Monday, September 26, 2022

LH - Yaquina Head






It was an absolutely gorgeous day to visit this lighthouse.  
















But the lighthouse did not have an auspicious beginning.   After Congress appropriated $90,000, construction work began on September 1, 1871 but was often delayed due to the tempestuous Oregon winter. 
Given its exposed location, the station was in a constant battle with nature. The report of the Lighthouse Board for 1880 describes the struggle.

 


  


This is ... an exposed headland where violent gusts of wind are not infrequent. The soil near the upper surface is very friable and is filled with gravel and small pebbles. During squalls the face of the cliff is swept by the winds and great quantities of sand and gravel are lifted from their beds and driven against the buildings, injuring the shutters and breaking the glass. To screen the station in a moderate degree against this influence a close board fence about 8 feet high was built, in August, around the crest of the bluff close up to the margin, to arrest as far as practicable the flight  of the gravel and throw it back upon the beach below. It has worked very satisfactorily. In January, the roof of the dwelling was greatly injured, the fences were blown down, the pickets broken off, and the displaced material scattered, drift-like, over the station. In October and January, sea-fowls broke, in the nighttime, several panes of glass in the lantern.



Yaquina Head Lighthouse with duplex and newer dwelling - circa 1935
Photograph courtesy University of Oregon Libraries













Monday, September 19, 2022

NHS: Knife River Indian Villages

Located in Stanton ND northwest of Bismark, the Knife River Indian Village National Historic Site was a place of trade for the native tribes long before Lewis and Clark journeyed west.

The park is a tribute to the local tribes, the Hidatsa, the Mandan and the Arikara whose ancestors lived in the area for at least 500 years before the visit of Lewis and Clark in 1804 and wintered nearby at Fort Mandan.


With dwellings and tools to see as well as history to read we spent an enjoyable afternoon there before travelling on to Bismark




Knife River Indian Villages
1974 Stanton ND


Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Park

More pictures








Monday, September 12, 2022

CSP - Wilder Ranch




On a visit in Jan 2020, I took a hike around the property and through the buildings of the Wilder Ranch, which was the main rancho supplying the Santa Cruz Mission.