Point Reyes Lighthouse

Point Reyes Lighthouse, also known as Point Reyes Light Station, is a historic lighthouse on the western tip of the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California, within Point Reyes National Seashore. The lighthouse was constructed in 1870 to warn ships of the dangerous Point Reyes headlands, which extend approximately ten miles into the Pacific Ocean. Its sixteen-sided cast-iron tower contains a first-order Fresnel lens manufactured in France in 1867. Because the headland is frequently covered by high fog, workers blasted a level platform into the cliff approximately 300 feet below its summit so that the light would remain visible beneath the fog layer. The components were transported to Point Reyes by ship and ox-drawn carts before being lowered down the cliff, and the lighthouse was first illuminated on December 1, 1870. It remained an active staffed lighthouse until 1975, when the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated light nearby and transferred the historic structure to the National Park Service. The lighthouse is reached by a steep staircase descending from the headland, with the present route containing 313 steps between the observation area and the lighthouse. Point Reyes Lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Point Reyes Lighthouse appears prominently in The Fog (1980). John Carpenter used the lighthouse and surrounding headland as Spivey Point, the isolated location of radio station KAB 1340 in the fictional California town of Antonio Bay. The real lighthouse, access road, steep approach and dramatic Pacific coastline establish the workplace of radio presenter Stevie Wayne throughout the film, although the interiors of her radio station were recreated at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood.

In The Fog (1980), Point Reyes Lighthouse represents the KAB 1340 radio station from which Stevie Wayne broadcasts her nightly programme overlooking Antonio Bay. Stevie drives out along the isolated headland to the station and descends towards the lighthouse, giving the real Point Reyes location considerable screen time before the supernatural events intensify. From the station, she monitors the coastline and gradually realises that an unnatural glowing fog is moving towards the town. After her son Andy gives her a piece of driftwood marked “DANE”, she takes it to work, where it begins leaking water, interferes with her equipment and briefly catches fire while revealing a threatening message connected to the wrecked Elizabeth Dane. Later, as the fog surrounds Antonio Bay, Stevie uses her elevated position to track its movement and broadcasts warnings to the residents below, eventually directing survivors towards Father Malone’s church. The ghosts themselves reach Spivey Point and attack the station, forcing Stevie to flee from them as the lighthouse is engulfed by fog. Point Reyes provides the exterior identity of KAB and the isolated coastal approach to the station, while the radio booth and other workplace interiors were constructed at Raleigh Studios in North Hollywood to resemble the real lighthouse complex. The combination of the exposed headland, steep descent and genuine history of extreme wind and fog made Point Reyes Lighthouse one of the film’s most distinctive and important locations.

---