Marin County (Calif.) -- Description and travel; Marin County (Calif.) -- History
In reply to our query as to the length of time we should be required
to halt, a soldier on the team in front informed us that sometimes one
had to wait an hour or an hour and a half. Other teams having lined up
behind, a retreat was impossible, and the prospect of a long wait in
the hot sun was not very agreeable. We learned that a new barracks was
in the course of construction below, in the valley at the head of the
Rodeo Lagoon, and these teams were laden with provisions for the men
stationed there.
[Illustration: Nearing the Point.]
Just as we had composed ourselves for the inevitable, a brisk waving
of red flags was seen in the Valley, followed by the moving of the
cavalcade in front; and, much to our satisfaction, we soon left our
pessimistic informer far in the rear.
[Illustration: Fishing Boats.]
On the most southerly point of Marin a narrow rocky neck of land
extends some distance into the Ocean. At the base are jagged rocks
over which the sea surges ceaselessly, cutting arches and miniature
caves in the fissures of the cliffs. From this rocky headland, which
formerly was a menace and terror to navigators, now streams a steady
light, and the point erstwhile spelling destruction now proves a
blessing to vessels which are guided safely into port by the aid of its
welcome light. This is Point Bonita and the Bonita Light, which, as we
approached, stood out clear in the afternoon sun.
[Illustration: The Derrick Wharf.]
Stopping at the lighthouse keeper's dwelling, we proceeded on foot to
the Point, accompanied by the keeper. Pausing in the narrow pathway, he
drew our attention to a small derrick-wharf for the tender, at the base
of the steep cliff on which we stood. This he explained was where the
boat, which touches here three times a week, lands provisions, oil, and
fuel.
"But, how," I asked in astonishment as I gazed down the dizzy depth,
"do you get them up here?"
"Oh, that is very simply done," he responded; "we start up the engine
and they are hauled up the bluff on a tram."
Owing to the perilous windings of the path around an almost
perpendicular cliff a small tunnel has been cut through the solid rock.
As we emerged from this tunnel the Lighthouse confronted us only a few
yards away.
[Illustration: Point Bonita Lighthouse.]
The tower containing the light is a square, brick structure twenty-one
feet in height, situated at the edge of the Point at an elevation
of one hundred and twenty-four feet. The Bonita Light, although of
second-class rating, is so advantageously situated that its fixed,
white rays are visible seventeen miles at sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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