Tier 1
Battery Point Lighthouse
Battery Point Light Station
Crescent City · Del Norte County · North Coast
The tsunami survival story is one of the most dramatic in California lighthouse history. The tidal island setting — walk across at low tide, stranded at high tide — is unlike any other California lighthouse experience. The museum inside the original keeper's dwelling is excellent.
Labels
- Tier 1–3
- Editorial browse cues for prominence and context—not circuits, checklists, or achievements.
- Active aid
- The light currently serves navigation. It does not mean the tower, grounds, or interior are open to visitors.
- Public / restricted access
- Some approved visitor access versus a legal viewpoint, special arrangement, or no ordinary public entry. Always check the official guidance.
- Flagship 12
- The curated statewide circuit. It is separate from the editorial tier labels.
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The Listening Coast · Arrival story
1:01The Sea Is the Front Door
A one-minute field story for Battery Point Lighthouse. Listen before the road or when you arrive.
Read transcript
Lighthouse Circuit. The Listening Coast — Battery Point Lighthouse. At Battery Point, the sea decides when the front door exists. At low tide, the water withdraws and exposes a sandbar to the island. Then the path disappears again. In 1964, the Good Friday earthquake sent a tsunami into Crescent City. The resident keepers sheltered inside the lighthouse as waves swirled around the island, and the 1856 structure survived. Today a fifth-order drum lens serves as the private aid to navigation, showing for three and a half seconds before twenty-six and a half seconds of darkness. The original fourth-order Fresnel lens is preserved inside. Battery Point joins two kinds of time: the thirty-second rhythm of the light and the much larger rhythm of the tide. One guides your eye. The other determines whether you can approach at all.
From the field
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⚠ Verify before you drive
Battery Point sits on a tidal island. Access depends on the tide and the amount of sand on the sandbar, so published times are approximate and all tours are tide permitting. Confirm the current schedule before visiting.
Visit essentials
Access
Current hours
Tours
Reservations
Fees
Accessibility
The light
Year first lit
Current structure built
Tower height
Focal plane
Optic
Light characteristic
Stewardship & location
Owner
Manager
Coordinates
National Register
The story
Built 1856. One of the original California lighthouses. Survived the 1964 Good Friday tsunami — the keeper and family sheltered inside as waves swept over the island. Tidal island setting is unique in California. Museum inside the lighthouse.
The visit
Check the current tour schedule before visiting. Access requires walking across the exposed sandbar at low tide, and actual timing depends on both the tide and sand conditions. Tours and museum access are available only when conditions permit.
Make a day of it
Base yourself in
Food / coffee
Stay nearby
Nearby lighthouses
Trinidad Head Lighthouse
★ Flagship 12Trinidad, North Coast
The active 1871 station pairs a dramatic North Coast setting with rare, limited interior access. The nearby Memorial Lighthouse preserves the station’s original coal-oil fourth-order Fresnel lens and 1898 bronze fog bell, while Trinidad Museum displays the later fifth-order lens used from 1947 to 2013.
St. George Reef Lighthouse
Crescent City, North Coast
The most expensive and most remote lighthouse in California history. The Brother Jonathan wreck story is one of the most dramatic in Pacific Coast maritime history. The helicopter tour is a bucket-list experience.
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Sources
- Officialdelnortehistory.org/battery-point-lighthouse
- Secondarylighthousefriends.com/light.asp
- Secondaryen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Point_Lighthouse
- Imagescommons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battery_Point_Lighthouse.jpg
Image rights: Del Norte County Historical Society images may require permission. Wikimedia Commons has CC-licensed images.
Research confidence: high · Last verified 2026-08-18