Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

by Jamie Hale | The Oregonian, OregonLive

It lacks the towering presence of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, it isn't equipped with a beautiful Fresnel lens, and it quite doesn't have the striking silhouette that define the other lighthouses along the Oregon coast.



The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse might be one of the more overlooked lighthouses on the coast, but what it lacks in prominence it makes up for with a quaint, understated beauty that's worth your attention.



Walking through the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is a journey back through time, when lighthouses weren't a novelty, but a necessity. Less a traditional lighthouse, and more a two-story house topped with a light, the inside of the building is decorated to look as it did when it was used as an active beacon on the north shore of Yaquina Bay.

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Stairs inside the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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Bedrooms upstairs are filled with period furniture and accessories, as are the kitchen and living rooms downstairs. The life of a lighthouse keeper could be lonely indeed, but the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse feels like any other 19th century home – one that happens to be perched atop an oceanside cliff.



The lighthouse was first lit in 1871, commissioned to aid the ships that were fast making Newport one of the most bustling ports on the coast. Two years later, however, officials deemed nearby Yaquina Head to be a better spot for a lighthouse, making the light at Yaquina Bay suddenly obsolete. It was decommissioned in 1874, and its Fresnel lens was shipped to a new lighthouse in California.



Over the next 40 years, the building was used by the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Coast Guard as a living quarters and a lookout. While the coast guard was there, it built the eight-story observation tower that still stands beside the lighthouse. In 1934, state officials bought the buildings and surrounding land for a state park, but by 1946, the historic lighthouse was slated for demolition.

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The exterior of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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The proposal riled up local residents, who gathered together and formed the Lincoln County Historical Society to save the lighthouse. Over the next nine years, the group struggled to raise funds to save the dilapidated structure, fending off demolition time after time until 1955, when plans to tear it down were finally abandoned. The next year it was declared a historical site and served as a museum despite its state of disrepair.



In 1974, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department embarked on a year-long restoration effort that landed the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1996, it was finally re-lit with a modern lens, bringing light to the north side of the bay for the first time in more than 120 years.

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A volunteer hangs a wreath on the front door of the lighthouse. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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Today, the lighthouse is run by the parks department and volunteers with Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses. They seem to do a good job managing the historic landmark, and offer guided tours to the public – though a self-guided tour is sufficient enough for those who want to general idea of the history and day-to-day life as a lighthouse keeper.



You might get more striking photos up the road at Yaquina Head, but you'd be missing out by passing up on Newport's other lighthouse – a light hardly lit that nonetheless remains.



Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily in the summer, and noon to 4 p.m. daily in the off season. Admission is free, though volunteers ask for small donations.

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--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

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The back of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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Drapes inside the lighthouse. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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The lighthouse keeper's bedroom. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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The lighthouse living room. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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Another bedroom inside the lighthouse. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and lookout tower. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

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