Every town has a lonely place; a place of legend; a haunted place. In Rancho Palos Verdes – just 15 miles south of Los Angeles International Airport in southern California – this place has long been known as the Point Vicente Lighthouse, which has stood 120 feet from the sheer cliffs overlooking the ocean since 1926.

From its isolated location on the barren cliffs it has warned mariners away from the jagged coastline for decades. But the light had barely begun the task of its singular function when the shroud of mystery that was to surround it to this day first began. The story of what supposedly happened is one that would be handed down through generations and re-told over and over again.

It was shortly after the lighthouse was commissioned that the story of the fate of the Lady in White was first told. According to the legend, she was the wife of the light's first keeper who lost her life in sorrow when she threw herself off the cliff on which the lighthouse stands, after she discovered that her young husband had slipped and fallen off the same cliff while trying to activate the foghorn during a particularly vicious storm. Since then many people have claimed to see her ghost during full moons and on foggy nights circling the tip of the lighthouse and then dashing like a wispy phantom toward the edge of the cliff in search of her lost lover.

People who claimed to have seen the ghost adhere to her reality, and even on occasion, self-proclaimed ghost hunters have attested to the validity of the ghost of the Lady in White. But others, particularly the Coast Guard officials in charge of the now automated facility, say it's all nonsense.

Point Vicente was discovered in 1793 by English Captain George Vancouver and named for his friend, Friar Vicente Santa Maria. One hundred and thirty-two years later, the U.S. Army, acquiescing to petitions by a coalition of ship's masters out of nearby Los Angeles Harbor, chose Point Vicente as the site for a new lighthouse, which was commissioned and began operating on June 24, 1926. At one time it could boast having the biggest, brightest light on the California coast, capable of casting a beam some 20 miles to sea. The brilliant beacon was derived from a 15,000-watt bulb focused through a five-foot lens. The lens itself, which cost $7,000 at the time, was made in Paris, France, in 1886, and had been in use for nearly 40 years before being installed in Palos Verdes.

The lighthouse was built on a portion of land about 120 feet from the cliffs, which descend about 100 feet to the ocean. The tower is 67 feet tall, and it contains 67 steps. Sketchy records only list three lighthouse keepers before the Coast Guard took over the facility, the earliest of them Anton Trittenger, who assumed the position in 1930. But the identity of whoever tended the light before him – and whether he even had a wife – remains a mystery.

Although the story of the Lady in White began to circulate soon after the lighthouse began operating, it wasn't until the conclusion of the Second World War that it gained legendary proportions. Throughout the 50s and 60s, the legend was the subject of much conjecture, particularly among the teenagers who congregated on the cliffs near the lighthouse. Palos Verdes was, during those decades, largely undeveloped. The cliffs were favorite parking destinations of teenagers, becoming so-called "lover's lanes."

And, of course, what is a good lover's lane without a decent ghost story?

There are several versions of the origin of the Lady in White. In one of them, the white-cloaked woman fell to her death while dancing on the cliff, elated over the return from the sea of a lover. In another version, she falls to her death while looking for the lost ship of a lover. In still another variation, the woman throws herself over the cliff because her lover had died at sea.

But the most popular tale is that of the unfortunate lighthouse keeper's wife. It is said to be her ghost, endlessly seeking her lost husband that has been repeatedly seen haunting the tower and grounds around it.

Although the ghost of the Point Vicente lighthouse has been written about for decades, facts relating to the truth of the legend are sketchy at best. In a 1978 account in the "Palos Verdes View", Coast Guard spokesmen could not deny or confirm the fact that the first lighthouse keeper had died since the records didn't go back that far. But in a 1981 Los Angeles Times article, Coast Guard petty officer Garth Groff said the whole story was wholly false. "People reported to have died never died," Groff said in the article. "The first keeper never walked off the cliff, so it makes it difficult for it (the ghost) to be his wife."

The sighting of the ghost itself, he added, was little more than an illusion. "Fog and light will play funny tricks on your eyes," he observed.

The official Coast Guard word was that the ghost, often seen on the top of the tower, silhouetted against the light was nothing more than an optical illusion; refraction caused by the light as it passed landward. When, in the late 80s, the landward side was painted black, blocking the light's passage, many of the nightly ghostly sightings ceased.

But still reports of hearing moans in the night and even the death scream of the unfortunate lighthouse keeper persist. These too could be simple tricks played by the wind and the sea. So if you happen to be driving past the lighthouse on a dimly moonlit night and see a gossamer phantom, its white robe flowing around it as it moves through the fog toward the cliff, just keep going. It's probably your imagination.

Or is it?