Mare Island, CA 
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In 1854, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the first U.S. Navy base established on the Pacific Coast, was built on the 150-acre island. Just three years later, the Lighthouse Board noted in its annual report that a light on Mare Island was recommended “mainly in consideration of the difficulties at night in approaching the navy yard and Benicia.” Fifteen years passed before Congress appropriated $20,000 on June 10, 1872 for a lighthouse and fog signal on the southern end of Mare Island to mark the entrance to Carquinez Strait.
The Lighthouse Board announced the completion of Mare Island Lighthouse in its 1873 annual report:
The light-house of this station was completed by the 15th of July, although it was not quite ready for lighting at that date. An attempt was made to obtain water by digging a well, but without success. The point south of the dwelling was cut down and graded, a retaining-wall, built of rock to above high-water mark, forming a plateau for fog-signal. Inclines have been constructed from this plateau and from the plane of the dwelling to the boat-landing; windlasses, provided with turn-table and car, were set up on each. The erection of the necessary building for the fog-bell, and the sinking of a well for the weight of the machinery, still remains to be done. A substantial picket-fence has been erected along the lines of the light house reservation from the precipitous bluff on the east to that on the west.
Mare Island Light was placed in operation for the first time on September 1, 1873. The station’s fog bell and machinery were not new, having been formerly used at Point Bonita Lighthouse. Theresa C. Watson, the station’s first head keeper, was married to James M. Watson, a naval officer who served as a District Inspector for the Lighthouse Service during the latter part of his career. James M. Watson died on April 17, 1873 and was buried on Mare Island. Not long thereafter, Theresa C. Watson, who was twenty-five years younger than her husband, was placed in charge of the lighthouse, located just a short distance from her husband’s grave.
For several years, Theresa had an assistant to help with the station’s work. Henry D. Tuttle served as her first assistant from 1873 until just a few days after he married Zelia Miramon Crosby, Theresa’s sister, on October 9, 1875. Keeper Tuttle served as head keeper of Yerba Buena Island Lighthouse from the time he left Mare Island until 1877. Thomas Hogan then served as the assistant keeper at Mare Island for just over a year, followed by Theresa’s daughter Zelie M. Watson, who served until she married Lieutenant O.C. Berryman at the lighthouse in October 1879. The position of assistant keeper was abolished after Zelie moved away with her new husband.
In 1877, a 15,000-gallon water tank was added to the station, and in 1880, a Hains mineral-oil lamp replaced the Funck float lard-oil lamp.
On March 27, 1881, the Tender Manzanita anchored off Cape Mendocino, not far from Sugar Loaf Rock, a dominant feature of that section of the coast. The following morning, a large surf boat was lowered from the Manzanita to allow Charles J. McDougal, inspector of the California lighthouse district, to pay a visit to Cape Mendocino Lighthouse. George D. Kortz, captain of the Manzanita, was in command of the boat, which carried six sailors, along with Inspector McDougal and his friend Mr. Butler.
Shortly after Archibald Marble, head keeper of Cape Mendocino Lighthouse, had extinguished the light on the morning of the 28th and returned to his dwelling, John R. King, one of the assistants, shouted that the surf boat from the Manzanita had capsized in the outer breakers. The station’s three keepers hustled down the steep cape to the beach, taking with them ropes to assist in rescuing the men. Five of the sailors managed to cling to the surf boat and reach shore, while Captain Kortz ended up on the beach alive but unconscious, after drifting in on an oar.
Only Inspector McDougal, Mr. Butler, and Gus Petersen, a sailor, were unaccounted for. Around 11 a.m., John R. King discovered the body of Inspector McDougal in the surf, and he and the station’s other assistant lugged the body to shore. According to an account of the accident, Inspector McDougal struggled in the breakers for some time before going under, being weighed down by several hundred dollars in gold and silver coin to pay the keepers. The body of Gus Petersen was found on the beach near Sugar Loaf Rock three weeks after the accident. It is not known if the body of Mr. Butler was ever recovered.
