Yaquina Bay Light

Infobox Lighthouse

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caption =
location = Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site
coordinates =
yearlit = 1871/1996
automated =
yeardeactivated = 1874-1996
foundation = Natural/emplaced
construction = Wood
shape = Square
height = 51 ft
lens = Fifth order Fresnel lens (original)/250MM (replacement)
range =
characteristic = The Yaquina Bay Light is a lighthouse built in 1871—soon after the founding of the city of Newport, Oregon, United States. Located on the north side of the Yaquina Bay in Newport, it was only active for three years due to the establishment of the Yaquina Head Light in 1873, located three miles north of Yaquina Bay. The bay lighthouse was decommissioned in 1874 because the proximity of the two lights caused problems for offshore shipping and boating traffic.

In 1888, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to use the lighthouse as a living quarters while it built the North and South Jetties at the mouth of Yaquina Bay. The United States Coast Guard later used the lighthouse as lookout and living quarters from 1906 to 1915, before moving to their more central quarters just above the busy Newport bayfront. During this period, the Coast Guard also built the eight-story steel observation tower that continues to stand next to the original lighthouse.

In 1934, the Oregon State Highway Division bought the property around the lighthouse for a state park. The park site included the lighthouse, coast guard observation tower, and acres of forested bluff, ocean dunes and beaches.

The Yaquina Bay structure is the only existing lighthouse in the state in which the living quarters are housed in the same building as the light. [Combined living and lighthouse quarters existed in Point Adams Light, but was decommissioned in 1899 and demolished in 1912.] Only a few of this type were built on the entire Pacific Coast. It is reputed to be haunted, along with the keepers' house at Heceta Head Light and Tillamook Rock Light. [ cite web
url = http://www.splintercat.org/YaquinaBayLighthouse/YaquinaBayHaunted.html
title = The Haunted Lighthouse
author = Lischen M. Miller
date = 1899
publisher = reprinted by Pacific Monthly
volume = 11
accessdate = 2007-05-13 ]

See also

*Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site
*List of lighthouses on the Oregon Coast

References

External links

* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/light/yaqbay.htm Yaquina Bay Light entry in National Park Service inventory of historic lighthouses]
* [http://www.yaquinalights.org/ Yaquina Lights, Inc.]
* [http://www.splintercat.org/YaquinaBayLighthouse/YaquinaBayMainPage.html Yaquina Bay Lighthouse]