Oregon’s shortest lighthouse is the Cape Meares Lighthouse located 10 miles west of Tillamook. The lighthouse stands 217 feet above the ocean and the tower is only 38 feet making it the shortest on the Oregon Coast.

In 1886 Congress approved $60,000 for construction of the lighthouse. It took one year to build using bricks made on the site and then covered the exterior with iron plates.

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The lighthouse was completed and was first lit on or about January 1, 1890. The lens was an eight-sided Fresnel that was hand ground in 1887.

The lens was carefully loaded on to a ship that sailed around Cape Horn, then north along the Pacific Coast to Cape Meares. Workers using a hand-operated crane made from local spruce trees lifted the one-tone lens parts up and over the cliff to the tower.

The keeper and his assistant lived with their families in two nearby houses. Most of their food came from their own garden, supplemented by staples bought during high tide trips to Tillamook every few weeks.

Children raised at the Cape Meares Lighthouse were resourceful. They were educated in a one-room schoolhouse built in the tall timber. A pot-bellied stove furnished the heat and the teacher boarded with the light keepers.

The children traveled between their home and the school on horseback, three to a horse. The schoolhouse was located along the north trail about a mile from the lighthouse.

The lighthouse kids not only learned to make their own fun but also became indoctrinated into the chores of keeping the light.

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Trails lead from the main parking area to the lighthouse and viewpoints overlooking offshore islets inhabited by sea lions and nesting seabirds. Viewpoints are also a prime place for whale watching.

In 1938 Cape Meares was designated as a wild life refuge especially for nesting seabirds. The surrounding vertical cliffs provide protected rookeries for numberous species.

The forests above the cape also afford refuge for birds and animals amid the great Sitka spruce, Western hemlock and fir which covers 138 acres.

Also located here is the Octopus Tree. The popular attraction is an unusually large Sitka spruce named for its unique shape.

More than 10 feet at its base, it has no central trunk. Instead, limbs 3 – 5 feet thick branch out close to the ground like a giant sea creature. It is a very unusual site to see so don’t miss it.

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