Originally, Cape Meares was named Cape Lookout by explorer Captain John Meares in 1788. Nautical charts produced in 1850 and 1853 mistakenly put the name on another cape 10 miles south. By the time the mistake was realized, the name was widely used by mariners for the southern cape. George Davidson, officer with the Coast Survey, decided it would be easier to rename the original Cape Lookout than fix the maps, and in 1857 he renamed it Cape Meares.

Perhaps because of this confusion, rumors have persisted over the years that the lighthouse was originally intended for Cape Lookout and was mistakenly built on Cape Meares. However, the lighthouse surveys submitted in 1886, show that there was no mistake. J.S. Polhemus wrote "Cape Meares affords nearly as good a site [as Cape Lookout] as far as the sea is concerned, and being lower gives a better situation of light with reference to fog, and besides it would be much easier for construction on account of its accessibility from Tillamook Bay."

Cape Meares Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Construction of the lighthouse began in 1888. The first-order Fresnel lens was shipped from France around Cape Horn to Cape Meares. A hand-operated crane made from local spruce trees was used to lift the crates containing the prisms of the one-ton lens up the 200 foot cliff to the tower. The tower is made of sheet iron lined with bricks, the only one of its kind on the Oregon coast.

The light was lit for the first time on January 1, 1890. Though the squatty lighthouse was only 38 feet tall, located on a 217-foot cliff, it could be seen for 21 miles. The lightstation consisted of the tower and two oil houses. In 1895 a workroom abutting the tower was added.

The lightkeeper and assistant lived with their families in two houses located where the parking lot is today. About once a month the family would make a trip to Tillamook for supplies. The quickest way was to take a rowboat over Tillamook Bay. The trip had to be timed just right with the high tides. During low tide, the bay became a muddy mess. The other route was a mud road over land. The family once wrote of an all night horse and buggy ride to reach a doctor. Today the drive to Tillamook is 16 minutes.

Electricity came to the lighthouse in 1934, and the two oil houses were dismantled. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1963 when an automated beacon was installed on a concrete blockhouse a few feet from the tower. The new light can be seen 25 miles at sea.

After the new light was installed, the Coast Guard talked of removing the old tower. The workroom was removed, and the tower started rusting away. Local citizens opposed the destruction of the tower, and eventually, land transfers were made and funds allocated making restoration of the lighthouse possible. A replica of the workroom was rebuilt on the east side of the lighthouse. However, the door was positioned on the south side of the workroom rather than on the north side as on the original, to better accommodate visitors. The lighthouse was opened to the public on Memorial Day, 1980.

During the vacancy, the tower was subjected to vandalism. All four bull's-eye prisms were stolen from the lens. In 1984, one of the prisms was recovered in a drug raid in Portland, Oregon. After a 1986 magazine article pleaded for the return of the others, two more found their way back. One was given to the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, and another was anonymously left on the doorstep of a Cape Lookout assistant park ranger.

Today Cape Meares Lighthouse is part of Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint and is interpreted by Friends of Cape Meares Lighthouse.

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References

1. Oregon's Seacoast Lighthouses, Jim Gibbs, 2000.
2. "Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint," Visitors Pamphlet, Oregon State Parks, 1999.
3. Umbrella Guide to Oregon Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1994.