#55 – Coveys Great Adventure – Apr 2019 – Port Orford OR

April 2019 – Port Orford Oregon  

       

We arrived at Cape Blanco State Park and pulled into one of the lovely sites reserved for the lighthouse hosts. We have been looking forward to being docents at Cape Blanco Lighthouse for several months. In early March we got several documents from Greg Ryder, the ranger coordinator for the lighthouse volunteers. Besides the housekeeping stuff pertaining to camp sites, mailing addresses, etc., he also included background documents on the lighthouse, the early lighthouse keepers, and scripts that we would use while giving tours. Frankly, it was both exciting and a little intimidating. We both felt like we were going back to school and were a little worried that we would be graded, too!

Looking North. A little breezy today.

All lighthouses are very interesting, but this one is pretty special. Cape Blanco is still a functioning aid to navigation and one of the few in the country that allow visitors onto the same level as the massive lens itself. At Umpqua Lighthouse in Winchester Bay, for example, visitors can only  look up into the lens from the floor below, which is interesting but hardly the same experience as standing right next to it. I haven’t had any visitor who was even slightly blasé about it, especially when they take in the spectacular 360° views of the coast from 250’ above sea level.

The light has been in continuous operation since it was built in 1870. It’s on the western-most promontory of the Oregon coast. Originally oil burning, it was electrified in 1936. The combination of its height and intensity make the beam visible for 26 miles on a clear night.

Dress for April on the Oregon coast

The Oregon coast in April has a well-earned reputation for lousy weather. It was raining when we arrived on March 31, and it didn’t stop until April 18. Lighthouse tours close down when the wind exceeds 50 mph as measured by the National Weather Service’s weather station next door. It closed down for three days in the first two weeks of the month. One day the gusts hit 85 mph. The average wind is about 25 mph, gusting to 45 mph. It never stops. Seriously, it never stops blowing. The porta potty is installed inside a shelter and it is strapped in place. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live on the headland for decades like the keepers did. We are somewhat protected in the campground by a forest of large trees, but all the trees on the headland were cut down to reduce fog. There is no protection at all at the light station.

Telling the story in the Work Room

Four couples share the docent duties five days a week. Two couples are on duty at a time. Each person has a specific role in helping visitors and making their visit as enjoyable as possible. 

The Greeter welcomes each visitor, gives them a brief orientation and a couple of warnings about areas that they cannot visit. The Story Teller then introduces visitors to the life of a lighthouse keeper in the days before electricity, and even before roads on this coast. The second head keeper stationed here was James Langlois, who served as head keeper for 42 years, from 1876 to 1919, and raised five children at Cape Blanco. He holds the record for lighthouse service on the West coast, maybe the entire country. Cape Blanco also employed the first woman lighthouse keeper, Mabel Bretherton, in 1903.

64 steps up to the top

Two more volunteers staff the lighthouse proper. The first is stationed in the Work Room at the base of the tower. She/he explains that oil burning lamps were used from 1870 to 1936, and introduces the equipment and procedures used during that period to maintain the light. Several original items are on display, and there are a number of drawings and pictures that explain what was involved before electrification occurred in 1936. The Work Room volunteer also acts as traffic control to pace the number of people in the tower because the stairway to the top is narrow and space on the upper levels is pretty tight.

Steep and narrow, but worth it!

The volunteer at the top of the tower welcomes visitors arriving at the Watch Level, the floor below the lens room. They explain that after lighting the original oil lamp at sunset, two keepers spent every night on the Watch Level adjusting air flues to keep the light burning as brightly as possible. At dawn they extinguished the light and climbed inside the lens to clean out all the soot from the oil flame to be ready for the following evening.

The volunteer then escorts small groups up a steep, narrow ladder to the Light Level. The lens is quite impressive, standing almost seven feet tall, five feet wide and slowly, silently rotating within the glass walled room that stands about 250’ above the sea. That lens has been in continuous operation, 24 hours a day since 1936. 

As interested as people are in the lens, it is the view that really wows ‘em. It’s the embodiment of the term “sweeping vistas”. Green grass, blue ocean, white surf and blue/green forests stretch in all directions. It really is mesmerizing. When I don’t have visitors in the tower, I just watch the birds ride the winds off the cliffs and the waves crash onto the offshore rocks and the beach. Did I mention it is windy here? Even 250’ above sea level the windows get salt encrusted.

Both of us have gone a little nuts about lighthouses. There is a trove of information on the web about lighthouses, lens designs, light technology and about the keepers and their lives. It’s amazing how tough the people who built lighthouses had to be, given where many of them are located. The keepers’ lives were also not easy, often isolated by weather and distance, occasionally for weeks at a time.

Port Orford is easy to dismiss as a slow spot along Route 101 between Gold Beach and Bandon. At first glance, it doesn’t look very interesting, but it has turned out to be just the opposite. Yes, it has just one market, one gas station, one laundromat, one car wash, one hardware store and one pot shop. See the theme? But a closer look reveals that Ray’s Market (an Oregon family chain) carries six kinds of imported balsamic vinegar, six brands of sourdough bread, makes fresh corn chips every day and smokes excellent ribs and tri-tip every weekend. The laundromat is bright and clean, and the car wash is excellent.

Then you notice the small food co-op that carries a lot of good food, right next door to The South Coast Gourmet that sells some of the best cheeses we’ve tasted and serves terrific soups, quiches and sandwiches. Just down the street is the Golden Harvest Herban Farm and Bakery that serves really, really good food, all cooked on site by people you can actually talk to. Griff’s has good chowder and fish ‘n chips, TJ’s served Kayeanne the best burger she can remember for years, and we have a few more to try to be sure we hit them all.  We are reserving the Red Fish for our anniversary, so I’ll give you that review next month.

Schroeder on rabbit watch

Anyone thinking of visiting this area should consider Cape Blanco State Park. It is small, kind of off the beaten path and very charming. The sites vary in size, but all have significant separation and most have thick bushes that screen them from the neighbors. There are several hiking trails, and beach access is decent, although not to Nehalem standards. About the only drawback is the lack of a dump station, which limits the length of time most people stay. There are several commercial RV parks and a couple of county parks with campgrounds in the local area, too. I’ll cover Bandon in the next edition.

So, this isn’t about our travels, but I wanted to mention a few books I’ve read recently that I really enjoyed:

             A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

             Standing in the Rainbow by Fanny Flagg

             Local Wonders: A Season in the Bohemian Alps by Ted Kooser

More soon,

Bob