| Location: | Anacapa Island Ventura County California United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 34.0158°N -119.3595°W | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Yearbuilt: | 1912 (first) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Yearlit: | 1932 (current) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Automated: | 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Foundation: | brick and concrete base | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Construction: | reinforced concrete tower | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Shape: | cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marking: | white tower, black lantern | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height: | 55feet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Focalheight: | 277feet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lens: | Third order Fresnel lens (original), DCB-24 aerobeacon (current) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Characteristic: | Fl (2) W 60s. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Fogsignal: | blast every 15s. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Managingagent: | Channel Islands National Park[1] [2] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Anacapa Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse in California, United States, on the entrance to Santa Barbara Channel, California. Constructed in 1912, it was the last major light station built on the west coast. Anacapa and several other islands were collectively designated as Channel Islands National Monument in 1938, though the Coast Guard retained responsibility for the Anacapa lighthouse. Now fully automated and unmanned, the light house still operates, but the National Park Service (NPS) is responsible for Channel Islands National Park.
Anacapa Island is noted now for an environmental restoration program devised by the NPS to exterminate the large population of non-native rats which infested the island and was making significant inroads on native species. The program, which began in 2003, selectively killed off the invaders with few adverse effects on the non-targeted native wildlife species. By 2014, after careful examination of the island, NPS could declare it rat-free.
Positioned at the eastern entrance to the Santa Barbara Channel, Anacapa was a natural choice for a lighthouse. The Lighthouse Board decided to place a light on the island, but to limit the expense of building an offshore beacon, an unmanned acetylene lens lantern on a tower was erected in 1912. In 1932, the current permanent light station was built on the island, and was the last major light station to be built on the west coast. The 39feet tower and fog signal were built on the highest point of the island. In 1938, under the direction of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Santa Barbara and Anacapa Islands became Channel Islands National Monument. The United States Coast Guard automated the station in 1966. In 1980, Congress designated five of the eight Channel Islands, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara Islands, and of submerged lands as Channel Islands National Park. The lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation.
Historical Information from Coast Guard web site:
The buildings other than the lighthouse are now being utilized by the National Park Service.
Anacapa is the smallest and the nearest of the Channel Islands to the mainland. It is 9miles across the Santa Barbara Channel from the nearest point on the mainland. It lies southwest of the city of Ventura.[3]