Cape Meares Lighthouse

Cape Meares Lighthouse, Oregon coast

This lighthouse was damaged by vandals in January, 2010 by gunfire, causing irreparable damage to the Fresnel lens. This is a loss that will never be recovered, and history that is gone forever. THIS LIGHT IS OUT FOREVER unless enough donations can be made at the Cape Meares Lighthouse Web site. Shame to those who think this kind of destruction is approved of! NEVER. This was the first lighthouse ever that I had an opportunity to visit, and we could not even climb the stairs to see it because of the destruction, and because the stair climbing may have damaged the lens even more.

The perpetrators were charged with a Federal felony, and are due in court soon. I hope they throw the book at them.

Taken on May 24, 2010

Info About the Damage:

Between the afternoon of January 9 and noon on January 10, 2010 an unknown vehicle reportedly drove down a blocked maintenance road to the lighthouse viewing area. A number of rounds were fired, breaking 15 of the lighthouse's windows and several parts of the historic Fresnel lens. Additional rounds were fired into a nearby active Coast Guard light and surrounding equipment. While driving off the maintenance road the suspect vehicle also caused significant damage to a grassy area. Damages were initially estimated to be over $50,000, but subsequent inspections have shown it may cost more than $500,000 to repair the lens. A park ranger stated that the lens was created in Paris in 1888 and had been shipped around the tip of South America to Oregon. Early news reports stated a $1,000 reward was being offered for information leading to arrests, a figure which was raised to $3,000 by the evening of January 11. On February 10, two Oceanside men, Zachary Jon Pyle, age 23 and David Regin Wilks Jr., age 26 were arrested in connection with the vandalism. At the time of the arrests the reward figure had climbed to $6,000.

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