Tier 3
Blunts Reef Lightship (WLV-605)
Lightship WLV-605 (Blunts Reef)
Eureka · Humboldt County · North Coast
Lightships are the under-told half of U.S. navigational history. WLV-605 is California's last and one of the few preserved on the West Coast at all.
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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Museum ship at Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum, Eureka. Hours and access need verification.
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The light
Year first lit
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The story
Lightship Relief (WLV-605), built 1950, served as the Blunts Reef station off Cape Mendocino from 1960 to 1969 — the last active lightship on the U.S. West Coast. Decommissioned and preserved as a museum ship at the Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum in Eureka.
The visit
Drive-up to the Humboldt Bay Maritime Museum on the Eureka waterfront. Verify current hours and whether interior tours of the lightship are running.
Make a day of it
Base yourself in
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.
Cape Mendocino Light
Shelter Cove, North Coast
One of the West Coast's great lighthouse preservation rescues. Volunteers saved the abandoned iron tower by moving it from the remote cape to Shelter Cove, where it now stands beside the Pacific as a public museum. The tower and its original first-order lens now tell separate afterlives — the lighthouse in California and the lens being restored for museum display in Oregon.
Help keep this guide accurate: report changed access, a broken link, or a factual correction.
Sources
- Officialen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightship_Relief_(WLV-605)
- Officialhumboldtbaymaritimemuseum.com
- Secondaryen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightship_Relief_(WLV-605)
Image rights: Museum images may require permission.
Research confidence: high · Last verified 2026-05-13