Office of the Secretary |
Joan Moody
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 23, 2004 |
202-208-6416
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Secretary Norton Transfers Lighthouse to California Parks in Scenic Ceremony at Point Sur Historic Park |
Noted celebrants at the ceremony
included California Resources Agency Secretary Michael Chrisman, state
parks director Ruth Coleman, Monterey district park supervisor Phil
Jenkins, GSA Regional Administrator Peter Stamison, Coast Guard 11th
District Chief of Staff James Hass, U.S. Lighthouse Society President
Wayne Wheeler and Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers Association director
Doug Williams. "Point Sur Light Station
has been in continuous operation for 115 years. It stands as a witness
to the journeys of seafarers a hundred years ago and to the migrations
of whales today," Norton said. "This is the only complete
turn-of-the-century light station open to the public in California.
It preserves a sense of the drama and isolation of the chain of sixty
California lighthouses begun in 1852 and managed by the Coast Guard
until recently." Point Sur Lighthouse and
a related barracks building on 12 acres will be added to Point Sur State
Historic Park. Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act
of 2000, about 300 lighthouses are candidates for transfer. The law
calls for the Secretary of the Interior to decide which applicant can
best protect a given lighthouse. The Act authorizes the transfer of
historic lighthouses and stations at no cost to federal agencies, state
and local governments, nonprofit corporations and community development
organizations. The law places preservation
of each historic light station first. It directs the Secretary of the
Interior to work with the General Services Administration and the National
Park Service to choose the best stewards for long-term preservation.
Under the leadership of the
parks department and its nonprofit partner, the Central Coast Lighthouse
Keepers, more than $2 million already has been invested in the maintenance
and restoration of the Point Sur Lighthouse "In this case, California
State Parks and its nonprofit partner certainly have proven to be the
best possible stewards of Point Sur," Secretary Norton said. "The
partnership between the private and public sectors that is protecting
Point Sur Light Station is a model for the nation during Earth Week.
At Point Sur, we have seen the type of care that our lighthouses need."
Recognized on the National
Register of Historic Places, the Point Sur lighthouse was completed
by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, the predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard,
in August 1889. The existing park already preserves other components
of the light station-the main keeper's dwelling, hoisting house, carpenter
and blacksmith shop, barn, and oil house. A school that was once there
was moved. The California Department
of Parks and Recreation obtained the majority of the buildings and 27
acres in 1984, excepting the lighthouse, the barracks building, and
the oil house. The department has worked under a lease for the operation
and maintenance of the structures since 1990. Almost two years ago, on
June 10, 2002, Secretary Norton launched the National Historic Lighthouse
Preservation Program from the base of the Tybee Island Lighthouse near
Savannah, Ga., with the transfer of the first lighthouses from the Coast
Guard.
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