Shelter Cove is not the original home of the Cape Mendocino lighthouse. The compact metal tower was installed on a cliff at Cape Mendocino, 35 miles north of Shelter Cove, in 1868 to warn ships away from the hazards of the rocky coast. After it was deactivated and replaced by a pole beacon in 1971, the lighthouse began to deteriorate, and earthquakes and landslides threatened to send it over the cliff. In 1994, the US Coast Guard declared the lighthouse surplus property and made it available to organizations willing to relocate, restore, and protect it. A coalition of Southern Humboldt County citizens organized the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse Preservation Society to serve as caretakers, and in 1997 Humboldt County was awarded custody of the lighthouse. The 91,000-pound structure then had to be disassembled before it could be trucked to a nearby construction yard for renovation. Volunteers numbered the pieces, removed the old square-headed bolts, and took it apart. The lantern room was eased off and helicoptered by the National Guard directly to Shelter Cove. At the construction yard, repairs were completed and more than 100 years of paint and rust were painstakingly removed by volunteers. The pieces were then loaded on a truck again and taken to Shelter Cove for reassembly during the summer of 1999.