Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
— — a small light for those the sea kept.
Not only on a wall.
“A quarter-scale replica of the Trinidad Head Lighthouse, set on the bluff above the harbor in the small fishing town of Trinidad on California's north coast. The memorial holds the original fog bell from the working lighthouse on the headland nearby, with a plaque carrying the names of fishermen and Coast Guardsmen lost at sea. Local families still come up to the bluff at dusk in winter, when the fog moves in across the harbor and the small white tower stands against the dark of the headland behind it.
Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
The Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse stands on a small bluff above Trinidad Harbor in Humboldt County, on California's north coast about 22 miles north of Eureka. It is a quarter-scale replica of the working Trinidad Head Lighthouse, which sits on the headland less than half a mile to the west and has been operated by the U.S. Coast Guard since 1871. The memorial was built and dedicated by the local community in the late 1940s; it carries the original fog bell from the working lighthouse and a memorial plaque listing fishermen and Coast Guardsmen lost at sea. The town of Trinidad, founded in 1850, is one of the oldest non-Indigenous settlements on the north coast.
The Trinidad bluff sits inside the coastal fog belt of California's north coast, with marine fog moving in across the harbor most days from late spring through autumn. The memorial faces directly out into that fog, the small white tower against the headland behind it. The original fog bell mounted on the structure used to ring the channel for boats running blind off the working Trinidad Head Lighthouse a few hundred yards west. Modern aids to navigation along the U.S. west coast retired the manned bells decades ago, leaving the memorial bell as a relic of an older way of signaling the rocks below.
The memorial sits on the bluff at the south end of the small town, with a short paved path and a few benches along the edge. There is no admission and no gate, and the site is open at all hours; the parking is on the street nearby. The actual working Trinidad Head Lighthouse on the headland west of town is closed to the public and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard, but is visible from the memorial bluff and from the trail to the head's summit. The harbor below has the boat ramp and the public pier within a five-minute walk of the memorial.