This mural was the "mural in a day" project of September 30,
2000
Painted by Master Artists and Linda Gooch and Vickie Anderson and the crew.
In 1852 a contract was signed to build eight lighthouses
along the California Seaboard.
One of them was schedules to be built at local Point conception. It was completed in 1854.
But it did not become operational until the schooner General Pierce
landed at nearby Coho Bay in September 1855with a Fresnel First Order Seacoast Light
manufactured in Paris by master glassmaker Henri Le Paute at a cost of $65,000.
For almost 150 years the lighthouse has served as an important navigational fixture
along the mariners-nightmare stretch of coast known as "The Graveyard of Ships"
This section of coast is filled with
submerged reefs and rocks,
treacherous shifting currents, Immense fog banks and shifting winds.
For these reasons this stretch is littered with dozens of shipwrecks, but because of the
silted water,
and the dangerous currents little diving is done in the really bad areas where the boats
go down.
This mural named 'A History of the Coast' shows the aftermath of the grounding
of seven destroyers on 8 Sep 1923 at Honda point south of Lompoc.
It stands to this day as the greatest peacetime Naval disaster in the history of the U.S.
Navy.
Some townspeople made it to the wrecks as sailors were scrambling up the rocky cliffs.
The sailors were given blankets and hot coffee by the locals until official help arrived.
For an informative website with several Photographs of the disaster go
to Hazegray
A History of the Coast". Lance Hunter was awarded the commission
to design,
draw the mural beforehand and direct the completion of this mural in a day.
Kabu painted part of the sky as one of the fourteen artists that worked on the project.
Despite the cold currents and the
cloudy water good diving can still be found at certain times and in many locations.
The central coast has some very beautiful beds of kelp, a large seaweed.
The kelp forests are really spectacular to swim through and have an extraordinary
diversity of animal life.
Seal, otters and many species of fish abound in these 'islands' in the sea.
No-one has yet had a verified sighting of a mermaid as in this mural,
but some who stayed too deep and suffered (enjoyed?) nitrogen narcosis
have seen all kinds of things in these underwater rocky crags.
Here we can see some of the sea-side
outdoor activities available near Lompoc.
The winds and rugged cliffs make for some really fine ocean sailing and water watching.
The weather tends to the cooler windy side, but that just makes it better to stay active
and walk the beaches.
Often one can walk lonely stretches of beach for some time before meeting another.
Here is a shop which has a mural of
the undersea life common to the nearby coastline.
Oh yes, the coast here really does
look like this, it is so ruggedly beautiful and spectacular.
This one of the last places in California where one can overlook a strand of miles and
sometimes see no people.
The cliffs at some places plunge a hundred feet into the pounding surf.
This makes for some areas where there are isolated little beaches that are difficult to
get to.
Often I have seen beaches with no footprints but mine visible.
People around here seldom venture from home without their jackets
due to the ever changing winds and plunging temperatures.
