Forgot to record and tell you.. On October 6, 2022, we were at the Keiser Elks. It was near 6 AM and my cat Dusty just kept “meowing” which woke me up. Then the motorhome starts to shake. I thought Andy was doing something but when I saw him in his chair, we both knew it was an earthquake – 4.4 magnitude and the center was about 50 miles from us. WOW!
That was the second one we felt… The other was in Shenandoah National Park near Luray, VA in 2011 that was centered near Washington DC. That one shut down the Washington Monument for a few years..
Hopefully we will not feel another one.
The first item on our agenda today was to go to the Oregon Dunes Visitor Center. We arrived and found out that it is now a ranger station – Bummer.
So we headed to the Umpqua Lighthouse.
This was the first lighthouse in the Oregon territory. It’s sister lighthouse is the Heceta Lighthouse that we saw earlier. However, this one we were able to tour.
Our tour guide was Linda and she is a full time RVer. She works September and October at the Lighthouse and then heads south to Yuma for the winter. How cool is that.
The tour started here at the museum. The house is original and it was the home of 20 single Coast Guard men. When WWII broke out, 200 men were sent here to patrol the beaches and live in this house. Can you imagine what that was like?
It only lasted a short time and the 200 men were sent a few miles north where housing was built.
One of the older Coast Guard rescue boats. It was meant to right itself in case of a rollover. There are two water tight cabins that the men were able to stay for safety. Today most rescues are done by helicopter although they do still have roll over boats that are used for more that 4 people. Those boats are made out of aluminum.
Coast Guard Lookout Station:
There are two rock jetties that signal the entrance to the Umpqua River:
Those black dots you see are actually a mussel farm. The salt water is mixed with fresh water and the mussels are raised using the suspended culture method. Those dots are what is used to suspend the mussels.
Whale jawbone:
This viewpoint is also a designated whale watching site during their migrations.
The homes you see to the left of the lighthouse is Coast Guard Housing. They have homes and duplexes for families and small apartments for the single folk:
The Lighthouse Keepers Quarters:
The cleaning smocks that they had to use to clean the lenses:
Part of the original logbook of the Lighthouse Keepers:
The original Lighthouse:
Looking from the stairs to the Quarters:
Due to the earthquakes in the region, none of the stairways are anchored to the wall - they were built to stand alone.
The main platforms are sitting on brick ledges and each stairway is attached to the platforms:
The inside was originally painted white, however, they realized that the paint kept the moisture in so all the paint was removed - very carefully.
When the lighthouse was first built, bricks were made by hand and each brick maker’s bricks were a little different. So they had workers match bricks so that each layer was even.
Every sixth (or less) layer, the bricks were laid perpendicular for strength.
One of the brick maker’s wife died during this project and this brick was dedicated to her:
Each brick maker left his own mark on his bricks:
The light on the left is what is now used:
We went to the top – so exciting! This lighthouse is active. Each piece of glass is clear. The red is a cover over the outside of the glass.
Each lighthouse has its own signature light pattern. This one was two white and one red as it turned. That is how the ships knew where there were.
The very middle is what holds the lightbulb:
Closer look:
The red panels outside of the lens:
How cool is that!
The original scope used by the keepers:
And back down we went:
What an incredible tour!
More information can be found here:
http://www.lighthousetrek.com/umpqua.html
https://www.outdoorproject.com/united-states/oregon/umpqua-river-lighthouse
https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=130
An interesting tidbit. If there is nothing interfering with your line of sight, you can only see a little over 20 miles – curvature of the earth. But in order to do that, you would need to be a little over 200’ above sea level.
Many west coast lighthouses are built on a bluff so they can take advantage of the height of the bluff, and build smaller lighthouses. Many on the east coast need to be taller to take advantage of that height.
(Now, that is the simple version – a lot of other factors come into play like intensity of the light, weather, etc. Just an FYI.)
From there we went to the museum. There was a lot of information on the Oregon Lighthouses:
How to tell where you are on the Oregon Coast using the Lighthouses and their light pattern:
Beautiful pieces of glass:
This is the light setup that is currently used to light the lighthouse:
One final look:
The next part of our day is in Part 2. Enjoy!
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