Newport, OR - Hat Trick - Lighthouses, Harbors and Cobbles

The forecast was for showers and clouds so our first thought was to go to a museum, an inside activity. But, after we had breakfast at the Fish Tails where we shared our regular 2 scrambled eggs, toast and home fries along with an order of stuffed French toast with whipped cream and marionberry sauce (is this dessert or breakfast?) (I left this picture extra big so you could savor it too.)

We headed on over to the aquarium. As we were walking in, we realized that it was really sunny, that the sky was practically clear and what a waste it would be to spend this glorious day inside.

Back home to change clothes, pack a bag with maps, binoculars and warm clothes and we were off for outdoor adventures. Oh, yeah, we’ve got to get some gas. Here’s something that I did not know since I’ve never been in Oregon - it is against the law for you to pump your own gas. We pulled into our first gas station in Oregon and this guy came out just as Gary was looking the pump over to see where to put the card in to pay. Oops, not something he was going to do.

Our first stop was at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, about 3 miles away. We got there early and took the time to walk on the beach where we got a great view of the bridge from the ocean side (can’t ever have too many views of such a special bridge). Then we walked up to the lighthouse.

"Situated at Yaquina, on the coast of Oregon, is an old, deserted lighthouse. It stands upon a promontory that juts out dividing the bay from the ocean, and is exposed to every wind that blows. Its weather-beaten walls are wrapped in mystery. On an afternoon when the fog comes drifting in from the sea and completely envelopes the lighthouse, and then stops in its course as if its object had been attained, it is the loneliest place in the world."

Well, at least that is how Lischen Miller describes it in the book ‘The Haunted Lighthouse published in 1899. This story is about a young girl who mysteriously disappears while in the lighthouse and thus was born the story of a ghost. But, searches of history have revealed that no such person ever existed. But the rumors of a ghost? They lasted.

At 10:00 we walked in, signed the book, made a donation and asked the volunteers about the place. They had lots of information about its building and its bare 3 years of service. And, here we find out that pork in the Congressional budget is not a new phenomenon. Seems that a congressman wanted a lighthouse in his district and pushed this one because of the traffic through the harbor. However, it had only a 5th order Fresnel lens (with 1st order being the largest and brightest), was built farther back on a hill and was obscured by a point of land from being seen from certain directions. Meanwhile another lighthouse was being built with a 1st order Fresnel Lens about 4 miles away. Was that pork or was that pork?

The first Keeper was Charles Peirce (pronounced Purse) who had been dismissed from the army and took this job as Keeper in 1871. I asked the volunteer why he was dismissed but still got this job. Seems he got drunk several times on duty. (And, now we’re going to let him keep a lighthouse? I would think that might disqualify him for this job too.) He brought his wife and 6 children with him and a 7th child was born while he was here. He worked here for 3 years when the lighthouse became obsolete with the opening of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and he became the Keeper of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse.

When the lighthouse was closed, it began to deteriorate and continued to do so. In 1878 the Lighthouse board reported that it "was in such wretched condition as to be almost uninhabitable." Attempts were made over the years to keep it up but it looked wretched in 1940 and many thought it should be torn down.

In 1934 the Oregon State Park system took ownership and the the Lincoln County Historical Society began efforts to restore it. Finally it opened as a historical lighthouse. It is a self-guided tour and all the rooms are open except the lighthouse tower itself. Very nice restoration and the furniture is definitely period.

This is the parlor where they might spend an evening and where they would entertain. Lighthouses were often supplied by ships once a month. Interestingly, in this supply run would be 50 books for the Keeper and family to read. When the month was up the ship would bring a new load of 50 and take back the previous ones. They kept rotating books between lighthouses this way and provided reading material.

We then drove on up to Depoe Bay, the next town up the road with the smallest navigable harbor in the world. The harbor is small but it’s the entry to the harbor that is challenging. It actually was larger but they cut away the rock so that boats could get in. But the way in is tricky. It is an S curve and getting in depends upon the tides, the waves and the wind. We were lucky to see a whale tour boat bust its way through the harbor. It got to the entry and waited a bit, looking for the right swell to get him in. Then the captain turned it around, moved a bit further out, turned towards the entry and, gunned the engines on top of the perfect swell to get in.

Here’s the sequence of photos I took showing this. Note the boat’s wake - he was moving pretty darn fast to get through that narrow slot with an S curve.

Pretty slick how he got in. Of course, he’s done it hundreds of time before but that doesn’t mean that it is any less tricky. Too many variables.

We left Depoe Bay and headed back south towards Newport and along the back road there are several places where we could stand out on a spit of land and look out at the ocean. We had a 180 degree view of the ocean and could see the curve of the earth from the north to the south. Isn’t that amazing?

We also found another bridge by Conde McCullough on a back road which has been replaced by a new section of rte 101. It was originally called the Rocky Creek Bridge but was the name was changed to Ben Jones Bridge to honor the Oregon legislator who was the promoter of a highway on the Oregon Coast from California to Washington. He actually had been a mail man on the Oregon Coast and experienced himself the primitive nature of the early roads. They often were one-horse trails through the hills or, when these primitive trails met the many rivers emptying into the ocean, were beaches, when the tide was out. Don’t try to use this route when the tide was in.

He and a delegation of others tried to get a road through Benton County in 1892 but the Benton County Commissioners laughed at them as a ‘clam diggers’ who didn’t need a road. His comment was that ‘With the help of the clam diggers, we are going to create a new county.’ And then they seceded from Benton County and became Lincoln County. In 1919 as a State Representative, he wrote the first bill authorizing the construction of the Oregon Coast Highway. The voters approved it 2-1 and he had the last laugh. He is called the Father of the Coast Highway and this bridge is dedicated to him. Neat bridge and too bad that it is largely unseen since it is on a ‘Scenic Drive’ and used mostly by locals.

It’s getting late now and we are heading home but the car made a strange turn onto the road which said ‘Yaquina Head Lighthouse.’ And, there we were. I guess the car wanted to see this marvelous lighthouse.

Unfortunately, it was too late to take the tour but we got to walk around it and admire its presence in this location. We climbed the nearby hill for a view of the lighthouse and then we also went down to the beach to see if we could spot an seals (or at least their nose above the waves)

and hear the infamous cobbles. These are rocks of varying sizes which started out as huge chunks of lava but, with the continual wearing of the waves, have become much smaller, rounder stones. When the waves recede, they roll over the cobbles and it sounds like shaking marbles in a paper bag. Neat.

As we were heading out of the park, we saw a large bird in the sky, soaring overhead. Sure enough, it was a bald eagle. Wow. What a marvelous end to a marvelous day.