Photos

I took this photo of the Cape Mears Lighthouse in the pouring rain holding an umbrella, or trying to in the crook of my arm, while trying to hold my camera still. It would have been a much nicer photo with a bright blue sky, but now that I think about it, this is more true to what the Oregon Coast actually looks like a huge percentage of the time.

The Cape Meares Lighthouse was constructed in 1890, just south of Tillamook Bay. The stubby, octagonal tower is only 38 feet tall, but sits on the edge of a towering 200 ft. cliff above the ocean.
Like Yaquina Head, Cape Meares has been stalked by persistent rumors that it was built on the wrong site. Again, U.S. Coastal Survey charts seem to be at fault, with the mapmaker's error reversing the actual locations of Cape Meares and Cape Lookout to the south.

The light was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1963, replaced by a powerful beacon mounted on an ugly concrete blockhouse. The lighthouse structures were immediately subject to severe vandalism--the keeper's quarters had to be destroyed, and the four bullseyes from the First Order lens were stolen. Cape Meares Light was eventually turned over to the Oregon State Park system. Over the years three of the four bullseyes have been recovered--one in a drug raid in 1984, one returned to a local museum, and one anonymously left on the Assistant Park Manager's front porch.

The lens has not yet been restored completely, but visitors can climb into the lantern and inspect the huge lens up close.

Oregon Coast Historic Photo Archive