No. 244 North Head Lighthouse, Cape Disappointment, WA

North Head Lighthouse
N Head Lighthouse Rd, WA 98624

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Construction of the 65' foot cement and plaster lighthouse was completed in 1897, 40 years after the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, and its first-order Fresnel lens, which came from Cape Disappointment, was lit for the first time on May 16, 1898.
Mariners approaching the mouth of the Columbia River from the north side complained that they were unable to see the light from Cape Disappointment until they were nearly on top of the sandbar. The numbers of shipwrecks to north of the cape convinced the Lighthouse Board to make plans for adding an additional lighthouse.
The North Head Lighthouse stands 194' feet above sea level and has 69 steps leading to the lantern room. Because there are 2 lighthouses so close to each other they needed to be visually different both day and night. The North Head Lighthouse has a solid white exterior plaster finish and a white signal light. The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse has a 10 foot solid black stripe around its midsection and has an alternating white and red flash sequence.


North Head is one of the windiest places in the United States, with wind velocities in excess of 100 mph being frequently measured. On January 29, 1921, winds were clocked at 126 mph before the measuring instrument blew away.
On April 19, 1932, a wild duck went crashing through the storm panes in the lantern room and caused slight damage to the lens. Wire nets had been placed around lantern rooms at other stations to prevent such occurrences.
The original lens was replaced by a fourth-order lens in 1935, when electricity came to the station. Seven years later, on June 22, 1942 at 12:35 a.m. the keeper was ordered to turn off the light. Fort Stevens, Oregon had just been fired upon by a Japanese submarine, and as part of a strategy to keep the location of Fort Stevens and Fort Canby hidden, the surrounding lighthouses were darkened until the danger was over.
Two of the Fresnel lenses used at North Head Lighthouse have been preserved. The first-order lens can be seen at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, inside Cape Disappointment State Park, and the fourth-order lens is housed at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. The two aero beacons remained in the lantern room during the 1990s, but they were replaced around 1998 by a modern beacon lit by a twelve-volt bulb that is on a six-bulb appliance that rotates in a new bulb when one burns out.
The title to the lighthouse and its surrounding property were transferred from the USCG to Washington State Parks in 2012.
Head Keepers: Alexander K. Pesonen (1898 – 1924), Andres G. Siniluoto (at least 1930 – at least 1936), Leonard W. Gabriel (at least 1940).

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No. 242 Ilwaco Marina

Ilwaco Marina
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The quaint fishing town of Ilwaco is located on the north shore of Baker Bay where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean at the south end of the the Long Beach Peninsula. An important transport hub in its early years workers and vacationers would arrive on boats and ferries from cities east up the river and the take horse drawn carriages and later trains up the Long Beach Peninsula.
Ilwaco became well known as an excellent fishing location for Chinook Salmon by the late 19th century. Local soft spruce timber found around Black Lake north of Ilwaco supplied the wood for making shipping boxes for the fresh caught salmon.
There were over 500 permanent fish traps attached to pilings in the waters off Ilwaco until 1934 when the State of Washington in an attempt to prevent overfishing banned the use of Great Lake Style Fish traps.
While Ilwaco sits on a flat basin behind Baker Bay protected from storms and sea swells by the cliffs of Cape Disappointment the channel and waters leading into the Pacific Ocean are treacherous waters to navigate and the area is regarded as one of the dangerous river bars in the world. The shallow waters quickly turn turbulent as strong outgoing tides of the Columbia River meet head on with incoming Pacific Ocean swells producing waves reaching heights of 20-30 feet.
Over 230 vessels have sunk at the mouth of the Columbia River since the 1890, for that reason this body of water is also called the "Graveyard of the Pacific."
The importance of the waterway to commerce and fishing attracts a lot of boating activity heading out to Pacific Ocean past the Columbia River Bar. The inherent risks of navigating the sand bar just off the coast led the United States Coast Guard to establish its largest Search & Rescue Station in the Northwest. 50 crew members staff 9 SAR boats 24/7/365 and respond to over 200 calls a year for assistance. The majority of responses happen during the summer months when recreational fishermen arrive for salmon and bottom fishing and get into trouble.
The United States Coast Guard has a Motor Lifeboat School in Ilwaco to train crews for surf rescue operations.

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