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For more than two years we have chronicled the lens move from California’s Point Conception Lighthouse to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. On the day the lens was airlifted away from the lighthouse (see Lighthouse Digest Sept/Oct 2013 issue), a former Point Conception lighthouse keeper and his family were on hand for the event. U.S. Coast Guard retiree Bruce Drugg and his wife Sandi, with son Mark and daughter Amiee, came down from their home in Oregon to see. They also got a chance to revisit the lighthouse keeper’s house that Bruce, Sandi (and later newborn Mark) called home from 1969 to 1971. Lighthouse Digest was allowed to tag along to bring you this exclusive story.
Sandi Drugg tells us what it was like inside the house when they were stationed there:
“We were given the use of the house, furnishings, a large upright freezer in the garage, bottled water, a few magazines, and use of the government truck.
The house... as you walked in the front door you entered into a porch area that had the washer and dryer, hot water heater and a built in cupboard that we used as a pantry. You then entered into the kitchen. Propane stove, ours was in pitiful shape, but a little over a year into our stay a new one was requisitioned for us, small white metal sink and cabinet unit, we had two units that held 5 gallon water bottles that in those days were glass. One unit was refrigerated for cold drinking water. The other for cooking water. We were not allowed to drink the tap water. There was a large refrigerator, a small Formica table with three chairs. A built-in counter covered with a sheet of aluminum and a couple of cabinets underneath. A wall mount telephone that was an intercom between the houses, office and lighthouse and a huge fire type alarm bell that sounded if there was a power failure or fluctuation.
There was a small hallway out of the kitchen that led to the sun porch. The sun porch had a large Formica table and 6 chairs and a buffet with a glass door china hutch top, the stairway upstairs and to two living rooms or parlors. There was an archway between the rooms and one had, at one time, housed a fireplace and now had a propane heater. On each side of the fireplace there was a high-backed bench that had a hinged seat used for firewood storage at one time. The furniture in these rooms consisted of two Naugahyde couches, one red and one forest green. A matching green chair and a small coffee table and a two-tiered end table that someone had antiqued in avocado green paint. There was also one rug that was a large feather design in a red/purple color. The floors in these two rooms were the old dark brown speckled tiles. We did not use the sun room as it was cold out there. It had a lot of windows and did not have the 11 inch concrete walls that made up the rest of the house. We moved the red couch to the sun room. Moved the table and chairs to the fireplace room because we had several visitors and liked to do jigsaw puzzles, and brought the buffet into the living room to use as a TV stand. The china hutch top fit on the counter in the kitchen and gave some much needed cabinet space.
Upstairs there were three bedrooms. All having a sloping roof/ceiling. And a bathroom for all to share. Two of the bedrooms had a double bed. One had a dresser and the other a chest of drawers. The third bedroom had twin beds that could be stacked into a bunk bed and a dresser. The bathroom had another 5 gallon water bottle stand. The hallway had a wall mount propane heater. After our son was born, we had a small electric heater for his room.
We never used the heaters in the house. The house was relatively warm and the heaters smelled awful. The hot water heater on the main floor did not work well and made a loud popping noise when it kicked on. It was later discovered that it did not have the right kind of valve for propane. We did not use a lot of hot water before that.
We had several family members visit over the two years we were there… some more than once! We also had some Coast Guard people from Port Hueneme come up to pig hunt, and a couple of officers and their sons came to deer hunt. We were required to share our homes and meals with them when they came.
Not sure why, but in those days you really didn’t ask for anything... maybe it was just us, but we dealt with what we had.”
Following their visit to the station in the summer of 2013, Bruce Drugg wrote the following letter to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum:
“It’s hard to find the words that can express my gratitude for what you have given me and my family. For Sandi and me, it brought back a flood of memories that we could share with Mark and Aimee. This also gave Mark and Aimee the chance to see what they have been hearing about all their lives and to see for themselves just how beautiful the station really is, no matter how bad the station looks now...
I knew it would be an emotional time for me to be there before we went and I was aware of the condition of the station, but I was not prepared for the extent of the deterioration or my own feelings about being there. The roads, housing office and lighthouse were all much worse than what I was expecting, not to mention the ice plant taking over everything. I say that so I can tell you how pleased I am that the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum and all the people involved are taking the steps to preserve the most important piece of the station, the lens itself. When we were there from July 1969 to July 1971, we would have 40 to 70 visitors a year, if we had a bus load or two of school kids. I’m sure that now there will be thousands of people... that will see a part of their history that was never accessible to them before.
When I left the station 42 years ago, I know that there was no way that I would ever be able to return. The logistics of getting permission... would be too hard! But you changed all that for us. Everyone of the people we met from the Coast Guardsman, the Lampists, the media, and the museum has made this an experience that the four of us will talk about and cherish for the rest of our lives.”
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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