This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
The Heceta Head Lighthouse, long the brightest beacon on the Oregon coast, has gone dark, due to needed repairs to the complex gears that help rotate its antique lamp works.
And while ships at sea haven’t relied on its powerful beam for years, the thousands of travelers and tourists who still stop to marvel at the lighthouse every year shouldn’t have to wait too long before it is once again relit.
“There is no timeframe at this point to get everything going again,” Lauren Wirtis, an Oregon Parks and Recreation Department official told Lincoln Chronicle. “But we are in the process right now of ordering the parts that are needed.”
The 132-year-old lighthouse stands 205 feet above the Pacific Ocean and is located just off U.S. Highway 101 about 13 miles south of Yachats. Its current lighting mechanism – known as a first-order Fresnel lens, designed by a French physicist and ordered in 1893 from a British company – was first lit on March 30, 1894.
The light, housed atop the 56-foot-tall lighthouse tower, shines a beam so powerful it can be seen 21 miles out into the ocean.
“It’s really a flagship of the Oregon coast,” Wirtis said.
The problem that has kept the light in darkness since March has to do with wear and tear of the huge carriage wheels that allow the 10-foot-tall lens to rotate, she said. The current wheels, made of bronze alloy, have lasted 13 years and must now be repaired by a Eugene machinist.
“It all really just depends on their availability,” she said. “But it all should be on track sooner than later.”
The cost to replace the wheels is $27,000.
The lighthouse itself closed its doors to the public following a 2012 restoration due to safety concerns, according to Hylah Furnish, the state parks ranger who oversees the site. The structure’s stairs are not connected to its walls and vibrations from all the foot traffic was creating damage to the stair supports.
Currently, the only visitors are the park rangers who serve as caretakers to the lighthouse. Part of their regular duties entails checking on the lighthouse and cleaning the lens on a regular basis.
Taken together, Wirtis said, the lighthouse today is less a functional beacon than it is a state park.
Near the lighthouse is the Keeper’s House, which is owned by the U.S. Forest Service but operated under a concession contract by Michelle Korgan of Yachats as a bed and breakfast, gift shop and interpretive center.
Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com