 The light station was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1973.The lighthouse was used as the location for the film The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959).In recent years Vandenberg Air Force Base restricts access from the northwest, and the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve restricts access from the adjoining land although a few people have reached the lighthouse by hiking west along the narrow rugged public beach several miles from the nearest road during low tide.