Travel Tips & Adventures

Just a few miles up the coastal road from the Sea Lion Caves (see yesterday’s blog) is Heceta Head Lighthouse. It is one of nine lighthouses on Oregon’s coast that were built to warn fishermen and other mariners of the dangerous shallows ahead.

Heceta Head Lighthouse - one of the most photographed locations in the world

We joined a tour, conducted by a knowledgeable volunteer, which took us into the lighthouse. The tours are free, but gratuities are gladly accepted. With only four people permitted per tour, it can take a few minutes to see the old building. Lucky for us, we didn’t need to wait more than two minutes for our tour.

How Heceta Head was built

Rod, our tour guide, knew every detail of the lighthouse’s history. In 1890, the US government determined that the picturesque vantage point was a great location for a lighthouse. Towering a total of 206 feet (but 50 feet tall) above the sea, the lighthouse took two years to build.

Rod, volunteer guide, inside the lighthouse

Recounting how the 40,000 bricks needed for the lighthouse’s construction were transported without roads, Rod helped us envision hauling the bricks at low tide, the only time that was feasible. On a horse trail along the shore for up to nine hours a day from Florence (the nearest town), the workhorses laboriously dragged bricks and supplies.

Living at the lighthouse

The three lighthouse keepers and their families were totally isolated. Kerosene, the fuel for both the lighthouse and the keepers’ needs, was hauled in, along with their other provisions. The lighthouse keepers and their families grew some crops and raised cows to augment their food supply.

Every four hours, the clock mechanism that kept the light circulating had to be rewound. On a very demanding rotating schedule, the three lighthouse keepers made sure that the lights never went out. Starting at one-half hour before sunset and continuing until one-half hour after sunrise, the keepers devotedly kept the light burning. Six gallons of kerosene were consumed each night for the task. Every 10 seconds, the light flashed over the 21-mile arc to warn of the shallows.
Not until 1934 did the lighthouse become electrified.

Patterns, equipment differ

Every lighthouse uses a different pattern with the light they produce. Heceta Head Lighthouse uses a pattern of light that rotates every 80 seconds. With the different patterns of light, each mariner could navigate by knowing the light – its timing and the light color pattern – of the lighthouses.

Heceta Head Lighthouse’s lenses were produced by Chance Brothers, a British firm that made only three sets for US lighthouses. With a distinctive golden color, the two-inch thick prisms – all 392 of them – are a “first-order” lens, the biggest used for the purpose. Each prism is two-inch thick glass, six feet across.

Lights and prisms

The original kerosene flame gave out 80,000 candlepower, but the new electric bulb provides 1,000 watts of light. It’s bright!

The building itself did not use steel as a frame, so the construction is slowly eroding. As a protection, the previous 10-people tours are now permanently smaller. The spiral staircase leading to the top shakes a bit when just four people are on it.

As of 1963, the lighthouse was automated. The isolated life of the lighthouse keepers and their families was no longer necessary. A spare bulb automatically comes on when a bulb fails.

A view from Heceta Head Lighthouse

If you go…

Even without taking a tour, the views from Heceta Head along the Oregon coast are worth it!

Tours are given March through October.

Officially called – “HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE STATE SCENIC VIEWPOINT,” the park has some picnic tables and is very scenic.

There is a bed and breakfast in the building formerly occupied by the assistant lighthouse keepers.

Note: There is a $3 charge to park in the parking lot. The path to the lighthouse is at least ½ mile long and not handicapped accessible. Parts of the walk can be strenuous.

For more information, see http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_124.php

Tomorrow… Join us on some very challenging roads!

Tags: Historic, Lighthouse, Oregon coast, Scenery, Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Beach, Family Fun, Historic, Romantic Locations, Scenery, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.