Cape Blanco Light after the long-serving apparatus was exchanged for a more energy efficient LED in 2022. The part that was replaced and supporting historic documentation has been donated to the Cape Blanco Heritage Society archives thanks to docent Brian Zimmerman and our CBHS volunteers!
Help Save the Cape Blanco Lighthouse!
Direct monetary contributions are greatly appreciated, however, there is more than one way that you can help to save the Cape Blanco Lighthouse.
Volunteer favorite_on
We need volunteers from all areas. Currently we are getting offers to forge cast iron and build roads. Do you have a special talent or skill? We need you even if it is just to spread the word! → Learn more.check
Write your government and business leaders. Write your BFF. Write your Moms and Dads.
We started a letter-writing campaign in 2023. → You can help!check
Donate. Donate again. Ask people you know to donate.
Every little bit, or even a lot, helps! $682,000 is not insurmountable. We are only trying to raise part of it in this phase. We can do it one step at a time! → Donate!check
Your creativity can help save our lighthouse! We are offering artisan-designed products as well as plan to have an auction and raffle in the future. We will also have more live events. Have an idea to Save Our Lighthouse? → Let us know!check
Become A Member. Ask people you know to become a member. Better yet, become a Lifetime Member.
CBHS members are the heartbeat of our organization. → We need you!check
At the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Cape Blanco Heritage Society (CBHS) works cooperatively with the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department (ORPD) [Contact Info: Website or call 1-800-551-6949], The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) [Contact Info: Coos Bay District and National Office], The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians [Contact Info: Website], The Coquille Indian Tribe [Contact Info: Website] and Curry County [Contact info: Website]. The U.S. Coast Guard are the stewards of the beacon [Contact info: Website]. The partnerships are different at our other two sites.
Here is Wikipedia's list of Oregon State Representatives. We also feel that any locale with a lighthouse might be concerned with our plight. Here's a list of Lighthouses in the US from Wikipedia. Or begin your global search from Cape Blanco by navigating this fascinating map of Lighthouses of the World. (Just keep zooming out for the big picture and how important and beautiful our little lighthouse is in the grand scheme of things. Thank you.)
Each lighthouse presents a unique set of challenges for funding. There are so many public projects in priority right now, that our nation's lighthouses are taking a backseat. Grants are often available from the National Park Service as well as the State, but competition is fierce. There are also organizations strictly devoted to lighthouse restoration, such as the US Lighthouse Society, that provide funds for restoration. They also maintain a useful directory of Lighthouse Directories, Databases & Organizations that are good leads to other folks who might help. Organizations like FEMA are a possibility, but generally an incident has to reach catastrophic proportions before it can gain their attention.
Our little lighthouse raises its funds by giving $2 tours to the general public. These hard-earned funds were raised by our volunteers and paid for the lighthouse assessment that took place in September 2022.
The lighthouse gate road has been in steady deterioration for many years now, yet took a dramatic turn for the worse in the winter of 2022. Moving the road inland will require investigation into what is called archeological mitigation to ensure we are not violating land that is meaningful to others in our partnership. There are short-term solutions that could reinforce the road for up to 40 years while longer-term solutions are explored.
Download this PDF to see the state of the road when we opened in April 2023. The road has degraded even more since then. It will degrade more in the winter months with the seasonal storms.
Unfortunately, this is a problem happening to many lighthouses. Back in the 1870s when the US Lighthouse Board initially constructed the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, the builders weren't aware that certain metals should not be in contact with other metals. In many preservation situations, it has been a matter of trial and error in best practices over the years. And the extreme weather conditions that our lighthouse has to endure at its extreme westerly exposed point has certainly taken its toll.
The Cape Blanco Heritage Society is doing everything it can to bring attention and resources to this matter. “Save Our Lighthouse” is our effort to help re-open the tower to the public for tours (it has been closed since 2020). It initially began as a letter-writing campaign in which we wrote our partners, government leaders, area businesses, and national agencies to raise awareness of our lighthouse. We also had our first ever Lighthouse Day to support the situation at Cape Blanco (read more about that here). Artists have stepped up and are donating work to help the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. Our efforts are beginning to gain traction outside the arts community. We were contacted by a board member of Knight Foundry (the last water-powered foundry in the US constructed three years after our lighthouse) who wants to help with the cast iron parts that are corroded in the lighthouse. A senior engineering geologist has expressed an interest in designing a short-term fix to the lighthouse gate road that would buy us 40 years until a longer term solution can be put into effect.
Now we are contacting you. Can you help us save the Cape Blanco Lighthouse?
Are you kidding me? No. Lighthouses are not obsolete despite the latest gadgets and gizmos. Many still rely on lighthouses as an aid to modern navigational equipment (As a matter of fact, the Cape Blanco Lighthouse is one of these beacons with a distinction of being the oldest continually operating light in Oregon). Besides that, they have a significant place in our collective maritime history, provide an exhilarating sense of romance, and inspire a universal nostalgia that can never be replaced.
We all need to step up and save our lighthouses. They protected mariners and lives for centuries and now we must show them love and save them in return. 💡❤
The GSA is a governmental agency comprised of a board of realtors that works with the National Park System and the US Coast Guard to find proper stewards for lighthouses that are in or reaching endangered status (learn more about the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000). The process is vetted, but it does mean that a public lighthouse can become the property of a private entity which will change the way we have always accessed the Cape Blanco Lighthouse — Read more about it here.
That is a very good question! Lighthouses are an icon of our world history, representing hope, discovery, innovation, learning and so much more. Perhaps while we are raising awareness and funds for the Cape Blanco Lighthouse we can propose an addition to the Unicode Consortium. We think our icon used in our “Save Our Lighthouse” header is a great start!
Click on the map below to see a view of all of the lighthouses in the world.
