She also reports a man looking in through the living room window.
- A device that answered: During the radio interview a ghost-hunting box called an Ovilus produced words, including a name, in the former blacksmith shop.
Wikipedia adds that the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures investigated the lighthouse, and that it was rumored to be haunted. The ghosts, as the first docent tells it, are friendly. “Nothing evil or malevolent ever happened here,” she told KQED.
What the record does not support
No source reviewed documents a death at Point Sur that would explain a haunting, and the volunteers who tell these stories do not claim one. The identification of the voices as particular keepers’ relatives is the docent’s own reading of her recordings, which KQED played but did not independently verify. KQED describes the Ovilus as a ghost-hunting device with a dictionary of about 3,000 words, and reports no independent check of what it said.
The story is not universally accepted on the rock. KQED notes that the docent runs a ghost-hunting tour on weekends before Halloween that raises money for restoration, and that some other docents do not believe her tales. The reporter also writes that it was hard to tell whether any of it was a trick for Halloween, because rooms had been decorated with fake skeletons and witch hats. The same article reports a “weird static buzz” and a twitching plastic skeleton hand, which are experiences, not evidence.
Some historical details also differ by source. Wikipedia places the National Register listing in 1991, while Lighthousefriends says 1980. Wikipedia says the northern part of Highway 1 was completed in 1924, while KQED and Lighthousefriends say the road reached the area in 1937. These likely describe different stretches of road or different actions, but the sources do not reconcile them. The date of the Macon’s crash is given as February 12 by Lighthousefriends and February 13 in a Wikipedia list, which is why the post says only February 1935.
Visiting
State Parks lists the site as closed to the public except by guided tour, with the tours led by volunteers, and publishes (831) 625-4419 for information. Lighthousefriends says access was closed in 2019 while bridges on the road to the site were repaired, and that the pandemic closed the site again after docents were trained; in 2021 the state budgeted $4.5 million for more bridge repairs. No tour times or fees are given here because they change and the park’s own pages are not consistent on details such as the distance from Carmel. Check State Parks and the nonprofit Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers before planning a trip.
The route is steep and exposed. State Parks describes the lightstation walk as strenuous, steep and unshaded, and notes that the weather changes quickly, with layered clothing advised. The first-order lens is not in the tower: Lighthousefriends reports it has been in storage since 2017, pending seismic work on the lighthouse.
Frequently asked questions
Is Point Sur Lighthouse haunted?
Two volunteers have told reporters so, and a Travel Channel program has filmed there, but neither is independent evidence. No source documents a death or an event that would explain a haunting.
Who are the ghosts said to be?
Former residents, according to a volunteer docent: a keeper’s wife and daughter, a woman named Ruth, and others. These are her own interpretations.
Can the public visit Point Sur Lighthouse?
State Parks says the site is closed to the public except by guided tour, and access has been interrupted in recent years. Check with State Parks first.
Why was a lighthouse built at Point Sur?
The Lighthouse Board said in 1874 that about sixty miles of coast between two existing towers had no major light.
More haunted lighthouses: Point Vicente Light (Los Angeles, CA) and St. Augustine Lighthouse (FL).
Sources
- KQED, The California Report, 2018: “A Lighthouse So Beautiful, Ghosts Come Back to Haunt It”: the ghost stories as told by volunteers, plus station history.
- Lighthousefriends: Point Sur Lighthouse: detailed construction, keeper and access history.
- California State Parks: Point Sur State Historic Park: the park’s description, access status and tour information.
- Wikipedia: Point Sur Lighthouse: background, designations and the Ghost Adventures mention.
Top image: Point Sur Light Station, lighthouse as seen from the south, Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons