Funky to Kooky Facts About Oregon Coast Lighthouses

Published 07/03/25 at 5:25 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Oregon Coast) - They are the stuff legends are made of, and often ghost stories appear through this type of lore. Oregon's lighthouses are some of the state's biggest tourist attractions, with hundreds of thousands visiting its half dozen big beacons every year. (Above: Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in the 1880s)

They're often remote and mysterious, causing us to fill in the blanks on the existence of these stately monuments. Rumors and legends about them have swirled around the coastline since their beginnings. Oregon Coast Lighthouse Tours 2025: What's Open, What Isn't

Each one, however, comes with very real and sometimes very kooky factoids.

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

The truth behind this lighthouse is certainly weirder than fiction itself – or any of its ghost tales, for that matter. It's never been accessible to the public, and thus has always sparked the imagination..

Construction on this blob of rock began in the 1880s, after initial plans were scrapped to put it on a fog-prone, blind spot area atop Tillamook Head. Things didn't start well. Some sources say the first man to step on the rock to do some surveying drowned, creating an immediate public outcry that perhaps this wasn't a good idea. Others don't tout this story.

Either way, there was a lot of danger involved and the company employing the builders had men sequestered off the south Washington coast – on a ship – to keep them from reading any news on the mishaps.

Lightkeepers lived there in shifts too: four of them, usually a few months at a time. It was a brutal existence, and one keeper reportedly went mad from the solitude.

Early on in its existence, a ship called the Lupatia nearly hit the lighthouse in dense fog, but was warned away just in time. However, it did soon after slam into Tillamook Head, killing all aboard except the ship's dog.

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957, with the last keeper, Oswald Allik, proclaiming “I return thee to the elements.”

Allik was sent to Heceta Head Lighthouse right after (see below).

One of those who served aboard the lighthouse was U.S. Coast Guard officer Jim Gibbs, who later became a famous writer on maritime subject. Gibbs built the lighthouse home near Yachats, which was sold in recent years. Life On Oregon Coast Lighthouse was 'Terrible'

Cape Meares Lighthouse

It's the shortest of the Oregon coast's lights, standing at a stumpy 38 feet high. Yet in the end, the fact it's standing on a cliff makes it the tallest of them.

Back in 1890, it was constructed of bricks that were made right on the spot, along with iron plates that had to be hauled by wagon from Portland over the bumpy terrain of the coast range. The first order Fresnel lens was imported from Paris, France, shipped around Cape Horn, up the west coast to Cape Meares and then brought up 217 feet from a boat below the cliff by a wooden crane.

The keepers quarters were originally located where the parking lot is now, about a quarter mile away. The light was decommissioned in 1963, and eventually taken over by the group that watches over it today, after some serious vandalism to the structure nearly meant its complete demise. Quirky to Obscure Rumors and History of N. Oregon Coast's Cape Meares Lighthouse

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

The cool thing about Newport is that there are two lighthouses in town. This one is the tallest structure on the coast, sitting at the tip of Yaquina Head.

There has been considerable debate over the last 100 years or so whether Yaquina Head's lighthouse was accidentally built in the wrong place. The theory goes that due to some typographical error in the plans, it was built there instead of towering Cape Foulweather, about 10 miles north.

Not so, says Scott Gibson, producer of the documentary “Oregon Lights.”

“Basically, there's no reason a lighthouse as tall as Yaquina Head would need to be placed high atop Cape Foulweather where it would be in the fog line much of the time,” Gibson said. Tallest and Most Storied on Oregon Coast: Newport's Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse now - note the difference in trees

This one was only active for about three years in the late 1800's, just as the building of its neighbor to the north ended the need. Yaquina Bay Lighthouse began to decay fairly quickly and fell into serious, even creepy disrepair by the early part of the 20th century. Landmarks and Legends of an Oregon Coast Lighthouse, Newport's Yaquina Bay, Part I

Somewhere in there, a tale got started about the ghost of a teenage girl named Muriel, who had fallen to her death while being chased by pirates. As late as the '90s this tale was passed around as a kind of historical “fact” - or at least its lore – until someone discovered it all came from a fictional short story that had been published in the local paper in the early 1900s. Oregon Coast History: Newport's Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and Trying Times

Heceta Head Lighthouse

This lighthouse near Florence is the only one on the coast to still have its keeper's quarters. They've been turned into a charming little B&B, and it's on the national historic registry. It's also known as one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.

Heceta Head's lightkeeper's quarters is rather well known for being haunted as well. Whether or not that's something you believe in, some of the stories come from more credible sources and cooler heads than most ghost hunter tales. Either way, it's a fun bit of lore that helps some create some amusing ghost tours every Halloween.

More quirky tales:

In the '80s Oregon officials had to blast away some of the rock below because tourists kept getting swept out from one outcropping. Lost Parts of Oregon Coast: When They Blasted Rocks at Heceta Head

In a bit of a twist, the last man to leave Tillamook Rock Lighthouse also went to serve here as a lightkeeper just as the place was closed down. Surprisingly, One Man Connects Oregon Coast Lighthouses at Heceta Head, Terrible Tilly

Also the Imploding Whale story

Umpqua Lighthouse Near Reedsport

The most unusual fact uncovered so far is that it's quite near the spot of the first documented shipwreck on Oregon's coast. Oregon Coast's First Documented Shipwreck? Sea Otter in 1808 at Reedsport

Cape Arago Lighthouse near Coos Bay

Photo courtesy Oregon's Adventure Coast

There have been a lot of incarnations of this one, rebuilt a couple times. Then there's the fact the island that it's on is literally falling apart. Tales of the End of a South Oregon Coast Lighthouse: Chief's Island and Arago Light

Coquille River Light, Bandon

This stumpy little beauty could be the shortest on the coast, depending on how you gauge that. It clocks in a couple feet taller than Cape Meares, but this one is at sea level while Cape Meares is a couple hundred feet above on a cliff.

It very nearly was rebuilt once in its 80-year run, but more impressively a ship actually hit the structure in 1903. Coquille River Lighthouse HIstory Adventures.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse Near Cape Blanco

Courtesy Cape Blanco Historical Society

Right now the most exceptional thing about the historic lovely is that it really needs help fundraising to fix up the place and keep it in public hands. S. Oregon Coast's Cape Blanco Light Fundraising for 'Dire' Need of Repairs

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