Lighthouses always seem to be high on the list of tourist attractions and the lighthouses of the southern Oregon Coast are no exception.  Most of them stand on outstanding natural locations furthering their value for the casual tourist.  All of them steep with historic and functional value.  Nine lighthouses survive until today with a couple lost to time along the way.  Two private lighthouses have also developed in recent years, but are not open to the public. Here, we start with lighthouses in southern Oregon.

BEGINNINGS

Most of the lighthouses were erected during the time of the US Lighthouse Board which superseded the earlier US Treasury Department’s Lighthouse Establishment in 1852.  The Lighthouse Board ran the lighthouses along the American coastlines until 1910 under a special board made up of Army, Navy, and civilians of “scientific attainment” responsible for navigation and administration of aids along the coasts.  The board was still under the supervision of the Treasury Department.  With military men advising, employees of the Board got uniforms by 1884 to perform their duties in.

The Board became the US Lighthouse Service under the Commerce Department in 1910.  Civilians replaced the military officers and the quasi-military life of the old Board changed.  The change was not long, however, as the Lighthouse Service merged with the US Coast Guard in 1939.  The Coast Guard still runs both lighthouses and lightships along the coasts of America.

Originally, the Lighthouse Board wanted a light visible from along the entire Oregon coastline.  For practical purposes, this meant a little over 20 miles, the distance over which a First-order Fresnel lens could be seen from.  The ideal was never reached, though not without trying.

UMPQUA LIGHTHOUSE

THE FIRST LIGHT

The first of the lighthouses lighting up the night in southern Oregon went up at the mouth of the Umpqua River in 1857.  At the time, gold discovered in southern Oregon pushed thoughts the Umpqua River would to become an important entry point for the region.  Built on the north sand spit concurrently with the construction of the Army’s Fort Umpqua, the site, hoiwever, poorly chosen.

The lighthouse with a 93-foot-high tower was built on a soft sand structure in an unknown flood zone.  The light chosen for the house was a Third-order Fresnel lens which could be seen up to 18 nautical miles.  Lasting a little longer than the fort, the lighthouse underwent serious floods in 1861 and 1863 undermining the base of the tower.  Following the 1863 storm, it was decided to abandon the lighthouse.  The tower finally collapsed shortly after the Fresnel lens was extricated from the building in January 1864.

NEW LIGHT

Thirty years elapsed before money became available to build a successor.  In an attempt at fulfilling the line-of-sight standard for coastal illumination, the project gained approval in 1888.  This time, the more stable ground on the south side of the river mouth chosen, 165 feet above the river.  Construction problems delayed the lighting of the First-order Fresnel lens from Barbier et Ciel of Paris until December 1894.

The light signature was two white flashes with a red flash every 15 seconds.  The wheel rotating the light gave out after 89 years of service.  The Coast Guard put the light back into service in 1985 after a couple years without a light.  The lighthouse leased to Douglas County in 2010, still operating the light as a Private Aid to Navigation – PATON.  The Coast Guard used to have a station next to the Lighthouse serving as their Lifeboat Station.  Lighthouse keepers’ houses have made way for Coast Guard family housing.  The former Lifeboat Station became a museum run through Douglas County with tours to the lighthouse.  The Coast Guard has moved their boat station to nearby Winchester Bay.

ASIDE

An interesting sidenote found here as well as the former lighthouse south of the mouth of the Columbia River – Point Adams – is the distance the lighthouse is from the ocean today.  The building of the South Jetty on the Umpqua entrance has attracted a large accumulation of sands separating the former cliffside from the sea by several hundred feet.

CAPE ARAGO LIGHTHOUSE

A NEW LIGHT

The second of the lighthouses completed along the southern Oregon Coast was at Cape Arago near the southern entrance to Coos Bay.  Coal and lumber exports out of the bay fulfilled the need for a navigation aid for the mouth of the bay, much more economically important than the mouth of the Umpqua River. 

