In response to growing maritime traffic at Los Angeles, the U. S. Lighthouse Service built the only navigational aid on Santa Rosa Island at South Point in 1925. Using a small landing below and a trail, and with the help of Vail & Vickers horses and cowboys, the lighthouse crews from Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay erected a "beacon light," a typical pyramidal tower on a forty-foot square plot of land at an elevation of 430 feet. The pyramidal tower acted as a base for the electric-powered, unmanned light, which was maintained about twice a year or when needed. The government paid Vail & Vickers one dollar per year for the use of the plot of land, the landing below and the connecting trail.

In 1937 the Lighthouse Service decided, after some study, to replace the pyramidal tower with a small house at a higher elevation. Vail & Vickers employees completed a new trail to this location, leveled the new site, and used pack horses to haul up to 4900 pounds consisting of approximately 35 boxes and crates of equipment, lumber, and water from the landing at Johnson's Lee.

The new seven-by-seven foot house was constructed on the mainland, each piece marked, disassembled and rebuilt on site, now 530 feet above sea level. Shortly after, crews built a six-by-seven foot wood frame addition to the building. The resulting new light structure was rectangular with lapped siding painted white. Benches inside held the banks of batteries that powered the small 375-mm electric, 4,300 candlepower light located on the roof, the batteries being charged by a windmill generator. In operation, the light beamed white flashes of 1.2 seconds duration every 20 seconds and was visible 19 miles out to sea.

Vail & Vickers assisted the Coast Guard on contract, supplying transportation, at first horses, and vehicles on occasion. Diego Cuevas recalled that the Coast Guard men walked the trail from the tender anchored at Johnson's Lee to maintain the light, and would contract with the Vails if any equipment needed hauling in or out. In many instances the staging area would be the pier at Becher's Bay. In later years, according to Cuevas, a Coast Guard helicopter made the trip. Originally the batteries were charged by a windmill generator, but more recently by solar power.

The Coast Guard put the South Point Light Station out of operation prior to 1986 and left the house and light in place. The building sat unmaintained for many years until 2020 when the NPS restored it and listed it in the National Register of Historic Places. Following this restoration, the Coast Guard installed a modern light fixture atop the building and restored its function as a navigational aid following several decades out of operation.

For more detailed historical information and citations, please refer to the Historic Resource Study: Island Legacies - A History of the Islands within Channel Islands National Park _