Point Arena, California

Point Arena and the Point Arena lighthouse, looking southward from Manchester State Beach. The city of Point Arena is not shown in this photograph.

Point Arena is a small coastal city in Mendocino County, California, United States. The population was 474 at the 2000 census.(making it one of the smallest incorporated cities in the state). Its main street comprises part of California State Route 1, California's coastal artery. Along with a number of other Mendocino County coastal communities, Point Arena is associated with the hippy and subsequent counterculture groups. Its reported economy is largely geared toward servicing the summertime tourist industry, while a large part of Point Arena's non-tax-paying economy is based on the cultivation and exportation of marijuana.

The city itself is built around a small natural harbor, and is located around a mile (1.5 km) south of the actual Point Arena, a narrow peninsula jutting around 1/2 mile (800 m) into the Pacific Ocean. This is the location of the Point Arena Lighthouse, at 115 feet (34.5m) the tallest lighthouse on the West coast of the United States.

The city has two high schools: the Point Arena High School and the Pacific Community Charter School. Students are allowed to cross-enroll and take courses at both schools, granting Point Arena students a broad curriculum to choose from. The choice of the charter school has helped to keep in Point Arena many students who formerly commuted to Mendocino to attend its high school. Several feeder school bring students through grammar school before sending them to Point Arena High School or the Charter School, meaning that the schools draw from a large pool of students in southern Mendocino County.The Point Arena High School sports teams are generally successful, as they pull athletes from a large breadth of coast.

Geography and environment

Location of Point Arena, California

The city of Point Arena is located at 38°54′47″N 123°41′43″W (38.913118, -123.695342)Template:GR. It is in USPS ZIP code 95468.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.5 km² (1.4 mi²), all land.

Sound levels in Point Arena are relatively quiet, with many locations at night-time dominated by natural sounds such as those of the surf. The firm of Earth Metrics Inc., who prepared the Noise Element of the Point Arena General Plan, found that, even considering the presence of logging trucks on main city streets, composite sound levels rarely exceed 55 Leq. The maximum acceptable sound level specified in that General Plan Element is 60 Leq for residential areas.

File:Pointarena1870.jpg

The original Point Arena Lighthouse tower, damaged by an earthquake in 1906.

History

The first European to record Point Arena was Spaniard Bartolomé Ferrelo in 1543, who named it Cabo de Fortunas (Spanish for "cape of fortunes"). The cape was renamed to Punta Delgado (narrow point) in 1775 by lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (commander of the schooner Sonora), part of a royal expedition chartered by the government of Mexico to map the north coast of Alta California. Later the point, and the small harbor town south of it, were called Barra de Arena (i.e. sandbar) and finally Point Arena (literally "sand point").

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 474 people, 191 households, and 109 families residing in the city. The population density was 134.6/km² (348.5/mi²). There were 218 housing units at an average density of 61.9/km² (160.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 73.63% White, 1.05% African American, 3.80% Native American, 0.21% Asian, 18.78% from other races, and 2.53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 28.48% of the population.

There were 191 households out of which 33.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.3% were married couples living together, 13.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.9% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.30.

In the city the population was spread out with 32.9% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 27.8% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 110.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $27,083, and the median income for a family was $32,885. Males had a median income of $21,042 versus $15,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was $12,591. About 24.1% of families and 26.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.0% of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over.

External links

• Point Arena lighthouse
• Manchester State Beach
• Schooner Gulch State Beach
• Article about pier fishing at the Point Arena Pier
• USGS topographic map and aerial photo of Point Arena
• Point Arena, CA Travel Information