Point Conception:
The Graveyard of the Pacific
On October 18, 1542, as Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo explored the California coast, he encountered heavy winds off Point Conception and was forced to turn back to San Miguel Island, where he died in December. His second-in-command, Bartolomé Ferrer, took charge and again tried to round the Point; but he was also unsuccessful.
Pt. Conception is a headland along the coast of southwestern Santa Barbara County. It is the point on the coast where the warmer waters of the Santa Barbara Channel meet the Pacific Ocean, and it forms the corner between the mostly north-south portion of the coast to the north and the east-west part of the coast near Santa Barbara. It is also a place where strong currents converge, cause dangerous turbulence in a rocky area, and make sailing so hazardous that it has been called the Cape Horn of the Pacific and the Graveyard of the Pacific. Because of the dangerous weather, wind, and water conditions, which resulted in hundreds of shipwrecks, Pt. Conception was selected in 1852 as the site of one of the first seven lighthouses to be built in California.
When the schooner General Pierce sailed into Cojo Bay in September 1855, carrying a First Order Fresnel lens for the new Pt. Conception Lighthouse, it delivered one of the major scientific and technological advancements of the 19th Century. Invented by French Physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel and built in Paris in 1854, the lens used glass prisms, cutting edge technology for its day, to project a beam 25 miles into the most perilous waters of the California Coast from 1856 until 1999.
Arguably the Most Important Maritime Artifact Along the Santa Barbara Channel
In 2012 the United States Coast Guard approached SBMM and asked the Museum to submit a proposal to transfer and display the First Order Fresnel Lens from the Point Conception Lighthouse. It was an honor for SBMM to be asked to care for and display this artifact, which many believe is the most important maritime artifact along the Santa Barbara Channel. The 18-foot tall lens, built in Paris in 1854, has 624 glass prisms, and weighs nearly six-thousand pounds.
While the Coast Guard needed an organization to house the lens, they offered no funding for its removal, transportation, cleaning, re-assembly, maintenance, or exhibit displays. SBMM therefore would have to take a major risk in relocating the First Order Fresnel Lens from the Point Conception Lighthouse, which was on a remote bluff-top, with no road access, some 50 miles away from Santa Barbara. This innovative exhibit was especially risky due to the cost, logistics of disassembling, packaging, and moving a huge glass lens from the lighthouse via helicopter for subsequent trucking transport to the Museum.
To properly handle the transportation, cleaning, design, and fabrication of a quality exhibit, and to create a reserve fund for ongoing maintenance and education programming around the lens, the Museum estimated it would need to raise $500,000. and one Board Member, Roger Chrisman, with his wife Sarah, came forward and made the original $50,000 gift to start the campaign (and later made another $50,000 gift to become the title sponsor).
To relocate the lens, SBMM had to send Requests for Proposals to five U.S. Coast Guard- designated "Lampists," the only people allowed to transfer a lens such as this. The Curator also had to work with the landlord and a structural engineer to provide extra support inside the Museum where the lens would stand.
Learn About Our Other Museum Exhibits
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has several other fascinating exhibits, and there's something fun for everyone in the family. Come learn about 13,000 years of human history in the Santa Barbara Channel, including the Chumash Indians, deep sea divers, shipwrecks, commercial fishing, and so much more. We also have several contemporary exhibits about the evolution of surfing, oil spills, whales, and marine life. There are several fun and interactive exhibits and activities for kids too.