Spectral Keepers of the Lights

Haunted Lighthouses in Oregon Open For Night Tours

They’ve stood on Oregon cliffs and headlands — wind-blown, sand-blasted and blinking for nearly 140 years — and now the governor is encouraging Oregonians to pay homage. With the utterance of six “whereases,” one “therefore,” and the stroke of a pen, Ted Kulongoski has proclaimed August to be Lighthouse Month in Oregon. And with that declaration came news that of the seven lighthouses open to the public, two of the haunted ones will be offering night tours.
Unfortunately, Heceta Head visitors won’t be touring inside, as the program is an education on how early sailors navigated by the stars, but Yaquina Head will be opening the doors to visitors at night. Yaquina Head Lighthouse is home to at least one, maybe two ghosts.

In the late 1920s, Keeper William Smith went into town with his family leaving his Assistants Herbert Higgins and Frank Story in charge. Higgins fell ill and Story got drunk. Seeing that Story had not tended the light, Higgins got out of his sickbed and went into the tower collapsing on the landing near the lantern. Smith noticed from Newport that the light was not shining and hurried back to the lighthouse. Upon his arrival he found Higgins dead and Story drunk. After that happened, Story feared Higgins’ ghost and always took his bulldog into the tower during his rounds.
John Zenor, who served as keeper from 1932 - 1954, reported of the ghost, “someone unseen would come in and go up the spiral stairs. After the war we never heard him again.”
There have also been reports of a ghost wandering the beach nearby, reportedly a young girl whose father was washed out to sea.

For more information on tour times, dates, and fees, see the story at the Statesman Journal online.

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