The Coquille Lighthouse Story

The Coquille River Lighthouse, which is situated on the north bank of the mouth of the Coquille River, began operation in 1896.  Congress appropriated $50,000 for the Coquille River lighthouse in 1891 however, due to problems with the plans and delays in acquiring the land, construction finally got under way in the spring 1895.

The lighthouse’s unique elongated octagonal shape is made of brick covered with stucco with a foundation made from local stone.  A long wooden walkway once connected the lighthouse to a wooden duplex that housed the keepers.  The Coquille River Lighthouse was the last government light built in Oregon. 

The lighthouse’s fourth-order Fresnel lens on lit on February 29, 1896. The lighthouse had a fixed white signal, with a two-second eclipse each half-minute, that could be seen for thirteen miles. It also had a first-class Daboll fog signal, which included a 5,000-gallon water tank atop a trestle foundation, built in 1898. In 1907, an oil-powered compressed air plant replaced the steam engine that powered the fog signal.

The lighthouse escaped the 1936 fire, which destroyed many buildings in Bandon.  In 1939, The U.S. Coast Guard took over the lighthouse and determined it was no longer necessary.  An automated beacon was placed on the end of South Jetty to assist mariners.  The Coast guard then removed the keepers’ house, and abandoned the lighthouse. The lighthouse sat abandoned and in disrepair for twenty-four years until the Oregon Parks Division purchased the lighthouse as part of the Bullard’s Beach State Park.    The damage done to the lighthouse by coastal storms and vandals was too extensive for the Parks Division to undertake the restoration alone, so a collaboration between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Oregon developed a three-year project beginning in 1976. The lighthouse opened to the public in 1979.