North Head Lighthouse is an active aid to

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

overlooking the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

from North Head, a rocky promontory located approximately two miles north of Cape Disappointment and the mouth of the Columbia River, near

Ilwaco Ilwaco ( ) is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 936 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1890, the city was home to the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company along the Long Beach Peninsula, with its core economy b ...

Pacific County Pacific County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,365. Its county seat is South Bend, and its largest city is Raymond. The county was formed by the government of Oregon Territory in Feb ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. It is part of

Cape Disappointment State Park Cape Disappointment State Park (formerly Fort Canby State Park) is a public recreation area on Cape Disappointment, located southwest of Ilwaco, Washington, on the bottom end of Long Beach Peninsula, the northern headlands where the Columbia ...

History

The North Head Light was constructed in 1897 after mariners complained that the

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse The Cape Disappointment Light is a lighthouse on Cape Disappointment near the mouth of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. History In 1848, a lighthouse was recommended to be located at Cape Disappointment in what was then t ...

, installed in 1856, was obscured to ships approaching from the north by the headland extending southwest from the light. The new lighthouse was designed by Carl Leick, with a tower set on a cliff directly facing the ocean and clearly visible to ships traveling from the north. Other buildings included two oil houses east of the lighthouse, a keeper's residence, duplex housing for two assistant keepers, a barn, and outbuildings, all of which remain on site. The first-order lens at the Cape Disappointment Light was moved to North Head and was first lit at its new location in 1898. In 1935, the first-order lens was replaced by a fourth-order lens. That lens was eventually replaced by an aerobeacon in the 1950s, and later by a modern optic mounted outside the tower. A Crous-Hinds aero marine beacon was put into use at the lighthouse August 1, 1961, and the light was automated in December of that year. A VRB-25 aerobeacon was installed in 1999. The original first-order lens is on display at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Cape Disappointment State Park. The fourth-order lens is exhibited at the

Columbia River Maritime Museum The Columbia River Maritime Museum is a museum of maritime history in the northwest United States, located about southeast of the mouth of the Columbia River in Astoria, Oregon. It has a national reputation for the quality of its exhibits a ...

in Astoria, Oregon. 2009 Photo Contest - First Place Winner (4320525020)

In November 2012, the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

turned over ownership of the light station to

Washington State Parks The Washington State Park System is a set of State park, state parks owned by the state government of Washington (state), Washington, United States, USA. They are managed by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. There are over 140 ...

. Repair and restoration efforts are being undertaken by the state and an independent preservation group, Keepers of the North Head Lighthouse, which is an arm of the non-profit Friends of the Columbia River Gateway.

In the Media

Television

North Head Light was featured on an episode of ''

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally aired on the Sci-Fi Cha ...

'' entitled "Graveyard of the Pacific: Cape Disappointment" that aired in 2018 on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

. The team of paranormal team investigated the Caretaker's House that have reports of a spirit named Mary whose suspicious suicide came into question after she came here with her husband Alexander Pesonen, the first keeper, in 1898. They also explore surrounding forest high on the cliffs near Deadman's Hollow that is said to be haunted by the spirits of Chinook Indians.

References

External links

Keepers of the North Head LighthouseCape Disappointment State Park
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission {{authority control Lighthouses in Washington (state) Transportation buildings and structures in Pacific County, Washington

History

In the Media

Television

See also

References

More reading

External links