Kopshever said the Westerly, which park officials hope to pull off the rocks by the end of this summer, "has critical environmental and wildlife impact," with nets, crab pots, the engine block and other materials threatening seabirds.

The Point Reyes, she said, is not currently affecting the environment or wildlife — mostly, it endangers reckless humans — and there is not yet a set date for its removal.

Still, whether they love it or hate it, townsfolk in Inverness say it's time for the boat to go.

"I'm so over it. It's just a sad story," said Rebecca Dixon, whose business, Dixon Marine Services, a wetlands restoration firm, sits in front of the dilapidated vessel.

On a fence behind her business, beside the path most walk to reach the S.S. Point Reyes, a metal sign reads: HAVE SOME RESPECT.

The Point Reyes Peninsula, surrounded by cold, churning waters, treacherous crags and impenetrable fog, has spelled doom for generations of seafarers.

Starting with the San Agustin — a three-masted Spanish galleon lost in Drake's Bay in 1595 — more than 50 vessels are known to have wrecked around the Point. They include "lumber ships and oil tankers, fishing scows and dairy schooners," according to the National Park Service.

On a windswept bluff near the Point Reyes Lighthouse, a trail sign, quoting an 1887 newspaper article, reads: "Punta de los Reyes — Point of the Kings — Spanish navigators named it … and they did well to fear it. God help the hapless mariner who drifts upon it."

Though this is a place of briny lore, the fate of the Point Reyes has been greatly exaggerated.

For starters: It is not a shipwreck. Viral social media posts claim the boat is a 380-foot steamship — which is longer than a football field and about 10 times its actual size — and that it crashed 100 years ago.

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