Most Beautiful Lighthouse Lens I've Every Seen

This beautiful first order Fresnel lens is located atop the Umpqua River Lighthouse at Winchester Bay, OR. Barbier and Cie of Paris, France manufactured this lens in 1890. The lens consists of six hundred sixteen prisms and includes twenty-four bulls-eye panels. The lens completes a revolution every two minutes, and its signature light is two white flashes followed by a red flash. This lens is nine-foot seven-inches tall and six-foot two-inches wide, and weighs two tons. The original lamps, which provided the light, were replaced by electricity in the 1930's.  A 1,000 watt quartz bulb currently powers the light, and its light can be seen for nineteen miles out to sea on a clear night.

This lens is only one of two first-order lens' you can climb up inside to see the massive lens close up. This pleasure is only possible via a guided tour. To my knowledge, the other lens is in Brazil. The light in the Umpqua River Lighthouse operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and is operated by Douglas County, OR and maintained by the US Coast Guard. The Coast Guard, in 2011, reclassified the light from a Primary to a Secondary aid to navigation.

The Umpqua River Lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as the nearby former USCG Station Umpqua River. The former USCG Station is now home of the Umpqua River Lighthouse Museum. Seasonally, both the museum and the lighthouse are open for daily tours.

You can also read about this lens in my book "The Wickie." It’s a heartwarming story about the lighthouse keepers, their families, and the many challenges they faced at both Umpqua River Lighthouses. (There were two? What happened to the first? Read the book.)

Restored To An Active Aid To Navigation

The Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, built in1874, was originally equipped with a fourth order Fresnel lens. The lighthouse stood firm against the onslaught of winds, rains, and tides for 40 years at its original location. Then, in 1913 a severe storm significantly damaged the foundation. This required moving the lighthouse westward about 150-feet to where it now sits at the north end of Five Mile Beach, North Wildwood, NJ.

The lighthouse is a wood frame residential design style known as "Carpenter/Swiss Gothic" or "Stick Style" making for a very picturesque but substantially built structure. It is the only one of this type on the East Coast. The tower is 49 1/2 feet high with the light elevation rising to 57 feet above sea level. The light was visible at a distance of 13 nautical miles. Its purpose was to mark the entrance of the inlet for ships supporting the coal trade, and to aid the whalers hauling in their catches to butcher.

For the next 50 years the lighthouse continued in operation, but in 1964 an iron light tower was erected behind the lighthouse. (Left side of picture.)  The iron tower was fitted with a modern automatic marine beacon. After this change, the lighthouse and its entire property was closed, including the old Coast Guard Station, and transferred to the NJ Marine Police. Boarded up, the lighthouse remained so for the next 18 years to deteriorate. In 1977, the lighthouse was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

In 1982, a lease was signed with the City of North Wildwood stating: "Whereby the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection turns over the stewardship of the Lighthouse to the City of North Wildwood."  The city then began restoration, operation, and maintenance of the lighthouse.  In 1986, the modern marine beacon was removed from the iron light tower and placed inside the lighthouse lantern. This action restored the lighthouse once again to a fully active aid to navigation