Before the lighthouse there was a lantern. As the story goes, in the 1870s Hans Martin Hanson, who owned land on the point, hung a kerosene lantern to warn boats off the shoals. In 1887 the government made it official with a lantern on a post, and paid Hanson to keep it lit.
The lighthouse you see today was finished in 1913: a 37-foot, eight-sided tower with a fog signal building at its foot. It was automated in 1984 and is still a working Coast Guard light.
It stands on Coast Guard grounds, so you admire it from the public shoreline. Volunteers sometimes open it for tours in summer, so check before you go. A little way along the shore is where the Denny Party landed in 1851.