So begins Lischen Miller's tale, "The Haunted Lighthouse," published in an 1899 issue of Pacific Monthly.

Aerial view of Yaquina Bay Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, a charming two-story clapboard structure, is located on a hill overlooking the northern side of the entrance to Yaquina Bay. It was deserted a mere three years after its light was first lit in 1871, and ever since has been the scene for many a ghostly tale.

The story of the lighthouse began in 1871 when Yaquina Bay was a bustling port, the most populated along the West Coast between San Francisco and the Puget Sound. The Lighthouse Board determined there was a need for a lighthouse to guide traffic into the bay and in April 1871, 36 acres were purchased at the north entrance of the bay from Lester and Sophrina Baldwin, original homesteaders, for $500 in gold.

The lighthouse was quickly built - the tower and dwelling by Ben Simpson of Newport, Oregon, the lantern room by Joseph Bien of San Francisco. Its beacon, produced by a whale oil lamp within a fifth-order Fresnel lens, shown for the first time on November 3, 1871.

Charles H. Peirce, a former Civil War captain in the Union army, brought his wife and six children with him when he started to serve as headkeeper at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. The Peirce's ninth child, Kate, was born on March 25, 1872, during the couples first year at the lighthouse.

With increased maritime traffic along the Oregon Coast, the Lighthouse Board decided the area would be better served with a coastal light at Yaquina Head, just four miles to the north. The completion of Yaquina Head Light in 1873 eliminated the need for the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. On October 1, 1874, Captain Pierce extinguished the light, returning with his family to Cape Blanco. The fifth-order Fresnel lens was transferred to the Yerba Buena Lightstation in San Francisco Bay, where it was lit in 1875.

The house remained empty for fourteen years and fell into disrepair. Repairs were made when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used it for crew housing from 1888 to 1896, during the construction of the north jetty. Ten years later, in 1906, the U.S. Lifesaving Service quartered a crew in the house and constructed a lookout station nearby. It was used for this purpose by the U.S. Lifesaving Service and then the U.S. Coast Guard until 1933 when it was again abandoned.

With the house deserted and in disrepair ghost stories abounded. Talk circulated of razing the structure and by 1946 it was scheduled for demolition. In 1948, the Lincoln County Historical Society was formed with the purpose of saving the lighthouse. For three years they worked to raise the money necessary to preserve the structure but to no avail. By 1951 preparations were again made to demolish it, until L.E. Warford, an Ohio industrialist raised in Oregon, joined the preservation campaign and spearheaded a movement to get national recognition for the structure. By 1955, plans for demolition were abandoned, and in 1956, the lighthouse was dedicated as a historical site under the jurisdiction of the Lincoln County Historical Society. For the next eighteen years it served as a county museum.

In 1974, the old deserted lighthouse was restored under the Historical Preservation Program and later accepted on the National Register of Historic Places. The Lincoln County Historical Society conferred the lighthouse to the Oregon State Parks Department.

On December 7, 1996, the light was re-lit, using a 250mm modern optic on loan from lighthouse historian James Gibbs. The light is an official U.S. Coast Guard privately maintained aid to navigation displaying a fixed white light visible for six miles.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse Association now assists the Oregon State Parks Department in managing the lighthouse and offers tours of the house, today in excellent condition and furnished with period pieces. If you take a tour, you will most likely hear a ghost tale or two.

References

1. Oregon's Seacoast Lighthouses, Jim Gibbs, 2000.
2. Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, Randy Leffingwell and Pamela Welty, 2000.
3. Umbrella Guide to Oregon Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1994.
4. "Yaquina Bay Relit," Lighthouse Digest, March 1997.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is open daily except for Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving. From Memorial Day weekend through the end of September hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. The rest of the year, hours are noon until 4 p.m. Call (541) 265-5679 or (541) 867-7451 to reach the lighthouse. Visitors can climb two flights of stairs to the watch room, but the lantern room is not open to the public.