Hard Work at a Lonely Light

Life at Heceta Head Light centered on the beacon in a tiny, isolated community where three keepers were needed to keep the light shining true. They worked day and night, alternating dusk to dawn shifts with assistant keepers, winding the light's clockworks, keeping the lamp lit, and monitoring the beacon at night, then cleaning, polishing, repairing, and painting the station during the day. Daily life also included tending a large garden, caring for chickens, horses, and cows, hunting elk, fishing for salmon and smelt, sending children to a little wood schoolhouse, awaiting the lighthouse tender ship for supplies, news, and new faces, and finding recreation in barn dances or day-long wagon trips to Florence.

Oregon · United States