Less than four months after this tragic accident, Kate McDougal, wife of Inspector McDougal, was appointed keeper of Mare Island Lighthouse. Theresa Watson, painfully aware of the connection she had to Kate, both being the widows of a district inspector, offered to resign so that Kate, several years her younger, could have the extra income to raise her four children.
Having lived in Japan for two-and-a-half years and in California for some time, Kate McDougal was well acquainted with earthquakes. On October 15, 1886, Kate noted that an earthquake occurred at exactly one-half minute past 10 p.m., according to Mare Island navy-yard time. The sudden tremor lasted about two seconds and was a vertical jar, as no swinging motion was imparted to chandeliers or pictures. Kate experienced another earthquake at exactly 10:25 p.m. on January 19, 1887, while she was lying down reading. This too lasted about two seconds and was a sudden jar. The most noteworthy earthquake Kate experience at Mare Island was, of course, the San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906. As a result of this event, the three chimneys atop the lighthouse had to be rebuilt to the level of the roof pitch and loose prisms in the station’s fourth-order Fresnel lens had to be reset.
Providing a sufficient supply of water to Mare Island Lighthouse was always problematic. The 1889 Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board notes that a dam measuring thirteen feet long and seven feet high was built across a canyon and the ground behind it was cemented over for fifteen feet to form a water-catchment area. The water was piped from the dam to the station’s two cisterns, one of which had just been added. Perhaps this dam didn’t work as desired, as the following year, the board decided that a new watershed with an area of 3,000 square feet was needed.
The Lighthouse Board noted in its report for 1896 that a 7,000-foot-long pipeline was laid to connect the station to the water system of Vallejo. The greatest depth of water encountered in laying 1,450 feet of the pipeline under the bay was fifty-four feet. The new pipeline provided a flow of 1,000 gallons of water per hour. The seemingly limitless supply of water didn’t last long as vessel anchors regularly fouled the pipeline. In 1898, naval authorities finished a large main connecting the navy yard with the Vallejo waterworks, and permission was received to extend a two-inch line to the lighthouse.
In 1892, a dormer window was put in the lighthouse’s roof, and a bathroom with hot and cold water was added. A landing wharf was also built at this time that was twenty feet wide and extended from the southern tip of the island 128 feet into the bay where it joined a T-head that was thirty by sixty feet. The following year, waves during the high spring tide cut in behind the wall at the shore end of the wharf and undermined the fog bell house that was located just inside the wall. A new wall was built, but the bell was relocated to the outer end of the wharf where a new house was built to cover it.
After Carquinez Strait Lighthouse was built nearby in 1910, Mare Island Lighthouse was rendered less important. The 1910 Census records that Kate had family living with her at the lighthouse at that time. Her daughter Kate had married Miles C. Gorgas, a military man who had served as an English professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the couple was living with Kate McDougal along with their twelve-year-old daughter Mary. Miles was often away on assignment, so the women were often on their own, but they did have Yee Jan, a Chinese-American servant/chef to help out.
Kate McDougal Gorgas passed away in March 1917, after a brief illness, and was buried in the Naval Cemetery on Mare Island near her father. Keeper Kate C. McDougal was now in her mid-seventies and had been in charge of the light for nearly thirty-six years. Her daughter’s passing and her own failing health prompted Kate to resign on May 22, 1917. As an expression of appreciation for her faithful and efficient service, Kate was granted thirty days leave from May 22, 1917 to June 26, 1917. Angus Murray looked after Mare Island Light until it was discontinued on July 1, 1917.
Mare Island Lighthouse was demolished in the 1930s. The wooden lighthouse closely resembled East Brother Lighthouse, its neighbor just down the bay. Paul J. Pelz used the Stick Style in designing both of these lighthouses, which were activated within a few months of each other.
Kate McDougal passed away in 1932 at the age of ninety and was buried next to her husband and daughter in the cemetery on Mare Island.
Keepers: