TILLAMOOK, Ore. – When it comes to lighthouses, Cape Meares Lighthouse doesn’t stand tall; it just stands proud, mastering a rugged granite bluff that stands against the crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean near Tillamook.
Just 38 feet tall, it gains stature from the forested headland that supports it, 217 feet above the ocean amid wheeling seagulls, nesting peregrine falcons and spectacular views of Netarts Bay and Cape Lookout to the south.
The lighthouse, built in 1890, is all that remains of a small lighthouse-related settlement that included a barn, a one-room schoolhouse, twin keeper’s dwellings, gardens, two oil houses and a dock.
Gardens and farm animals helped sustain a comfortable – if isolated – life for the keepers.
Decommissioned in 1963 and replaced with an automated beacon on a nearby ledge, the lighthouse was vandalized, its metal surfaces rusted and the bull’s-eyes – flash panels on its Fresnel lens – were stolen.
Vandals stole everything from woodwork to light fixtures from the houses, which were too damaged to be saved and were torn down and replaced with a parking lot.
In 1980, the partially restored tower was reopened to the public, and a replica of the old workroom that adjoined the tower was built to house a visitor entrance and gift shop.
Two years ago, $350,000 more was spent on restoring the lighthouse, which is part of Cape Meares State Park.
A round iron staircase winds up the interior of the stout, whitewashed tower, leading visitors to the lens.
“The lighthouse keeper would sit here,” volunteer Barbara Ellis said, pointing out a place at the base of the tower where a mechanism had to be wound every 21/2 hours, prior to the lighthouse getting electricity in 1934.
Up the tower you can find Ellis’ husband, David, who said the tower was scheduled to be torn down when it was replaced by the beacon. It was saved by area residents who protested the demolition.
“The tower was restored, but no work was done on the lens,” he said.
You still can see gaps where the glass was broken and is missing. Red glass fills some spaces on the lens and was the signature of this lighthouse.
Ellis noted that regulations required a clear line of sight between the keepers’ houses and the lighthouse. The spruce forest that covers the sloping cape represents more than 40 years of growth since the lighthouse was decommissioned.
The line of sight may have been clear, but history records that keepers had to crawl up and down the hillside to the lighthouse on blustery days when it was too difficult to stand.
One of the legends of the lighthouse is that it was built here by mistake; it was supposed to have been built 10 miles south, on Cape Lookout, now a popular state park.
But records show the lighthouse actually was built as envisioned by the Lighthouse Board. Cape Lookout was established as a reserve for a potential lighthouse that was never built because the site was too elevated.
Maintenance was an issue at the lighthouse, as with most such coastal sentinels. Considerable paint was necessary to maintain the tower, since much of the exterior was iron plated and vulnerable to the salt air.
The original workroom was built of masonry in 1895, and the iron staircase was built inside the tower at the same time, replacing a wooden staircase.
Today, the cape is visitor friendly, with an interpretive display, picnic tables and trails that wind through some of the 138 acres of spruce, hemlock and fir.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
