The U.S. Coast Guard has had suspicions that the city of Ferndale isn’t maintaining a piece of its treasured maritime history — the former lens of the 1868 Cape Mendocino Lighthouse.

The lens, of a type invented by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, has rested inside a mock, wooden lighthouse in front of the Humboldt County Fairgrounds for 60 years and just needs a little elbow grease, insisted Fairgrounds Manager Stuart Titus.

The Coast Guard inspected the French-made lens — estimated to be worth $2 million — a few weeks ago and will have the final say on whether Ferndale will be able to continue to display the lens or not.

“I don’t see anything preventing us from keeping it ever,” Titus said. “We’re fully confident that we can meet the criteria to keep it here.”

When news of the inspection hit Shelter Cove, residents took the opportunity to make it known that they would like to be considered as a potential home for the lens.

After all, the restored Cape Mendocino Lighthouse has rested without a lens in Shelter Cove since 1996, and some believe the lens would be best kept near its original structure.

“We always said someday these two should be reunited,” said Jack Sanford, president of the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse Preservation Society. “We’re glad Ferndale took it out, they saved its life. But, we want to be in consideration.”

Coast Guard Curator Arlyn Danielson said anything was an option at this point, except that if Shelter Cove were to receive the lens, it could not go back into the old lighthouse because of extreme temperatures and light that could cause damage. The town would have to find a separate structure to house it.

“We want to see what the fairgrounds can do in terms of requirements for maintaining the lens,” Danielson said. “Its possible they can keep it, but they have to meet our requirements.”

The Fresnel lens isn’t rare, Danielson said, but has value because many believe it has exceptional beauty, built into the 19th Century with 780 prisms reflecting light out.

She said the Coast Guard was mainly interested in protecting the lens as part of the country’s cultural patrimony.

“We have a duty to the Coast Guard and the citizens of the United States to take care of government property,” she said. “We just have to be careful and we’re willing to look at all of the possibilities.”

(Ashley Bailey can be reached at abailey@eurekareporter.com, or at 707-269-7433.)