Life-saving at Point Reyes reached its most active period in the 1930s and 1940s, when crews responded to many wrecks and stranded vessels, with activity peaking during World War II as the Palladini fish wharf beside the boathouse was used to house more than 50 crew members. Advances in navigation and communication technology during World War II reduced the need for a fully staffed station, and through the 1950s rescue calls declined as plans for a more efficient modern station at Bodega Bay made the Point Reyes station obsolete. After being abandoned in 1968, the station slowly decayed until the National Park Service carried out a major restoration in 1990. Today it preserves the last intact marine railway on the Pacific Coast, along with artifacts and the history of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances from a remarkable maritime past.