Location: Off US 101, 5 miles northwest of Port Orford and 60 miles north of the Oregon-California border
Tours: Open Thursday through Monday. Guided tours of the tower and lens, April through October (small fee) require climbing a 64-step, free-standing staircase.
Facilities: Gift shop, portable toilets
Getting to Cape Blanco Lighthouse: Follow the marked exit between mile post 296 and 297 on US 101, 9 miles north of Port Orford. Drive west 7 miles to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse parking lot.
Vital Statistics: Cape Blanco Lighthouse:
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Height: 59 feet
Elevation: Oregon's highest lighthouse stands 245 feet above the sea
Lens: When the Cape Blanco Lighthouse signal was changed in 1936, the Coast Guard electrified it and replaced the original, fixed, first-order Fresnel lens with a rotating second-order lens, 4 feet 8 inches in diameter and 6 feet 8 inches tall, lit by a 1,000-watt incandescent bulb.
Signature: One flash, lasting 1.8 seconds, every 18.2 seconds
Cape Blanco Lighthouse History: Built in 1870, Oregon's westmost lighthouse is also its oldest, continuously-operating facility. Built of brick, this light was also used headquarters for coastal defense during World War II, and it operated until it was automated in 1980, and the last "keeper" left in 1987. Oregon's first woman keeper, Mabel Bretherton, went to work at Cape Blanco Lighthouse in 1903.
