CSHP - Pigeon Point Lighthouse

We attended a  State Park Foundation event here which included a talk by Joanne Semones, author of a number of books on lighthouses and California coast history.

Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park

 "After a struggle to secure property at the point, Congress appropriated a sum of $90,000 in March 1871 for a first-class lighthouse and fog signal on Pigeon Point. The fog signal and Victorian fourplex were completed first, and the twelve-inch steam whistle, with four-second blasts separated alternately by seven and forty-five seconds, was fired up for the first time on September 10, 1871. Torrential rains and difficulty in assembling the spiral staircase, which had been fabricated by Nutting & Son in San Francisco, contributed to delays in completing the tower. After the lantern room was in place atop the tower, the delicate lens was assembled inside, and the light was exhibited for the first time on November 15, 1872, over fourteen months after the fog signal was completed. At sunset that evening, Keeper J. W. Patterson started the brass clockwork ticking, ignited the lard oil in the lamp, and soon the lighthouse according to Patterson was “exchanging winks and blinks with its neighbor of the Farallones.”

https://www.us-lighthouses.com/pigeon-point-lighthouse\

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_Point_Lighthouse

https://www.coastsidestateparks.org/PPLH-restoration 

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

Yaquina Head

Yaquina Head Lighthouse - Wikipedia

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Seaside Sun

This is the first of a series of quilts with a lighthouse.  I found a fun pattern on my trip down the coast last fall with lighthouses,  Never one to follow a pattern completely I deconstructed and have used parts in quilts each with a different color scheme.  

LH - Heceta Head

The hike to this cute little lighthouse led through lovely trees with great ocean views.  It was a perfect stop on the drive down the coast.

Construction of Heceta Head lighthouse becan after Congress appropriated $80,000 for it's cost in March of 1889. 





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Heceta Head - Lighthouse Friends

Heceta Head Lighthouse - Oregon State Parks

Hecta Head - Wikipedia 

LH - Point Montara

A Stop along our Bay To Bridge Hike in 2014, this light station, originally established in 1875 is not open to the public.  It is currently a youth hostel.  The tower itself was built in 1881 in Massachusetts as the Mayo Beach lighthouse.  It was moved and rebuilt on this site in 1928.

https://www.us-lighthouses.com/point-montara-lighthouse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Montara_Light