Construction of Heceta Head Lighthouse began in 1892, and was finished in August of 1893. The tower was lit on March 30th, 1894, and has been in use since then
The lens is known as a "first-order" Fresnel lens. Instead of being made in Paris, France, where the creator lived, it was made in London, England, by the Chance Brothers. The origanal cost of the lens was said to be $12,000. It consists of eight panels made up of 640 prisms, each one being two inches thick.
The lens revolved once every 8 minutes. The Revolutions were controlled by a system of weights called clockworks, that were wound by hand every four hours durning the night. The light source inside the lens consisted of a five-wick kersene burner. It generated 80,000 candle power and was visible for 20 miles.
Electric power was installed in 1934. The kerosene burner was replaced with a 500-watt bulb that increased the candle power to over 1,000,000. Now the light was visible for 21 miles. The manually operated clockworks were converted to an electrical system and the lighthouse received a new flash system. The light now flashed every 10 seconds.
1963 saw the edition of a sensor that alerts the Coast Guard station in Florence if the light goes out. Complete automation of the lighthouse eliminated a need for the lightkeeper, and Allick, the last one, retired on july 20,1963.
The light source was again updated, this time with a 1000-watt quartz iodide bulb which can produce 2,500,000 candle power. This new light makes Heceta Head Lighthouse the brightest one on the west coast.
Today, if the lens was to be replaced, it would cost between 5 and 10 million dollars.
In 1978, Heceta Head Lighthouse,along with the house,garage,and tow oil houses, was included on the National Register of Historic Places.
