The Coquille River Lighthouse served an era when safe shipping depended on a lightkeeper and his light. In the adjoining 47 foot tower, a fixed, fourth-order light beaconed 28 seconds and eclipsed two seconds, guiding boats safely across the shallow beach at the mouth of the Coquille River until 1939, when it was abandoned and replaced by an automatic light on the south jetty. In 1963, the Oregon State Parks Division leased the lighthouse and surrounding acreage from the Army Corps of Engineers for park purposes, and together the two agencies restored the weatherworn and deteriorated lighthouse in 1978. Of the eight lighthouses remaining on the Oregon Coast, the Coquille River Lighthouse was the last constructed, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.