Point Arena is a small coastal city located in Mendocino County, Calfornia at 38°54'47" North, 123°41'43" West. Mendocino County is a county located on California's north coast, north of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sonoma County and west of the Central Valley. As of 2000, the population was 86,265. The county seat is Ukiah.
The county is noted for its wild Pacific Ocean coast and the independent nature of its population. The county is part of the Emerald Triangle.
The first European to record Point Arena was Spaniard Bartolomé Ferrelo in 1543, who named it Cabo de Fortunas (Spanish for "cape of fortunes"). The cape was renamed to Punta Delgado (narrow point) in 1775 by lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (commander of the schooner Sonora), part of a royal expedition chartered by the government of Mexico to map the north coast of Alta California. Later the point, and the small harbor town south of it, were called Barra de Arena (i.e. sandbar) and finally Point Arena (literally "sand point").
The city has a total population of 474 (making it one of the smallest incorporated cities in the state). Its main street comprises part of California State Route 1, California's coastal artery. The highway is famous for some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, which contributed to its designation as an All-American Road. From the north, the highway passes through the cities of Ferndale, Fort Bragg and Bodega Bay before joining with U.S. Highway 101 and entering San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. The highway continues south on the west coast of the San Francisco Peninsula through Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz and Monterey. Several miles south of Carmel, Highway 1 crosses the scenic Bixby Bridge, a 900-foot stone arch that passes over the Bixby Creek gorge. The highway then continues south through the cliffs of Big Sur, then past Hearst Castle, and on to the coastal cities of San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, and Santa Barbara. It then connects to such Southern California beach cities as Ventura, Oxnard, Malibu, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance. South of the Los Angeles area, P.C.H. winds through cities which include Long Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Dana Point.
For most of its length from roughly San Luis Obispo northward Highway 1 is a winding, two lane road with occasional passing lanes, except between Watsonville and Santa Cruz, where it is a multi-lane freeway, between Colma and Daly City, where it is co-signed with Interstate 280 and again a multi-lane freeway, and in San Francisco, where it is 6 lane wide 19th Avenue and Park Presidio Boulevard, a major approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. State parks and small coastal towns can be found amongst hundreds of miles of wilderness. Along the southern length, P.C.H. is a wide, multi-laned boulevard and is even part of a freeway as it is co-signed with U.S. Highway 101 in the Ventura and Oxnard area.
Along with a number of other Mendocino County coastal communities, Point Arena is associated with the hippy and subsequent counterculture groups, and its economy is largely geared toward servicing the summertime tourist industry.
The city itself is built around a small natural harbor, and is located around a mile (1.5 km) south of the actual Point Arena, a narrow peninsula jutting around 1/2 mile (800 m) into the Pacific Ocean. This is the location of the Point Arena Lighthouse, at 115 feet (34.5m) one of the tallest lighthouses on the West coast of the United States.
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Coastal Flowers
Wreck Of Pacific Enterprize at Arena Rock 1949
Local Statue
Beautiful Coastline
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