Cape Blanco Lighthouse

We ducked our heads into the gale-force north wind to reach the entrance of Cape Blanco Lighthouse, which sits high above the Pacific Ocean on 47.7 acres.

In a cove sheltered from the onslaught of wind and about half a mile inland from the lighthouse, a two family dwelling with fireplaces in each room for heat is also on the acreage.

This isolated lighthouse holds at least four Oregon records; it's the oldest continuously operating light which was put into action on the eve of December 20, 1870; the most westerly; the highest above the sea (245 feet); and Oregon's first woman keeper, Mabel E. Bretherton, signed on in 1903.

My husband and I, along with our daughter Jan, were touring the lower section of the Oregon coast last October and entered the red brick building to see the workings of the lighthouse. Most of the materials used for the construction were shipped in, however, the bricks were made locally and of the 200,000 used, 20,000 were inferior and rejected.

One of the two rooms on the lower level was used to store the tools of the keeper's trade and oil. The other was used for an office and bunkhouse for the keeper on duty whose job was to keep the light in working order from sunset to sunrise.

We climbed a steep, narrow staircase of 64 steps that hugged the outside curved wall to the lantern room. The original Fresnel lens was non-rotating and probably had drum-shaped panels to provide a steady beam of light, provided by an oil lamp that was Cape Blanco's signal.

Sometime after 1911, the signal was changed to a new signal that provided flashes of light instead of a steady beam. The change was accomplished with the clockwork system that lowered a shield around the light source at timed intervals. This change added, "winding the clockworks" to the keeper's list of duties, such as cleaning the oil lamps and keeping them filled with fuel and polishing the prisms of the huge Fresnel lens.

The clocks of this system, used in lighthouses along America's coast lines, were set to codes which were listed in a Light List for mariners and enabled them to know their position by the light signals.

In late 1935, the Cape Blanco Lighthouse was electrified and an eight-sided rotating lens, with Augustine Fresnel's invention of the optic prism system and built in France by Henry LePaute, was installed. As the new lens turned it provided a flash of light every 20 seconds.

A 1,000-watt bulb has replaced the soot-producing oil lamps of old. Gone are the keepers who spent hours polishing the magnificent lens and winding the clock. Today it rotates with the help of a 120-volt, 75-RPM electric motor specially manufactured for lighthouse duty. The electrified light flashed its 320,000 bright beam, 1.8 seconds every 18.2 seconds.

The eight blocks of prisms resemble 4" wide Venetian blind slats and are about 1/2 inch thick and focus light lost above and below the light source back into a single beam. The light is focused through the center of the lens, or "bull's-eye," creating a highly visible beam.

The combined works of Fresnel and LePaute is what we saw in the Cape Blanco Lighthouse and is an artistic masterpiece that glitters like millions of diamonds. Cape Blanco Lighthouse is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the area is fenced and manned.

Before these security measures were in place vandals entered the unattended historic landmark and chipped a number of the beautiful prisms. We were told that the cost of repair is prohibitive. Our guide asked us not to touch the prisms (maybe he caught a glimmer of intent in my eyes) as the grease from hands distorts the light beams and suggested our steps of decent be backwards.

Returning to the car in bent positions and wind ruffled, we opted not to see the keeper's residence and to continue our drive along Oregon's exquisite coastline.