Cape Blanco, the westernmost point in the lower 48

Visitors along the southern Oregon coast often travel west from Hwy 101 down onto Cape Blanco to see the lighthouse on its’ tip.  And that is an interesting destination.  However, the Cape’s story should include the history of the peoples who settled on, or used the lands of the cape. 

The tip of the cape stands over 200 feet above the Pacific shores.  The Sixes River flows into the ocean just north of the cape. And there are forests, grasslands, and other habitats on the lands to its east. 

Before the entrance of Europeans to this area, native peoples lived here, fishing and hunting, likely for many centuries.  By the early 1860’s Patrick Hughes and his wife Jane, completed a long journey from their Irish homeland to settle at this far-western world.  True pioneers, they worked hard to acquire land for ranching and farming (having a dairy herd and exporting butter to San Francisco!).  Eventually Patrick and Jane had almost 2000 acres and nine children! I marvel most at raising 9 children in that pioneer world.

As the ranch grew, Hughes contacted others in Ireland to work in the “new world”.  The Hughes family worked to build a community, a school, and even a church.  Visiting the Cape Blanco Pioneer Cemetery (where a few grave stones are still present) you see names of these early pioneers – O’Sullivan, Duffy, McMullen, with birthplaces such as County Cork…

While there were, perhaps 15-20 farm hands, Jane and her daughters had no “inside” support and cooked and fed all the hands, plus the family. After 30 years working the land on Cape Blanco, the Hughes had saved and built a great farmhouse.  Of course, by end of the 19^th century, when the home was constructed, their children would have been adults.  Two of the sons stayed on the ranch and assisted in its management.  One son left early on to become a priest.  The daughters married and lived in neighboring towns.  And, one son stayed on Cape Blanco and worked at the lighthouse.

That 1898 farmhouse is now open for tours, furnished in period pieces with volunteers

providing great stories about the family life in that house.  The ranch remained in the family for about 110 years.  With WWII, workers became scare to help on the ranch, dairy herds were replaced with beef cattle.  In 1971 the Oregon State Parks acquired the Hughes lands, including the buildings and developed the Cape Blanco State Park.

When we visited the Cape Blanco lighthouse, we had an excellent interpretive tour by a couple of hosts.  We have learned that many RV’ers like to volunteer at this lighthouse or others along the coast.  At Cape Blanco, they have use of a campsite in the state park campground.

Cape Blanco lighthouse started operations in 1870 and is the oldest standing lighthouse on the Oregon coast.  The lighthouse was converted to automated equipment by the US Coast Guard in 1980 and is still used.

We learned so much about the life at the light house – not only did the keeper have to man the light at night, but he also had to farm the land for the family’s major food source, maintain all the light house equipment (a constant job with burning oil the light source back then), and perform upkeep of family housing and farm sheds, etc.  The children were often “home-schooled” (not really a new concept, huh?), and were also “inspected” for clean attire and appearance when the district inspector came to checkup on everything related to the lighthouse.

And I learned that walking up those open, metal steps can trigger my fear of heights – which I had hoped was gone by now.  Wrong!

But the location was wonderful, the air clean and fresh – something that many are searching for in today’s more complicated world.  What a great place to visit! The views and landscapes on the cape were absolutely outstanding.