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Oregon's Beacons

© Sue Barton

My mother's maiden name was derived from the phrase "lighthouse keeper," so I suppose that was the beginning of my fascination with these beautiful and functional landmarks. There are nine publicly owned lighthouses on Oregon's coast and they are some of the most beautiful in the world. A number of organizations including the Lighthouse Preservation Society continually work to keep the lighthouses of North America both working and maintained for the enjoyment of future generations.

Congress appropriated most of the money in the 1850's to build the West Coast lighthouses and they served well for a century or more. Now, many of the lighthouses operate on electricity with unmanned stations. Several have fallen into extreme disrepair, only to be saved from the teeth of death by non-profit organizations, or by tuning into commercial ventures.

The Columbia River Lightship

I grew up on the dry side of the state, and when I was young, all of our television came from the big city of Portland to the west. The weathermen always talked about the weather off the Columbia River lightship. To my young mind a lightship had to be some sort of weather term and must be akin to a hardship, maybe like a storm front. Imagine my chagrin when my husband and I drove across the Columbia River Bridge from Astoria to Washington and he pointed out the now-retired Lightship in the Columbia River. It was replaced by a beacon buoy in 1979, which has also now been retired.


Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast

Published in 2000, "Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, Your Guide to the Lighthouses of California, Oregon, and Washington: by Randy Leffingwell and Pamela Welty is visually appealing and sets down historical facts in an engaging style. The beautiful photographs taken by Leffingwell are augmented by stories of the politics and history behind the lighthouses and their keepers. They include information about women lighthouse keepers, how the lighthouses were constructed, which have been de-activated, and most important - how to get to the various lighthouses for a visit in person.

The most interesting story was that of a construction crew and Coast Guard team working nearly around the clock for five days to restore the Cape Flattery lighthouse near Neah Bay in Tatoosh, Washington. Also worth noting were the descriptions of life as a lighthouse keeper, the artisanship of making the Fresnel lights, and the automation that replaced the need for human presence in these remote outposts.

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