Historic Oregon Lighthouses

Visit Historic Oregon Lighthouses
By Barbara Pfieffer

Lighthouses in Oregon

The rugged coast of Oregon offers visitors a chance to view and tour some of the most beautiful lighthouses in the world. In all, Oregon boasts eleven lighthouses along its shorelines. Many of these lighthouses have been restored and are a great way to learn about the history of the state. In the next section each of the eleven lighthouses will be explored in detail, starting from the north of Oregon and down the coast.

Tillamook Rock - located at Cannon Beach

Located about one mile from the coastline, Tillamook Rock Lighthouse can be seen from the shores of Ecola State Park. The construction of this particular lighthouse was completed on January 21, 1881, after two years of extremely grueling and challenging work. The lighthouse was continuously manned by five men, four on duty and one on "liberty" on the mainland. Harsh conditions and violent storms accompanied by large waves sometimes left the men stranded on the rock for extended periods of time without a way to restock their provisions and supplies. Because of the extreme weather constantly bombarding the lighthouse on Tillamook Rock, its costs for upkeep and operations were the most expensive in the nation. On September 10, 1957, owing to the increasingly large price to maintain, the light was shut off and the lighthouse left empty.

Today, the lighthouse is privately owned and has been turned into a site dedicated to housing over a half-million urns of human ashes. It could aptly be called a "cemetery at sea". To view the lighthouse, visit Ecola State Park. The lighthouse is best seen with binoculars as it is quite a distance from the shore.

Cape Meares Lighthouse

With a history much less exciting than other lighthouses, Cape Meares sits 200 feet above the Pacific Coast in Oceanside, Oregon. Its light was first illuminated on January 1, 1890 and could be seen from twenty-one miles away. Cared for by numerous families throughout the years, the last keepers left the lighthouse in 1963 when it was outfitted with a flashing light. There was no longer a need for a human being to physically turn the light off in the morning and on at night. Several years later the lighthouse was taken over by the Oregon State Parks and can now be visited by stopping in to Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint at Cape Meares State Park.