Lighthouses were life-saving innovations in the 19th century, when most traffic sailed offshore and ship captains needed land-based beacons to steer true and avoid hazards such as reefs and shoals. Between 1850 and 1870, the U.S. Lighthouse Service built a string of lightstations along the Oregon coast, but this section remained dark. Components for the Heceta Head Lightstation were shipped in and unloaded onto the shore, then carried up the hillside on wagons. In 1894, the five-wick oil lamp at the new Heceta Head Light was lit, helping illuminate that darkness.