, built in 1871, made the journey for ships from and to Trinidad much safer.
In 1947, the old lighthouse was replaced by a new one and the US coast guard donated the historic artifacts to the Trinidad Civic Club. In 1949, the club built a concrete replica, called the Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse, in a park downtown. It is so accurate that many visitors (including the author of this waymark) actually believe it to be the actual Trinidad Head Lighthouse. (The real thing is just ten minutes away and is worth the hike!).
Over the years, many sons and daughters of Trinidad did not only watch the ships leave town but followed the call of the sea and many of them never saw their native shores again. In the early 1970s, the Civic Club built a small memorial at the lighthouse for those lost at sea. It started as one marble slab engraved with sea gulls and the words "Lost At Sea. Over the years, it has grown to a pyramidal monument and many additional plaques along the adjacent cement retaining wall.