In 1866, the lighthouse was first erected on Chief’s Island reachable only by an often-difficult row.  The tower reached twenty-five feet high, octagonal in shape.  Inside the tower, a fourth-order Fresnel lens with a fixed white light interrupted by a panel rotating around the outside of the lens every two minutes.  The keeper’s house set off on the south side of the island.

OPERATION

Because of the difficulty of reaching the island, bridges connected to the mainland.  The first bridge – a low bridge – lasted about a year before it washed away.  Not until 1898 before a more robust higher bridge finally went up.  Erosion meanwhile brought about a replacement lighthouse in 1909 built near the keeper’s home with the old light becoming a foghorn building.  The new fourth-order Fresnel rotated every twenty seconds with three white flashes separated by four seconds and then twelve seconds of darkness.

A third lighthouse went up in 1932 – the other two eventually torn down along with the keeper’s duplex in 1957.  Coast Guard personnel lived in a four-plex on the mainland until the light automated in 1966.

The Fresnel lens removed from the lighthouse in 1993 and on display at the nearby Coast Guard Air Station North Bend.   The replacement light estinguished in 2007 with the island returned to the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw in 2013.  Chief’s Island previously a long-time burial ground before being picked for a lighthouse.  With the light turned off, the high bridge was removed as is access to the island.

CAPE BLANCO LIGHTHOUSE

LINE OF SIGHT

Cape Blanco is Oregon’s furthest most point to the west.  The cape is known for strong winds blowing off the ocean here.  Wind power advocates have looked hard at utilizing the potential in recent years.   Winds and offshore shoals were the reasons for building this lighthouse far from any harbor in 1870. Cape Blanco is the most isolated of the southern Oregon Lighthouses.  Before building the lighthouse, the headland’s dense forest razed from the landscape.

Supplies landed on the beach to the south of the cape.  As was a problem with other lighthouse constructions, the first vessel bringing supplies from San Francisco ran aground in a gale causing the loss of much of the initial shipment. It was not until 1885 before a road linked the lighthouse with Port Orford.

lIGHT IN THE WIND

The lighthouse tower eventually went up, built of bricks to a height of fifty feet above an oil room.  A two-story keeper’s duplex, also of brick, went up just to the south of the tower.  In the tower, a first-order Fresnel light shown out up to twenty-three miles to sea.  In 1936, a new light replaced the first one – a Second-order lens still in operation – rotating to give a white flash every twenty seconds.  A radio beacon added on in 1925.

The principal keeper was Harvey Burnap who had been at Umpqua River when it fell into the sea in 1863.  Two lightkeepers, James Langlois and James Hughes spent their entire careers at the light – Lanlgois was first assistant from 1876 to 1883 and head keeper from 1883 to 1918 while Hughes served as first assistant from 1889 to 1918 and head from 1918 to 1926.  Hughes was the son of Patrick and Jane Hughes who had a 2,000-acre ranch abutting the lighthouse property.  Their Victorian house – dating to 1898 – still stands and as part of the Cape Blanco State Park, is open normally (except for Covid) for tours.

In 1980, the lighthouse became automated, the keeper’s homes already gone by that date.  Normal times, you can sign up for a tour of the light and tower.  With Covid, the tours are temporarily discontinued.

YAQUINA BAY LIGHTHOUSE

A NEED?

As with the economic need for the Umpqua and Cape Arago lighthouses, the increase in commerce into Yaquina Bay by the late 1860’s brought about the erection of this lighthouse in 1871.  The Lighthouse Board recommended building the light further north on Yaquina Head to better serve maritime traffic moving up and down the coast.  Local interests prevailed, however, and a light went up here in 1871 with a Fifth-order Fresnel lens – capable of about ten miles.

The oldest structure in Newport, the lighthouse only operated for three years before Yaquina Head replaced it.  Captain Pierce, a former captain in the Union army, served as head keeper here in the only lighthouse-keeper house combination along the Oregon Coast – it is also the only wooden lighthouse on the coast.  With the closure, Pierce moved along with his seven children to serve at Cape Blanco for another ten years.

