Grays Harbor, WA - $$4.95
This 107-foot-tall octagonal masonry tower was established in 1898 as a harbor light for the busy fishing town of Westport and a coastal light to assist ships along a dark stretch of shore between Willapa Bay and Destruction Island right to the north. This lighthouse is quite low in elevation and there is some concern about rising oceans in the not-so-far future
The Grays Harbor Lighthouse, Westport, Wa
This 107-foot-tall octagonal masonry tower was established in 1898 as a harbor light for the busy fishing town of Westport and a coastal light to assist ships along a dark stretch of shore between Willapa Bay and Destruction Island tight to the north. The 3rd-order Fresnel lens is supplemented by a powerful fog signal, radar and radiobeacon. One of the architectural beauties of the west, Grays Harbor attracts many photographers and artists.
Towering more than one hundred feet from base to lantern, the octagonal Grays Harbor Lighthouse is one of the tallest on the Pacific coast. The light, still focused by the station's original third-order Fresnel lens, serves as a major coastal light and guides vessels to the harbor and fishing town of Westport. The lens has three bull's-eyes, about eight inches in diameter, emitting white and red flashes. The light is visible from about twenty-one miles away.
GRAYS HARBOR
LIGHTHOUSEWestport , Wa(1898)
Towering more than one hundred feet from base to lantern, the octagonal Grays Harbor Lighthouse is one of the tallest on the Pacific coast. The light, still focused by the station's original third-order Fresnel lens, serves as a major coastal light and guides vessels to the harbor and fishing town of Westport. The lens has three bull's-eyes, about eight inches in diameter, emitting white and red flashes. The light is visible from about twenty-one miles away.
Travel information: The lighthouse is closed to the public except on holiday weekends during summer, but it can be viewed anytime from Ocean Avenue in the delightful sea-side town of Westport. Photographers are especially fond of this tower, which rises like an empress above a lush forest of conifers.
In 1792, fur trader Captain Robert
Gray explored the expansive harbor that still bears his name.
The wide, 98-square-mile bay. which reaches 15 miles inland to
the lumbering communities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam, has for generations
been a safe haven for a thriving fishing fleet.
Grays Harbor's broad entrance, some two miles across, is bracketed on the south by Point Chehalis and to the north by Point Brown. It was on the latter cape that, in 1885. the Lighthouse Board resolved to erect a lighted beacon. Although local residents opposed the move and ultimately forced officials to reconsider the decision. In the end, they chose the seaward side of Point Chehalis, in the town of Westport.
During 1897, workers erected a 107-foot whitewashed brick tower that is Washington's tallest lighthouse. Designed by Carl W. Leick. the stately octagonal structure was capped with a plated watch room and fitted with a revolving, third-order Fresnel optic manufactured by Henri LePaute & Sons of Paris. A trio of bullseye lenses projected alternating white and red flashes across 23 miles of ocean. Because the lighthouse had to be built on sand, engineers designed a 12-foot. sub-surface concrete foundation, topped with sandstone blocks, to stabilize it.
Although the original Fresnel lens is still in place, today's light comes from a modern optical system. The lighthouse is located adjacent to Westport Light State Park. The Westport Maritime Museum manages the lighthouse and offers tours.
