A free field guide · Oregon
The Lighthouse Circuit
A Saturday worth leaving home for.
A free field guide to 12 Oregon lighthouse sites — history, coastal places, and practical trip planning.
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Find your next lighthouse
Cape Meares Lighthouse
Oceanside, North Coast
Cape Meares first shone on January 1, 1890. Its compact tower holds a first-order Fresnel lens, a reminder that a short building could carry a powerful coastal signal.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Newport (Agate Beach), Central Coast
Yaquina Head first lit in 1873. Its 93-foot brick tower rises above a basalt headland north of Newport. The original first-order lens links today’s automated beacon to the work of its resident keepers.
Heceta Head Lighthouse
Florence, Central Coast
Heceta Head first lit in 1894. The surviving assistant keepers’ house sits beside the uphill approach. The head keeper’s house was later demolished, while the light became automated in 1963.
Umpqua River Lighthouse
Winchester Bay, South Coast
Oregon’s first Umpqua lighthouse station began in 1857 and was lost to erosion. The present tower opened in 1894. Its red-and-white lens gives this station a distinctive place in the coast’s optical history.
Coquille River Lighthouse
Bandon, South Coast
Coquille River marked Bandon’s river entrance from 1896 until 1939. Its tower and attached signal building survived after the keeper’s house was removed, and restoration gave the station a new public life.
Cape Blanco Lighthouse
Port Orford / Sixes, South Coast
Cape Blanco began service in 1870. Keepers James Langlois and James Hughes spent decades here. Today the closed tower and preservation work are part of the story visitors encounter on the grounds.
The people behind the light
A lighthouse never ran
on light alone.
Keepers. Lampists. Families. Crews bringing supplies ashore. Meet the people whose work made a light something mariners could depend on.
Meet the people behind the light →Editorial
Not another travel blog
Each station gets a real entry — when it was lit, what kind of lens, who keeps it now, why it matters, and what the visit is actually like. No SEO filler.
Source-grounded
Linked back to who knows
Every entry cites official sources — NPS, Coast Guard, lighthouse associations, HABS/HAER. We tell you when something needs to be verified before you drive.
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If it helps, support the preservation organizations keeping these lights, lenses, and archives alive. We point you to them on the resources page.