Heceta Head Lighthouse from viewpoint
— — the small white tower the cliff holds up.
Not only on a wall.
“The view from the highway pull-off above Devils Elbow, looking south along the headland to a 56-foot white tower set on a basalt shoulder 205 feet above the Pacific. The light first burned in 1894 and still turns; its first-order Fresnel lens carries about 21 nautical miles offshore. The cove below holds a small beach the colour of weak tea, and the wind comes in steady off the open ocean. — from the studio
Heceta Head Lighthouse from viewpoint, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Heceta Head Lighthouse stands on a headland about 13 miles north of Florence, Oregon, between Cape Perpetua and the Sea Lion Caves. The tower is 56 feet tall and sits 205 feet above the Pacific. It was first lit on March 30, 1894, and is the most powerful light on the Oregon coast, visible roughly 21 nautical miles offshore through a first-order Fresnel lens manufactured in England. The headland is named for the Spanish navigator Bruno de Heceta, who charted the coast in 1775. The light is managed today within Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint.
The first-order Fresnel lens is the largest classification in the Fresnel system, eight feet tall, built in 1894 from over 600 hand-ground prisms. It was originally lit by an oil-wick lamp and was electrified in 1934. The lens turns on a clockwork-replaced electric drive and produces a single white flash every ten seconds. From the viewpoint at the north end of the headland the beam reads against the lens-room glass at dusk, a slow rotating spark above the cliff before the full beam reaches out across the water.
The state viewpoint and parking sit at Devils Elbow, immediately south of the headland off US-101; a $5 day-use fee applies. A half-mile trail climbs from the parking area to the lighthouse and the keeper's house. The tower interior is open seasonally for free guided climbs run by Oregon State Parks volunteers; check the park calendar for hours, which run roughly May through September. The classic photograph is taken from the viewpoint pull-off itself, looking south down the coast as the tower catches the last light.