Today a Landmark Day for Oregon Coast's Yaquina Head Lighthouse - Newport History

Published 07/24/26 at 7:55 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Newport, Oregon) - On this day in 1873, a brief telegram set the stage for one of the Oregon coast’s most enduring landmarks. It also helped open up a kind of conspiracy theory for historians way down the road - thus more lore for the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. (Photo circa 1910 / Lincoln County Historical Society)

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which runs the lighthouse and the area around it, posted the document on social, pointing out it made the lighthouse possible for others to enjoy over 150 years later.

It was on this day that Major Henry M. Robert notified the Chairman of the Lighthouse Board that Yaquina Head Lighthouse was ready for its first illumination, writing: “Foulweather Light will be exhibited, if approved, August twentieth.”

Approval came quickly, and the coast gained a new beacon. “Happily for us, his request was approved!” the BLM said.

Document courtesy BLM

The document also reveals how sometimes it was called the wrong geographic name - which came into play in later years, as you'll see.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, rising 93 feet from the western edge of its basalt promontory, began guiding ships on August 20, 1873. About half an hour before sunset, Head Lighthouse Keeper Fayette Crosby lit the lamp and waited for the oil reservoir to heat, allowing the flame to intensify and cast its beam across the Pacific. Tallest and Most Storied on Oregon Coast: Newport's Yaquina Head Lighthouse

This photo - from the Gerald W. Williams Glass Negatives Collection (P 326) at OSU - was also labeled "Cape Foulweather Light" - circa 1905-15)

The lighthouse and its keeper’s quarters were completed the same year, though the quarters were demolished in 1984. Today, visitors can climb the tower’s 114 steps for a view from the lens room, now managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

For more than a century, debate has lingered over whether the lighthouse was built in the wrong location — a supposed mix-up that placed it at Yaquina Head instead of Cape Foulweather, 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.

It seems that misnomer in that telegram is part of why this theory persisted. That piece of paper is not the only place the term "Foulweather" appears instead of "Yaquina Head."

Exactly why that happened - well, that's the mystery now. However, back then many landmarks went by numerous names at the same time, like the Devil's Punchbowl. Origin of an Oregon Coast Landmark: Devil's Punchbowl Geology (and its name)

Yaquina Head Lighthouse underwent a major renovation between 2005 and 2007, including a seven-month closure. During that period, the tower appeared almost otherworldly, wrapped in layers of protective material as crews restored the historic structure.

More than 150 years after that first telegram, the light remains one of the coast’s most recognizable sentinels, still standing watch over the shipping lanes it was built to protect.

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