Cape Arago Lighthouse #1

by Mitch Shindelbower

Title

Cape Arago Lighthouse #1

Artist

Mitch Shindelbower

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Photograph

Description

Cape Arago Lighthouse..Long before white settlers arrived in 1853, the Coos Indians lived in villages near the bay that now bears their name. Just south of the entrance to Coos Bay and two-and-a-half miles north of Cape Arago (originally known as Cape Gregory), is a small, detached piece of land with sheer cliffs that the Coos Indians called Chief’s Island. The shape of the island has been aptly described as a bony left-hand fist, with an extended index finger pointing northward. It was near the tip of this finger-like extension that the first Cape Arago Lighthouse would be erected in 1866.

Original Cape Arago Lighthouse
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
After the arrival of white settlers, Coos Bay soon became one of the more important harbors along the Oregon Coast, and as the shipments of lumber and coal from the bay grew, so too did the need for a navigational aid to guide vessels to the bay.
Oregon’s first lighthouse was built in 1855-1856 near the mouth of the Umpqua River, twenty-five miles north of Coos Bay, however, in 1863 the overflowing river undermined the brick tower, causing it to eventually topple. By this time, the Coos Bay area had surpassed the Umpqua River region in commercial importance, and it was decided that the interests of commerce would be better served by a new light at Cape Arago, rather than reconstructing the light at Umpqua River. Congress appropriated $15,000 on July 2, 1864 for the light, and the first Cape Arago Lighthouse was illuminated on November 1, 1866 by Leonard C. Hall, its first head keeper.

The upper portion of the octagonal, skeletal tower was enclosed with sheet iron to form a watchroom, and above this was a lantern room housing a fourth-order Fresnel lens. Located at the northern end of the island, the twenty-five-foot tower was linked via a 1,300-foot-long wooden walkway to a one-and-a-half-story wooden keeper’s dwelling, constructed near the southern end of the island. A panel, revolving around the outside of the fixed lens, punctuated the fixed white light with a flash every two minutes.

Rowboats were initially used to access the island, until a low bridge was constructed in 1876 to link the island with the mainland. High seas during a heavy gale in November 1877 cut short the bridge’s life and washed away the station’s boathouse and a portion of the tramway for hoisting supplies from the beach to the lighthouse. Rowboats were a necessity once again until a new bridge was built.

Mineral oil lamps replaced the previously used lard oil lamps in the lighthouse in July 1881, and a frame storehouse was built near the tower to store the more volatile mineral oil.

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February 18th, 2021

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