Cape Blanco Lighthouse

by Ben Prepelka

Title

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

Artist

Ben Prepelka

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Photograph

Description

Here at the westernmost point on the Oregon coast, Cape Blanco juts out into the Pacific for a mile and a half. The large headland with 200 foot cliffs presented many challenges to build a lighthouse to mark this point. Choosing to manufacture 200,000 bricks on site to avoid transportation costs resulted in more problems. The first batch of bricks, deemed only fair, were barely acceptable. When the second batch was rejected, more brick had to be shipped in to complete the project. Upon delivery to the beach at Cape Blanco a strong storm drove the ship on shore and the building materials were lost. Despite the string of setbacks the Cape Blanco Lighthouse was completed in December, 1870, when its first-order lens was installed.
Built on a 47 acre parcel of land, the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, oil house and a duplex light keeper residence were built over a three year period. Although the light keeper’s life was difficult here and relatively lonely, two consecutive light-keepers and their families stayed on duty for eight decades.

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December 20th, 2022

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