This article was originally published just after the October 14, 2006 celebration of Cape Disappointment Lighthouse’ 150th Birthday

Roben Estes and Donella Lucero, members of the interpretive staff at Cape Disappointment State Park polished the First-Order Fresnel lens on display at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in preparation for the 150th anniversary of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse last Sunday.

In commemoration of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse’s 150th anniversary, I would like to share with you some of the reports from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Interestingly enough, the Coast Survey found its inception under the orders of President Thomas Jefferson in 1807. It took over four decades before coastal surveys, or maps, were made for the mouth of the Columbia River. It was these surveys and their accompanying maps and reports that convinced Congress to support the construction of the initial lighthouses on the Pacific coast, which included Cape Disappointment Lighthouse at the entrance to the Columbia River.

In 1850, Lieutenant McArthur, assistant in the Coast Survey justified his recommendations for a lighthouse and six navigational buoys near the river’s mouth this way, “the greatly increasing commerce of Oregon demands that these improvements be made immediately; the more especially, since the Columbia is the most important portion of Oregon for the pursuits of commerce.” A report from the same year, authored by Lieutenant Bartlett, also of the Coast Survey, made more specific recommendations as to the location of the placement and quality of lighthouse necessary on the cape. He elaborated, “the summit of the sea cliffs, (which are not covered by the forest) is the proper position for locating the lighthouse…in this position the base of the tower will be about 250 feet above high water mark…the lantern, or light, should be of a power not less than the best light on Navesink; in other words, a marine light of the first power.” Due to these recommendations the lighthouse was placed at its present height of 220 feet above sea level and it received a first-order Fresnel lens. Not just any lens, but a lens that was originally in one of the “twin towers” in Navesink, New Jersey. This is the lens now on display in the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

There was some additional discussion regarding the appropriate placement of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, some thought that the light should be on the highest point of the cape, a place called “Observatory Hill.” Others recommended its present location based on the prevalence of fog banks that “generally rest upon and above the summits of the most elevated hills, while those below are clear and unobscured.” In my observations over the last four years, when its foggy at the cape, there are days that I can’t see the lighthouse or its light from the interpretive center, less than a quarter of a mile away and at approximately the same elevation. Regardless of fog, the selected location also offered “a view to the seaward of one hundred and thirty-four degrees. Indeed, the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse certainly is in a prominent location with a grand view.

Much thought and planning went into the locating of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. The result of all this effort is the presence of the tower at the tip of the cape, slightly lower than the highest point. After all these recommendations went to Congress it still took six more years for the lighthouse to finally be completed and lit. Ever since 1856 the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse has served as a warning for mariners, a guide to locate the river’s channel, and a scenic viewpoint for those of us on shore.

Information and quotes for this article were taken from “Notices of the Western Coast of the United States,” written by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1851.