Cleft of the Rock Light, Wooden lighthouse in Lincoln County, Oregon, United States
Cleft of the Rock Light is a privately owned lighthouse attached to a two-story house on the Pacific coast south of Yachats. Its square pyramidal wooden tower, 11 meters tall, has a gallery and lantern. At a focal height of 34 meters it shows alternating white and red flashes every ten seconds, visible for 14 nautical miles.
James A. Gibbs, a former attendant at Tillamook Rock Light and lighthouse historian, built Cleft of the Rock Light in 1976. He modeled it on Fiddle Reef Light, which operated from 1898 to 1958 at Oak Bay, British Columbia. The Coast Guard made it an official navigational marker in 1979. Gibbs died at home on 30 April 2010.
The name references a biblical passage from Exodus 33:22 that also inspired the hymn 'He Hideth My Soul in the Cleft of the Rock'. You can sense this spiritual meaning in the building's title.
The grounds and tower are closed to the public. The lighthouse is visible from U.S. Route 101 near mile marker 166, just outside the northwest corner of the Cape Perpetua National Scenic Area.
The tower holds a stair railing from the original keeper's dwelling at Yaquina Head Light, a stopwatch from Desdemona Sands Light, brass oil cans from Tillamook Rock and Heceta Head, and a crank handle that wound the weights at Point Sur Light. Its two fourth-order Fresnel lenses are not from Semiahmoo or Patos Island.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,787 contributors worldwide.