Mayo Beach Light was an early Cape Cod lighthouse built to guide vessels into Wellfleet Harbor, beginning as a brick house with a roof lantern and multiple lamps. Its design proved imperfect, with some lamps useless over land, and its early years were marked by nearby wrecks and complaints about the building. A Fresnel lens was added in 1857, but the original structure was replaced in 1881 by a 30-foot cast-iron tower beside a new keeper’s house. The station remained active until 1922. Sarah Atwood served as keeper from 1876 to 1891, and later research showed the cast-iron tower was moved to California and still survives as Point Montara Light.