John Dusch Point Bonita Light Station Collection
c. 1950 - 1981

GOGA 35188

Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Park Archives and Records Center
Building 201, Fort Mason
San Francisco, CA 94123
Phone:  415-561-4807
Fax:  415-561-4810

John Dusch Point Bonita Light Station Collection

Title 
John Dusch Point Bonita Light Station Collection

Dates
c. 1950-1981

Collection Number 
Catalog number GOGA 35188 (Accession number GOGA-1812 and GOGA-2340)

Creator 
John M. Dusch, United States Coast Guard
Creator’s name also appears as Jack Deutch in museum records and collections.

Volume/Extent/Cumulation
91 items stored in 1 Special Collections box with oversize items stored in the Oversize 20x24” Range Box
 
Provenance 
The items were collected by John M. Dusch, Chief Boatswain’s Mate, United States Coast Guard. The GOGA-1812 portion of the collection was found in the Marin Headlands Interpretative Division files and accessioned into the museum collection on March 30, 1993. The GOGA-2340 portion of the collection was found in the GGNRA Interpretation files, Building 1056, Fort Cronkhite on March 1, 1995. According to NPS Marin Headlands staff, Dusch visited the park in 1989 while on vacation from his then-current duty station of Montauk Coast Guard Station on Long Island, New York.  Dusch informally donated much of his personal collection to the District’s interpretive files during his visit. In 1995, the items were recovered from the Interpretation files and NPS staff attempted to contact Dusch to acquire a formal deed of gift. [See Accession GOGA-2340 file for memorandum regarding this effort.]

Scope Note
The collection consists of postcards, photographs, documents, and newspaper publications and clippings regarding lighthouses in general, and the Point Bonita Light Station in particular. John M. Dusch was Chief Boatswain’s Mate with the United States Coast Guard and was the last lighthouse keeper of the Point Bonita Light Station in 1982. The Point Bonita Light Station was the last manned lighthouse in California.

•	Forty-nine (49) 3.5” x 5” and six (6) 6” x 9” postcards of lighthouses with notes on the reverse sides about the histories of the different lights (none are in the Bay Area). 
•	Four (4) 11” x 14”, four (4) 8” x 10”, seven (7) 3.5” x 5”, and two (2) 3” x 3” black and white photographs of Point Bonita, all taken circa 1977.  The 11” x 17” photographs are newspaper prints that were given to the donor. One (1) 8” x 10” black and white negative of Dusch, circa 1980-1981. 
o	PARC made 4 x 5-inch copy negatives of 5 of the photographs circa 11/2000.
•	One (1) booklet of children’s letters sent to Dusch in 1978 as a thank-you after a field trip with a crayon drawing of a lighthouse on the cover.  
•	Fourteen (14) newspaper publications and clippings about Point Bonita Light Station with many containing photographs of Dusch, circa 1979-1980. 
•	Also includes one (1) letter to Dusch from San Francisco Examiner photographer “Mickey,” one (1) manila envelope addressed to Dusch at the Point Bonita Light Station, and one (1) U.S. Coast Guard business card for Dusch when he was at Alameda.

Index/Added Entries
Dusch, John 
Marin County (Calif.) 
Lighthouses 
Lighthouse keepers 
Point Bonita Lighthouse (Calif.)—History
United States. Coast Guard 

Preferred Citation 
“John Dusch Point Bonita Light Station Collection, GOGA 35188, Golden Gate National Recreation Area." 

Related Collections
	GOGA 18823 John Dusch Oral History Interview, 1980
GOGA 35194	Point Bonita Lighthouse Logbook Negative
	GOGA 35219	Point Bonita Fog Alarm Cannon Photograph
GOGA 35277	Point Bonita Photograph Field Collection
GOGA 40034	Point Bonita Lighthouse Photograph

Formats
Postcards
Photographs
Negatives
Documents

Processing Information 
Processed by Kirsten Kvam (GOGA-1812)
Completed in September 2003

Re-cataloged by Nicole Hayduk (Accreted GOGA-2340)
Completed in March 2011

Collection and Series Description

John Dusch Point Bonita Light Station Collection, c. 1950-1981

GOGA 35188

SERIES 1: Postcards, 1950-1961

Volume: 	55 items 
		(Box 1, Folder 1)		 
Arrangement:	The postcards are arranged chronologically according to the date stamp that appears in the bottom right corner on the reverse of many of the postcards.  Postcards with no dates follow at the end.  Postcards with the same date are ordered alphabetically by the name of the lighthouse pictured.  
Formats: 	Postcards

Description: 	This series contains 55 postcards collected by John Dusch that picture lighthouses, Coast Guard Stations, and/or Radio Beacons in Maine and Massachusetts, 1950-1961. Dusch, presumably, date-stamped each lighthouse during visits to the area and also made notes about the lighthouses’ histories on the reverse sides.

