Open daily; Oct – Feb 10-5 PM. Mar – Sept 9-7 PM. Last tour leaves one hour prior to closing.
As the first in Oregon, and one of the first four on the west coast, the Umpqua River Lighthouse is just one of the 2,000 nationally recognized historic sites in the state. Its tumultuous history began in the early 1850s after locals demanded a solution to the half-dozen vessel crashes in nearly as many years. The local Siuslaw tribe used the Umpqua River as their primary fishery, so the erection of the lighthouse caused unrest between the tribal members and the crew.
Ultimately the crew prevailed and built the lighthouse’s first iteration in 1857, which was destroyed by a storm just four years later. The current version wasn’t built until 1893 but the south coast sentinel stands strong today. Visit the museum located in the coast guard building to tour the lighthouse and learn its full history.
