Heceta Head Light, Lighthouse at Heceta Head, Oregon, United States.
Heceta Head Light is a 56-foot (17 m) lighthouse built in 1894, standing midway up a 205-foot (62 m) headland at Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint. Its tower rises from a brick base, and its Fresnel lens, made by Chance Brothers, produces a beam visible for 21 nautical miles (39 km). The assistant keepers' house, a Queen Anne–style duplex, stands nearby.
Construction began in 1892 with a crew of 56 and was completed in August 1893 at a cost of $80,000. Stones came from the Clackamas River and bricks from San Francisco; the Fresnel lens was made by Chance Brothers. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Heceta Head lies within the traditional lands of the Siuslaw people, who call the place ɫtúwɪs. They hunted sea lions here and gathered seabird eggs from the offshore rocks. A Siuslaw legend tells that the Animal People built a great stone wall, now the cliffs, and tricked the Grizzly Bear brothers to their deaths there.
The site is reached by road leading to the headland, and visitors can access the base of the structure and explore the surrounding area. The best time to visit is during better weather when the paths are open and views of the ocean are clear.
The remaining keepers' house is a duplex that housed the first and second assistant keepers and their families; the head keeper's separate house was sold for $10 in 1940 and dismantled, its lumber used to build the Alpha Bit bookstore-cafe in Mapleton. The duplex was leased to Lane Community College in 1970 and its Queen Anne porch restored in 1981.
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