SERIES 2: Photographs, 1960-1981 (bulk 1977-1981)

Volume:	17 photographs (5 of which have a 4x5-inch copy negative with them)
		1 negative
		(Box 1, Folder 2)	 
Arrangement:	The photographs are arranged by subject with the general photographs of the Point Bonita Light Station first followed by photographs of John Dusch at the Light Station.
Formats: 	Photographs
		Negatives

Description: 	This series contains 17 black and white photographs and 1 black and white negative of the Point Bonita Light Station, with John Dusch featured in some of them. Some of the photographs were taken by newspaper photographers and are featured in the collection’s newspapers.  Five of the photographs have 4x5-inch copy negatives stored in the sleeves with the actual photograph; the copy negatives were made by PARC circa 11/2000.

SERIES 3: Documents, 1973, 1978

Volume:	4 items	 
		(Box 1, Folder 3 and SC Oversize 20x24” Range Box)
Arrangement: The business card and correspondence are arranged by size within one 
folder in the order that they are described below.  The manila envelope is stored in an oversize 20x24” range box.
Formats:	Correspondence
		Business Card

Description:	This series consists of the miscellaneous documents within the collection including a business card for “BMCS J.M. Dusch,” a letter to Dusch from “Mickey” at the San Francisco Examiner, a booklet of children’s letters sent to Dusch in 1978 as a thank-you after a Point Bonita Light Station field trip with a crayon drawing of a lighthouse on the cover, and a manila envelope addressed to “Bm’ John Dusch” at Point Bonita Light Station sent from San Francisco on March 10, 1973.  

SERIES 4: Newspapers and Newsclippings, 1978-1980

Volume:	14 items	
		(Box 1, Folder 4 and SC Oversize 20x24” Range Box) 
Arrangement:	The newspapers and newsclippings are separated by size with the newsclippings stored with the rest of the collection in a special collection box and the newspapers flattened in an oversize range box. Within each area, the newspapers are arranged chronologically by date of newspaper publication. Newsclippings with an unknown date follow at the end. 
Formats: 	Newspapers

Description: 	This series contains 14 newspaper publications and newsclippings mainly regarding the Point Bonita Light Station’s transition from a manned lighthouse to an automated light system. John Dusch is featured in most of the articles. Some newsclippings discuss other Coast Guard and Marin Headlands news.

Folder List

Box	Folder	Image	Folder/Item List	
			SERIES 1: POSTCARDS	
1	1	.01 - .55	Fifty-five (55) Postcards of Lighthouses, Coast Guard Stations, and/or Radio Beacons in Maine and Massachusetts, 1950-1961 
	
			SERIES 2: PHOTOGRAPHS AND NEGATIVES	
1	2	.56 - .67	Twelve (12) black and white photographs of various elements of the Point Bonita Light Station: aerials of the station from various views and views of the bridge, docks, radio beacon, and light station buildings. Four (4) of the photographs have 4x5-inch copy negatives stored with them.	
		.68 - .72	Five (5) black and white photographs of John Dusch at the Point Bonita Light Station: on the bridge, in the lighthouse, and next to the light. One (1) of the photographs has a 4x5-inch copy negative stored with it.	
		.73	One (1) black and white 8x10-inch negative of John Dusch next to the Point Bonita lighthouse.
	
			SERIES 3: DOCUMENTS	
1	3		Business card for BMCS J.M. Dusch, U.S. Coast Guard, Alameda, CA.	
			Letter to John [Dusch] from “Mickey,” an SF Examiner Photographer regarding newspaper photographs
	
			SERIES 4: NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSCLIPPINGS	
1	4		“124-year-old lighthouse lens still guides ships in SF Bay”, Arizona Republic News, 10/6/1979.	
			“Fresnel lighthouse lens are hand-ground works of art”, The Clarion Ledger Jackson Daily News, 10/7/1979.	
			“Atop a hill they keep…a beacon lit”, Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/22/1979.	
			“Last light yields to electronic age”, Soundings, 12/1979.	
			“Attempt to move chlorine is delayed”, Arizona Republic News, 1/2/1980.	
			“Historic Beacon soon will lose the human touch”, Arizona Republic News, 3/23/1980.	
			“Computers to Man Golden Gate Light”, unknown newspaper, no date.
	
			OVERSIZE ITEMS: DOCUMENT ENVELOPE AND NEWSPAPERS	
OS	1		Document Envelope addressed to “Bm’ John Dusch” at the Point Bonita Light Station. 	
			“Keepers of the faith”, “Last of the old guard: Last lighthouse keeper”, “Growing up in a lighthouse”, San Francisco Examiner, 3/9/1978. 	
			“The last of the lighthouses”, San Jose Mercury News, 3/4/1979.	
			“Point Bonita: An inspiration in itself”, Star Presidian, 3/9/1979.	
			“Automation at Point Bonita: Lighthouse to Shine On, Men Will Be Turned Out”, Los Angeles Times, 8/15/1979.	
			“A lonely, automated future set for Marin lighthouse”, Marin Independent Journal, 12/24/1979.	
			“Call out the Coast Guard”, Marin Independent Journal, 1/5/1980.	
			“Wild panoramas: the Marin Headlands”, Press, 3/28/1980.