AFTER ITS SHORT LIFE

The lighthouse was empty until the North Jetty on the entrance to Yaquina Bay was being built between 1888 and 1896.  The home served as the construction engineer’s house. 

In 1906, the US Life-Saving Service put a crew into the old building.  The Life-Saving Service merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to become the US Coast Guard in 1915.  The USCG used the building until 1933 – they put up the observation tower during that period.  After the Guard moved out, the old lighthouse’s future appeared bleak until the Lincoln County Historical Society formed to save the house in 1948.  The Society moved in for the next eighteen years in 1956.

360 view from lookout just below the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse overlooking the Yaquina Bay bridge and the entrance to the sea. For 360 effect, hold mouse down and move.

In 1974, the Oregon State Parks took over restoring the lighthouse. The light eventually relit in 1996 with a lens donated by James Gibbs, a former lighthouse keeper and historian.  This is probably, beyond the private lights, the least important of southern Oregon Lighthouses. Tours are available in normal times – hopefully again, post-Covid.

YAQUINA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE

From the least important of southern Oregon lighthouses, we move to one of more value. Yaquina Head is often mistaken for Cape Foulweather lying a few miles further to the north.  Construction began here in September 1871 – just as the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse began operating.

Delays occurred due to boats capsized trying to offload along the beach to the south of the head.  The tower double-bricked – some 370,000 bricks from San Rafael, California – and ninety-three feet high, rises highest on the Oregon Coast. The light – First-order Fresnel from Barbier & Fenestre – shines out nineteen miles.  A keeper’s house went up one year after construction began and the light shown out another 11 months later.

The station was electrified in 1933 and automated in 1966.  The two keepers’ houses were demolished in 1984.  The original lens is still lighting the sky with two seconds on two seconds off two seconds on and fourteen seconds off signature.

In 1993, Yaquina Head fell to the Bureau of Land Management as an Outstanding Natural Area.  Today, the tower restored with tours – in non-Covid times – given to the general public.  Entrance into the headland is $7 – one good reason to be old and credited with a Senior Pass. Of the southern Oregon lighthouses, the majority are part of the State Park system requiring $5 day parking passes. Yaquina Head is the exception.

COQUILLE RIVER LIGHTHOUSE

LIGHT UP THE RIVER

Similar to the reasoning for other southern Oregon lighthouses at Newport, Cape Arago and initially at the Umpqua River mouth, commercial interests inland along the Coquille River led to the development of a jetty on the south side of the river mouth next to the little town of Bandon in 1880.  The jetty deepened the river channel increasing the maritime traffic.

In 1891, Congress found money for a lighthouse to aid ships going along the Oregon coast – line-of-sight – and to help traffic over the river bar.  A Fourth-order Fresnel light went up in the forty-foot-high tower visible out to over twelve miles.  A fog trumpet extended out from the west side of the lighthouse building base.  Keeper’s houses set up a short way to the north along with a barn and a large water cistern.  The light began its watch early in 1896.

THE LIFE OF THE LIGHT

Oscar Wiren and Oscar Langlois spent much of their lives tending to the lighthouse here either as assistant or head keepers – Wiren was assistant from 1903-1906 and head from 1906-1921 while Langlois assisted from 1910-1921 and was head from 1921-1939; his father was long-time keeper at nearby Cape Blanco.

There was a move to move the lighthouse over to the south jetty in 1916, but the only change was the installation of a foghorn in 1924.

The Lighthouse Service became part of the Coast Guard in 1939.  It was decided the light was no longer needed, replaced with an automated beacon at the end of the south jetty.  The keeper’s house removed and the lighthouse abandoned.

