BIG SUR -- U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton headlined a ceremony Friday transferring the historic Big Sur lighthouse to the California State Parks Department.

California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman and California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman were also present to sign documents for the transfer of the Point Sur Light Station property from the U.S. Coast Guard to the state of California, according to the parks department.

The Point Sur Light Station sits about 360 feet above the surf on a large, volcanic rock and is the only complete turn-of-the-century Light Station in California that is open to the public.

The lighthouse was first lit on August 1, 1889 and has remained in continuous operation ever since. Lighthouse keepers and their families lived at the site from 1889 to 1974 when the lighthouse became automated.

The Point Sur Light Station is on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public through docent-led tours. Today it becomes the first California lighthouse to be transferred from the Coast Guard as part of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, the park department reports.