24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Point Arena, CA

Point Arena is a small coastal city in Mendocino County that was incorporated on July 11, 1908, and with a population of 460 at the 2020 census it is one of the smallest incorporated cities in California.

The first European to record the point was the Spaniard Bartolomé Ferrer in 1543, who named it Cabo de Fortunas ('cape of fortunes'); it was later called Punta Delgado and Barra de Arena before becoming Point Arena.

Point Arena's first store opened in 1859 and its first wharf in 1866, after which it became known as the busiest town between San Francisco and Eureka, producing 200,000 board feet of redwood lumber a day and serving as the Mendocino coast's main agricultural shipping port.

The Point Arena Lighthouse, about 1.5 miles north of the city at Arena Cove, stands 115 feet tall — tied as the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States.

The lighthouse point is the closest location on the U.S. mainland (excluding Alaska) to Honolulu, Hawaii, at a distance of 2,353 miles.

The original brick lighthouse, first lit in 1870, was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and rebuilt in steel-reinforced concrete; the same earthquake leveled much of the city, and a 1927 fire destroyed it again, leaving only three structures standing.

Point Arena incorporated in 1908 largely to protect its saloons — the town held 14 liquor licenses and feared Mendocino County might vote to go 'dry.'

The city's main street is part of State Route 1, California's famous coastal highway, and the small downtown is built around Arena Cove, a natural harbor.

Despite its tiny population, Point Arena has three high schools: Point Arena High School, South Coast Continuation High School, and Pacific Community Charter High School.

Just north of town, the Point Arena Cable Station in nearby Manchester, built by AT&T in 1956, is the eastern terminus of several trans-Pacific undersea cables linking to Hawaii, Japan, and Canada.