THE AFTERLIFE

In 1963, Bullards Beach State Park included the lighthouse in its grounds.  A restoration program involving state and Army Corps of Engineers reversed years of damage.  A solar-powered light went into the tower in 1991.  Erosion on the foundation is a constant problem involving a large restorative effort in 2007.  The lighthouse is usually open for tours from the middle of May to the end of September, though covid has interrupted that.

HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE

FIRST COMES THE IDEA

Heceta Head is probably the most photographed of all Oregon coastal lighthouses, northern or southern. Lying right along the busy US 101 highway, the view from the roadside pullout to the south is especially dramatic with the forested headlands above.  Wild drama all around. The forests a newer feature than first appears.

Brunode Hezeta y Dudgoita, a Basque explorer in the service of Spain, sailed along the Oregon Coast in 1775.  The cape was named in his honor though many mispronounce the correct name with the loss of the “z”.

Wanting a light visible along the entire Oregon coast, the US Lighthouse Board recommended closing a 90-mile gap between Yaquina Head and Cape Arago with a lighthouse here. Congress approved money in 1889 to build a new lighthouse.  Two years later, 19 acres with a spring were purchased along with another 239 acres set aside by the Department of Interior.  Prior to constructing a lighthouse, a seven-mile road needed construction to bring supplies to the site.  The road was often impassable due to tides, mud, or weather.  Supplies for the construction were shipped north from San Francisco to Florence and then further on the road.

AND THEN THE LIGHT

Two keeper’s houses were built – a house for the head keepers and a duplex for the assistants – in a Queen Anne style.  A First-order Fresnel lens from Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England went into the tower – the lens shipped in molasses to protect it.  The light first lit up the night in 1893.  The tower here used the same plans as those used further south at the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

The light electrified in 1934 and the head keeper houseremoved.  By 1963, the light was automated.  The duplex remains, leased out as a private bed and breakfast establishment.  The complex became a state park in 1994.  The light still operates as a private aid to navigation – PATON.

PRIVATE IDEAS

CLEFT OF THE ROCKS

For purposes of inclusion, the big house sprouting a private lighthouse tower just south of Yachats on US 101 also should list on Oregon Lighthouses, southern or northern, lists.  James Gibbs had been a lighthouse keeper and a longtime maritime historian.  He built this private house with its tower replicating a former British Columbia lighthouse on Fiddler Reef.  It was not his first attempt at a private lighthouse having built one earlier in the Puget Sound at Skunk Bay.

Located on the north side of Cape Perpetua, most ocean traffic stays well of shore here because of the rocky nature.  His light sits 110 feet above the sea and the halogen bulb light – taken from a Canadian Coast Guard light on Solander Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island – extends out to sixteen miles. Jim died in 2010.  The house remains as a private residence,

PELICAN BAY

In 1999, another couple built a second private lighthouse above the Chetco River harbor – part of their residence.  It sits 141 feet above the sea with a light extending out to twelve miles.  You can see the house sitting above the large Beachfront Inn on the south side of the harbor. Both private lighthouses are just that, private.

SOURCES

To learn more about the Life-Saving Services and their continued work as part of the Coast Guard, you really need to start with David Pinyerd’s master thesis from the University of Oregon which he has put online, The Preservation of Pre-World War II Coast Guard Architecture in Oregon. He also authored one of the Arcadia Publishing volumes from their popular Images of America series, Lighthouses and Life-Saving on the Oregon Coast.

The US Coast Guard History site and the Facebook sites of the different stations along the coast make for greater understanding of the past and present challenges of the Coast Guard – Cape Disappointment, National Motor Lifeboat School, Tillamook Bay, Depoe Bay, Yaquina Bay, Siuslaw River, Umpqua River, Chetco River, North Bend sector, Columbia River sector and Portland.

Several articles have been cited from the Oregon Encyclopedia efforts operated by the Oregon Historical Society – Washington has a similar effort entitled Historylink.

There is lots of information to be found on the Lighthouse Friends website and the US Life-Saving Service Heritage Association website, as well.