Hike to Heceta Head Lighthouse

Another beautiful sunny—yet cool—day greeted us this morning. Our adventure for today was a hike to the first lighthouse ever built in the northwest, located about twelve miles north of Florence.

A peek through the trees to the ocean down below.

One of those "photo opportunities."

Sturdy, picturesque Heceta Head Lighthouse serves a dual purpose on its perch 205 feet above the Pacific Ocean. While continuing to aid mariners, its commanding presence lures folks like us to a 549-acre park of trails, viewpoints, tide pools, wildlife habitat, and a beautiful sandy beach.

A beautiful hike up the hill made for some nice photo opportunities. It was named for Don Bruno de Heceta, who surveyed the Oregon coast while on a Royal Spanish Navy expedition in 1775. He was the first European to note the significant expanse of shallow water off the headland rising 1,000 feet above. (Ken, our tour guide told us that the water was only 70 feet deep along this part of the Oregon coast.)

One of the beautiful wild flowers of Oregon, my favorite, is Queen Anne's Lace.

Native Americans valued this land as a hunting and fishing destination. White homesteaders claimed 164 acres of the head in 1888, the same year the U.S. Lighthouse Board approved building a lighthouse on the promontory. The federal government bought 19 acres of the homestead to accommodate the light station.

When the builders finished in August 1893, at a cost of $80,000, the complex consisted of:
• The lighthouse with a 56-foot-high tower;
• A house for the head lightkeeper’s family;
• Duplex housing for two assistant lightkeepers and their families;
• A barn, and
• Two kerosene oil storage buildings.

THE LIGHT
It has been on for more than a century. The U.S. Lighthouse Service lit the wick of the original coal oil (kerosene) lamp on March 30, 1894. That light, produced by five concentric wicks and magnified by a 392-prism British-made Fresnel lens, equaled 80,000 candle power. Its visibility—21 miles from shore—was limited only by the curvature of the earth. The original clockworks that rotated the lamp consisted of a 35-foot cable attached to a 200-pound weight that dropped through the middle of the tower to a weight room. A lightkeeper hand cranked the weight every four hours. Electrical power arrived in 1934, and a bulb replaced the oil lamp.

Three flights of stairs wind around up the tower.

I took this picture for my son-in-law, M, so he could explain it to the boys!

The light now uses a 1,000-watt quartz bulb that produces 2.5 million candle-power to emit one flash every 10 seconds. In 1963, the light became fully automated. It was transferred from the U.S. Coast Guard to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department in 2001.

That's me . . . you know, that little person in the picture!

THE LIGHTKEEPERS

This is our tour guide, Ken, dressed in the proper Lightkeeper uniform.
He claims his tie is an original worn over seventy years ago.

Keeping the light flashing once every minute from sunset to sunrise was no easy task. The lightkeepers had to manually wind the clock. To keep the wicks burning, they had to haul coal oil from the fuel houses up the tower. Then there was always soot on the lens of the lamp to clean off.

The lightkeepers and their families lived and worked in an isolated environment. Until the coast highway was extended to Heceta Head in 1932, trips over wagon trails and the ocean beach to Florence took five to seven hours. Guess you couldn't run to the store for milk!

The Lightkeepers house - today it is a Bed and Breakfast proudly serving a seven-course breakfast daily. What a beautiful home overlooking a spectacular view of the Pacific.

The arrival of electricity in the 1930s reduced the need for lightkeepers. By 1963, automation eliminated the need altogether.


After a morning full of vim and vigor we headed to Mo's for lunch. Mo's is known worldwide for its clam chowder . . . the Marion Berry Cobbler was fabulous too!

Life is Good!