January 29, 2006

Steeled Against the Wind

As the first major restoration of the 134-year-old Yaquina Head Lighthouse gets under way, thousands of feet of scaffolding give the central coast icon a striking new look.  Next, workers with the Minnesota-based general contractors Abhe & Svoboda will wrap the lighthouse in plastic, then scrape away old lead-based paint.  Workers also will remove and replace old mortar, repair cracked bricks and replace rusty brackets, decking and cornices.  When the $1 million makeover is complete, Oregon's tallest lighthouse will sport a new coat of paint in its original colors of 1872: white on the 93-foot tower, black on the roof and gray trim.  The lighthouse is closed to visitors during renovations, but the surrounding area and visitor center are open.  The work is expected to be finished sometime this spring, when the lighthouse will reopen for tours.  --Lori Tobias

December 7, 2005 - Yaquina Head exterior restoration begins.

Restoration of the 133 year-old Yaquina Head Lighthouse will begin Thursday. The $1 million project is expected to take at least three months, during which time the lighthouse will be closed to the public.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area announces the restoration of the 133 year-old Yaquina Head Lighthouse will begin Thursday.

It will be the first known full-scale restoration of the lighthouse since its construction in 1872. Abhe & Svoboda, Inc, headquartered in Prior Lake, Minnesota - a suburb of Minneapolis - was the winning bidder as contractor for the project expected to take at least three to four months and cost nearly $1 million. Abhe & Svoboda is, coincidentally, the company that is repainting the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport. Funds for the lighthouse project were provided by Congress in a special appropriation to the BLM.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, equipped with its original first order fixed Fresnel lens, has been operated continuously as an aid to navigation since its inauguration on Aug. 20, 1873. The light is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard Aid to Navigation Team (ANT), Coos Bay, Oregon. An auxiliary lamp will be operated on the lighthouse tower scaffolding during the restoration.

The top-to-bottom restoration will involve removal of paint from the exterior of the 93-foot tall tower and its attached oil house and the outside and inside of the lantern, and restoring or replacing all damaged parts and materials. It then will be painted the original colors - white, black and gray - with state-of-the-art coatings. The interior of the tower and oil house underwent restoration in 2001.

The lighthouse will be closed to the public for the duration of the project.

The Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area will be open as usual every day from sunrise to sunset. For more information about these and other activities at Yaquina Head, contact the BLM at 574-3100 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily, or visit the Yaquina Head website at www.blm.gov/salem/yaquina/index.htm.

Photograph by Laura Eberly

"YAQUINA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE RESTORATION TO BEGIN SOON"

George Collins reports that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area announced that the restoration of 133-year old Yaquina Head Lighthouse will begin on or about August 8, 2005.

"It will be the first known full-scale restoration of the lighthouse since its construction in 1872. Abhe & Svoboda, Inc, headquartered in Prior Lake, Minnesota, was the winning bidder as contractor for the project, expected to take at least six months and cost nearly $1,000,000. Funds were provided by Congress in a special appropriation to the lighthouses custodians, the Bureau of Land Management.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, equipped with its original first order fixed Fresnel lens, has been operated continuously as an aid to navigation since its inauguration on August 20, 1873. The light is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard Aid to Navigation Team (ANT), Coos Bay, Oregon. An auxiliary lamp will be operated on the lighthouse tower scaffolding during the restoration.

The top-to-bottom restoration will involve removal of paint from the exterior of the 93-foot tall tower and its attached oil house and the outside and inside of the lantern, and restoring or replacing all damaged parts and materials. It then will be painted the original colors  white, black and gray - with state-of-the-art coatings. The interior of the tower and oil house underwent restoration in 2001.

The lighthouse will be closed to the public for the duration of the project. Visitors instead will be offered a variety of unusual opportunities, including participation in Ranger-led interpretive tours re-living lighthouse history. Designed to coincide with the restoration has been the re-creation of the vegetable garden for light station families that once existed east of the present lighthouse parking area. The garden will be used for demonstrations about what early families grew to help sustain themselves on what was once an isolated coastal headland.

The Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural will be open as usual every day from sunrise to sunset. For more information about these and other activities at Yaquina Head, contact the BLM at 574-3100 between 8 a.m and 4 p.m. daily."

"The Yaquina Head Lighthouse in north Newport is scheduled to undergo a major restoration project nest year, and in preparation for that work, the lighthouse was inspected by structural engineers on Tuesday.

Based on the preliminary work we've had done, the lighthouse is in excellent condition. We want to make sure we can say that 50 years from now, said Yaquina Head Manager Joe Ashor, an employee of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which over sees the site.

The lighthouse will be 130 years old on Aug. 20, the date on which it was first lit.

After well over a century of exposure to the salt air, the lighthouse is in need of some refurbishing of the metal work. The structure will also receive a fresh coat of paint.

At the same time, Ashor said the lighthouse lens will be removed so that it can be worked on. This 8-foot-tall-lens - a first order Fresnel lens - is made up of several panels containing many prisms. The lens is in good shape, but some of the putty holding the individual (sic) prisms in place has started to loosen. Ashor said he hopes to be able to take the lens to the Yaquina Head Interpretive Center and do the work there, so the public can watch the restoration in process.

The lens restoration, as well as the work on the lighthouse itself, is expected to take three to four months to complete. It will involve erecting scaffolding around the entire lighthouse. Similar projects have been done on other lighthouse, but not to this height. At 110 feet, the Yaquina Head Lighthouse is Oregon's tallest.

Ashor said the setup work alone will likely take a month. And the lighthouse will be off limits to the public during the duration of the project, but people will still be able to visit the other Yaquina Head attractions.

The inspection work done Tuesday was necessary in order to gather information needed for writing a contract for this project, which is expected to cost in excess of $1 million. Ashor said, We're told that we're at the top of the list for next year's funding. So it could be spring or early summer (when the project begins). This kind of project has never been done on this lighthouse, continued Ashor, who added that the aim is not only to restore the lighthouse, but also to keep it historically accurate. That being the case, they are considering changing the paint color on the meal work because the original color was black, not green.

That was the reason a second chimney was added to the oil house during a re-roofing project a couple of years ago, and the shingle color was changed from red to black. Those changes returned the oil house to its original look.

Ashor said they have yet to decide whether to darken the lens during the project. BLM may have the option of using the backup light, which is located on the outside of the lighthouse and does not require the lighthouse lens in order to operate.

If we can do it, we'd like to keep it lit, Ashor said."