Cape Meares Lighthouse  •  Circa: 1890  •  Decommissioned: 1963

Short and squat, Cape Meares Lighthouse resides on a cliff overlooking Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge... although at the time of construction... they were just offshore rocks.

The lighthouse was isolated and travel to the nearest community was tough. Raising construction materials from a ship below with a derrick was difficult as well, and through perseverance, materials arrived and were off-loaded safely at the cape and the iron tower was built.

The Henry-LePautre Company of Paris, France created an unusual lens. First order in size, the eight-sided lens was equipped with four with bullseyes panels and four with "drum" panels. Each of the bullseye panels was covered with red glass panes. Once the clockworks system was set in motion, and the light lit, the carefully timed rotation of the lens created a signal of a steady white beam of light varied by a red flash every sixty seconds.

Keepers at this light had the steepest and greatest distance to cover from their living quarters to the lighthouse. The path was a board walkway with handrails to hang on to, and on many occasions this is what they had to do to maintain an upright position while trying to traverse the steep hill to the light.

Augusta Hunt was one of the few women to command a lighthouse in Oregon. Mrs. Hunt filled the head keeper position left vacant by the death of her husband, George. Her term was short, but officially placed her in the records books.

April 1, 1963 was a bittersweet day for the lighthouse: it was automated. Until the early 80's, the light was mostly ignored, vandalized and stripped of its bullseye lenses. About 1980, the lighthouse was opened to the public by Oregon State Parks through various programs that found the light closed more than open. In 1981, a volunteer lighthouse host program began, assuring visitors a trek to the lanternroom for a close examination of this first order marvel.

In 1986, a story was written in Oregon Coast Magazine by freelance writer John Horne, complete with a side bar requesting the return of the bullseye lenses stolen over the years, no questions asked. Local lore places one bullseye broken and thrown in a water impoundment, another was returned by the police who retrieved it in a drug raid; but two were still un-accounted for... unbelievably they were returned! About a week after the article appeared, a young man dropped one off at the Tillamook County Museum. Another week passed, with the last found wedged between the Assistant Park Manager's front door and storm door at Cape Lookout. He found it on his return home on a very rainy day, much to his amazement! The Fresnel lens has not been repaired, but preservation and restoration projects continue at the lighthouse, and someday, it will happen.

Today, a modern beacon sits atop a boring 17' white masonry building, lacking the romance of the nearby historic structure.

Update 2006: We have just learned that the fourth bullseye was returned, and we can no put the local lore to rest! The lens was returned sometime in 2005, but the story just came to our attention. At this time, there are still no plans for restoration of the lens, but the lighthouse continues to open on a daily basis from April 1 to October 31 for visitors who wish to climb the tower for a visit with this extraordinary lens.