Ballast Point Lighthouse
Lighthouse, U.S. Coast Guard Archive
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 California
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| Location | Point Loma, California |
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| Coordinates | 32°41′11.0″N 117°13′57.0″W / 32.686389°N 117.232500°W |
| Year first constructed | 1890 |
| Deactivated | 1960 (Demolished) |
| Tower shape | Square |
| Height | 34 foot (10 m) |
| Original lens | Fifth order Fresnel lens |
| Characteristic | Fixed White |
| ARLHS number | USA-033 |
Ballast Point Lighthouse was a lighthouse in California, situated on Ballast Point, a tiny peninsula extending into San Diego Bay from Point Loma, San Diego, California. The lighthouse was torn down in 1960; the site is now on the grounds of Naval Base Point Loma. Ballast Point Lighthouse was the last lighthouse displaying a fixed light on the Pacific Coast. An automated light is left in its place and operates on a piling in the water off of the original site.
Historical information from Coast Guard web site:
Ballast Point is a tiny peninsula extending from Point Loma into the channel entrance to the harbor of San Diego. The point derived its name from the fact that the early Yankee skippers would have stones gathered from Ballast Point to serve as ballast in their ships during their returns around Cape Horn to their home town, Boston.
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed from the Port of Navidad (now Acapulco) in 1542 and, after bucking head winds and seas for five months, sighted the Coronado Islands. As he continued on, the headland of Point Loma rose from the sea. Working his way past the kelp beds, he dropped anchor in the quiet waters inside the present Ballast Point on September 28, 1542. Cabrillo tarried for six days in this spacious harbor which he named San Miguel. Sixty years passed before the placid waters around Ballast Point were again disturbed by deep-sea keels, when Sebastián Vizcaíno anchored on November 10, 1602. He renamed the harbor San Diego in honor of that Saint's day. In 1769, Spain decided to occupy the vast territory by converting the Indians to the Catholic faith and teaching them domestic pursuits. By this time little transports were coming with supplies on a haphazard schedule, and when the Clipper ship Aranzaya arrived in 1795, she brought three workmen and the necessary timber to build a fort at Ballast Point, or as it was known at that time, Point Guijarros.
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