The past month or so has been a busy one, traveling to different locations and deciphering my notes to get them into chapters and to my editor.  One thing I have realized is that we are at no loss for lighthouse in Oregon, even more than I realized.  And, of course, with lighthouses generally come ghost stories.  A few of the places I have visited this past month are Heceta Head Lighthouse, which I wrote about earlier, and Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, now a wonderful public museum.  Many get confused between Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and I was one of them for a long time.  But there is a big difference between the two, with Yaquina Bay Lighthouse having a more tragic story involving the building itself.  In the end, however, it pulled through and stands exactly where it did when it was built in 1871 by architect Ben Simpson.

An interesting fact about Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is that it went through a number of occupants - Lightkeepers and their families and various groups and organizations.  One of the groups that occupied the quarters in 1906 was the U.S. Lifesaving Service, which later merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to become the U.S. Coast Guard.

After decades of talk of demolition, the little lighthouse pulled through, and on December 7th, 1996, the guiding light was relit.  The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is now operated by the Oregon State Parks Department with the assistance of Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses, and  offer year-round tours of the lighthouse and quarters.  If you are in the Newport, Oregon area, and have a desire to step back in time a bit, I would highly suggest visiting Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.  Enjoy the scenery and maybe even see a ghost or two!