Those were the words of Santa Barbara Maritime Museum Board President Willard Thompson at the gala for the opening of the exhibit of California’s Point Conception Lighthouse Lens. All of the time and hard work by scores of people, in addition to generous donations, made the night of September 21, 2013 all that sweeter for the close to 300 in attendance that evening.
Lighthouse Digest has documented the journey of the 1st order lens in several articles dating back to the Spring of 2012, with the announcement of the moving of the lens out of the lighthouse, through the process of the planning and actual move, with the restoration of the lens (the most recent entry in the January-February 2014 issue of Lighthouse Digest), to this opening night unveiling. Be sure to check them out in the magazine’s online archives.
In the accompanying photos, we bring you a taste of the evening’s festivities and a look at the various parts of the exhibit.
In an upcoming issue of Lighthouse Digest, an exclusive look inside a lightkeeper’s house still standing at Point Conception, and what life was like for a lightkeeper and his family in that home 45 years ago. The story of their visit decades later - coming soon!
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