On February 15, 1893, Congress authorized the construction of a lighthouse on North Head at a cost not exceeding $50,000, and it then provided the first $25,000 on August 18, 1894, and the additional $25,000 on March 2, 1895. It will then be of sufficient power to benefit vessels close to the bar outside and vessels in the Columbia River. …When this light is established, the first-order light at Cape Disappointment will no longer be necessary, and it is proposed to then reduce it to a light of the fourth-order. This, it is estimated, will cost $50,000. Proper measures should be taken for the establishment of a first-order light at North Head.
It is believed that if North Head is marked by a first-order light, and the proposed lightstations at Gray’s Harbor and Destruction Island are completed, that the Pacific coast will be well supplied with lights of the first order from Cape Flattery to Tillamook Rock. The present light at Cape Disappointment is inadequate for the purposes of commerce and navigation. In 1889, the Lighthouse Board threw their support behind a new lighthouse at North Head, writing: North Head Lighthouse with attached workroom Their cry for an additional lighthouse was supported by the many shipwrecks that occurred along the Long Beach Peninsula, just north of the cape.
How did two lighthouses end up so close together?Īfter Cape Disappointment Lightstation was established in 1856 to mark the entrance to the Columbia River, mariners approaching the river from the north complained they could not see the light until they had nearly reached the river. From the main campground at Cape Disappointment State Park you can see Cape Disappointment Lighthouse to the southeast and North Head Lighthouse to the north.