Point Arena, formerly known as Punta Arena (Spanish for “Sandy Point”) is a small coastal city in Mendocino County, California, United States. Point Arena is located 32 miles (51 km) west of Hopland, at an elevation of 118 feet (36 m). The population was 460 at the 2020 census, making it one of the smallest incorporated cities in the state.

Its main street is allocation of State Route 1, California’s coastal artery. Along past a number of further Mendocino County coastal communities, Point Arena was allied with the hippie and subsequent counterculture groups. The economy is largely geared toward serving the summertime tourist industry. The city is near the headquarters of the tribal lands of the Manchester Band of Pomo Indians of the Manchester Rancheria and adjoining the recently formed Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands National Monument. Hiking trails in the freshen of coastal prairie and ocean views can be accessed from Point Arena City Hall. At Arena Cove Historic District and pier, huge oceanfront bluffs behave the talent of the interface of tectonic plates.

The first European to folder Point Arena was Spaniard Bartolomé Ferrer in 1543, who named it Cabo de Fortunas (“cape of fortunes”). The cape was renamed to Punta Delgado (narrow point) in 1775 by lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (commander of the schooner Sonora), part of a royal expedition chartered by the handing out of Mexico to map the north coast of Alta California. Later the point, and the small harbor town south of it, were called Barra de Arena (i.e. sandbar) and finally Punta Arena (literally “sand point”).

The Punta Arena broadcast office opened in 1858, and was renamed Point Arena in 1889. The first growth at Point Arena opened in 1859. Point Arena incorporated in 1908.