The fact that a lighthouse was even meant for Yaquina Head has come into question. Some say the lighthouse was intended for Cape Foulweather, about six miles north.

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Today's Cape Foulweather was named by Captain James Cook on March 7, 1778 for the stormy weather his expedition encountered there. For some reason, Cook did not name Yaquina Head, and until the 1890s it was often called Cape Foulweather by the locals and was listed as such on some nautical charts. Historical records show that the lighthouse was meant to be right where it is, but the undying myth that it was intended for the real Cape Foulweather only adds to its mystique.

It seems there has been trouble with the lighthouse from the beginning. Construction work began in the fall of 1871 but was often delayed due to the tempestuous Oregon winter. Boats bringing materials often had difficulty landing in a cove on the south side of the head. At least two boats were overturned in the surf losing their cargo.

The tower, made from 370,000 bricks from San Francisco, is double walled for insulation and dampness protection. One story, which has circulated for years, tells of a workman falling from the scaffolding into the hallow between the masonry walls where his body could not be retrieved. A fine story, and perhaps an explanation for the station's purported ghost, but records show no workers were killed during construction. Strong winds did blow one worker off the cliff. Amazingly, his oils skins acted somewhat like a parachute and he only received minor injuries.

The lighting of the first order Fresnel lens was delayed due to parts of the lantern somehow being lost in transit. Finally, after almost two years of toil, the light shone for the first time on August 20, 1873.

At 93 feet, Yaquina Head is the tallest tower on the Oregon coast and is also a sibling to Pigeon Point Lighthouse, California and Bodie Island Lighthouse, North Carolina. The light shines 162 feet above the ocean and can be seen nineteen miles out to sea.

But it gets even more interesting.

In October 1920, lightening struck the tower. Keeper Wilson Ald was in the workroom below the lantern room as the tower shook. Lucky for Ald, he wasn't near the lantern room handrails where the electric current burned off the paint exposing the red lead paint underneath.

A few years later, Keeper William Smith went into town with his family leaving assistants Herbert Higgins and Frank Story in charge. Higgins fell ill and Story got drunk. Seeing that Story had not tended the light, Higgins got out of his sickbed and went into the tower collapsing on the landing near the lantern room.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse with dwellings Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Smith noticed from Newport that the light was not shining and hurried back to the lighthouse. Upon his arrival he found Higgins dead and Story drunk. After that, Story filled with guilt, feared Higgins' ghost and always took his bulldog into the tower during his rounds.

John Zenor, a stocky curly haired character, who served as keeper from 1932 - 1954, reported of the ghost, "someone unseen would come in and go up the spiral stairs. After the war [WW II] we never heard him again."

There are still reports of a ghost roaming the beach nearby - a young lady searching for her father who was swept out to sea.

Ships passing close to Yaquina Head have reported their compasses going awry. While eerie, there is a simple explanation. There is a vein of magnetized iron in the outcropping on which the lighthouse sits. If a ship passes too close, a traditional compass will not give an accurate reading.

And it still continues. In 1998, Buddy, a 5-year-old German shepherd, was taking a late rainy night walk with his master near the lighthouse when the dog fell over a cliff. Rescue workers were called out and could hear the dog barking on the beach below. After surveying the scene with search lights, it was determined that the only way to retrieve the dog was to rappel down the cliff. While the crew was waiting for additional help to arrive, the dog suddenly appeared uninjured by one of the fire trucks. No one can understand how he got up the slippery cliff.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse has always been popular with visitors, whether seen or unseen. Keeper Zenor reported at times he would have up to 600 visitors in a day. In 1938, with close to 12,000 visitors, it was the 4th most visited lighthouse in the United States. Taking pride in what was considered one of the best maintained lighthouses on the West Coast, keepers requested visitors to take off their shoes before they crossed the marble rotunda and climbed the 114 stairs. After retirement, Zenor was known to have said he could never understand people's fascination with lighthouses. He worked in the service for 26 years.

The light was automated on May 1, 1966. The original lens is still in place, but is now illuminated with an electric 1,000 watt globe. It has a signature of two seconds on, two seconds off, two seconds on, then 14 seconds off.

For many years the lighthouse was closed to the public. In 1993 the Coast Guard turned it over to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and visitors were once again allowed to climb the tower. Yaquina Lights Inc. works towards the preservation of the lighthouse. A thorough restoration of the tower, costing one million dollars, was completed in 2006. The restoration effort focused on repairing or replacing heavily eroded cast iron pieces at the top of the tower. Nationally prominent metalsmith Alex Klahm, of St. Petersburg, Florida, supervised the work and supplied authentic iron and bronze castings to replace the most severely damaged parts. The lantern room, previously colored red and green, is now black, its original color.

Just south of the lighthouse are amazing tide pools where seaweeds, sea stars, hermit crabs, purple urchins, and anemones can be seen. The area is still quite popular, receiving over 400,000 visitors a year. It is only open to the public during daylight hours. Perhaps so no one gets spooked.

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References

1. "Yaquina Head Lighthouse," Jack Delaini, The Keeper's Log, Winter 1995.
2. Oregon's Seacoast Lighthouses, Jim Gibbs, 2000.
3. Umbrella Guide to Oregon Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1994.
4. Lighthouses of the Pacific, Jim Gibbs, 1986.