The Point Arena Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse on the California coast. The original lighthouse was badly damaged in the 1906 earthquake and had to be demolished.

The new lighthouse began operation in 1908, nearly 18 months after the quake. It stands 115 feet (35 m) tall, and featured a 1st Order Fresnel Lens, over six feet in diameter and weighing more than six tons. The lens was made up of 666 hand-ground glass prisms all focused toward three sets of double bullseyes. It was these bullseyes that gave the Point Arena Lighthouse its unique "light signature" of two flashes every six seconds. This incredible optic, that held an appraised value of over $3.5 million, was set in solid brass framework, and was built in France. That fresnel lens is now in the museum/lightkeeper's home below the lighthouse. The light was converted to light from an airport-type beacon, mounted on the balcony below the light room, in 1978.

The Point Arena Lighthouse was featured near the end of the Mel Gibson movie "Forever Young" in 1992.