Coos Bay, OR - Cape Blanco Lighthouse

CAPE BLANCO LIGHTHOUSE

After walking through the Lifeboat Museum, we headed several miles down the road to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, named after the 200’ high chalky white cliffs. It juts out from the mainland and is the most westerly point in Oregon. Up in the top with the Fresnel lens you can see the 2 people in the ‘tour’ prior to ours. Actually, we were the only ones in our tour. One of the benefits of being here in March.

You can see in the pictures that there are no trees around the lighthouse since they were all cut to prevent obstruction of the light (the wood was then used in cooking). Here in this older picture you can set he stumps which were then pulled.

Since brick could be made in the region, the lighthouse was constructed out of 200,000 brick which cost only $25 per thousand, about 1/3 of the cost of transporting brick from San Francisco. You can see some of the bricks as you climb up to the light.

There was one house for the 3 keepers, and, although it was a 2-story duplex, they were crowded. At one time, Keeper James Hughes, had 2 children and Keeper James Langlois had 5. Luckily the other assistant keeper was single. (The head keeper had an indoor privy in his half of the duplex while the 2 assistants shared the outhouse.

They requested a second home but, it took 10 years to get and approval and, before it was built, James Hughes had built a home on some nearby property that he owned and had moved out, commuting about a mile to work.

James Langlois and James Hughes were both stationed at Cape Blanco Lighthouse for their entire career, which lasted forty-two years for Langlois and at least thirty-three years for Hughes. Hopefully they got along well, as they spent most of those years at the lighthouse together - along with their families.

The lighthouse was designed to warn of danger and to warn ships away from the nearby reefs. However, there were still several wrecks within the vicinity due to fog or winds. It had a first order Fresnel lens which could be seen for up to 23 miles. Such a little bulb but so much power when reflected through the glass of a Fresnel lens. We could look at it but note the canvas cover in the second picture. It was originally designed to cover the land side of the lens so that it couldn’t set the grasses on fire. It’s not needed now and pulled back.

There were 2 volunteers in the lighthouse and, as is quite common, they lived in an RV, parked in the campground nearby. (In fact the volunteer at the lifeboat station was also a full-time RVer.) The original fuel for the light was lard (pig fat), later replaced by kerosene and finally by electricity. When they were refurbishing the lighthouse for tourists, they uncovered this lintel over the door.

I was surprised to learn that the keepers and their families needed to provide for themselves. Town was a good day’s journey away so they had to grow their own vegetables, raise their own cattle (for milk, cheese and butter)

and make their own clothes and pump water. There was no electricity and cooking was done over a wood stove.

The Keeper had to wear the official uniform at all times: brass button navy blue coat, navy blue pants, button shirt, black calfskin or patten leather shoes, black socks and, of course, the hat. Get caught by the inspector without the proper uniform, you’d get a demerit.

The work was hard but the views along the coast were marvelous.