Standing at 107 feet, Grays Harbor Lighthouse in Westport is the tallest lighthouse in Washington and the third tallest on the West coast. It stands at the entrance to Grays Harbor, Washington States best Pacific coast harbor. Near the end of the nineteenth century, Congress approved funding for the new lighthouse and efforts began to find the right tract of land. When found on Point Chehalis at the southern entrance to Grays Harbor, the property owners were unwilling to sell, so condemnation proceedings were initiated. The government paid the land owners $500 (decreed by the circuit court). Construction began in 1897 and was completed in 1898. The base of the lighthouse sits on a 12-foot-thick foundation of sandstone and the lighthouse walls at the base are four feet thick.
When originally built it stood 400 feet from waters edge. But because of massive amounts of accretion, largely due to the jetty system at the entrance to the harbor, the lighthouse is now over half a mile from high tide.
The original light, which can still be seen in the lantern room, was a third-order clamshell lens and had a signature of alternating red and white flashes. The Fresnel lens assembly originally floated in a trough of mercury and was rotated by a weight. When electricity came to the lighthouse in 1931 that all changed, but the Fresnel lens stayed until 1992. At that time it was turned off and replaced with a new light, a 35 watt bulb, but still quite effective.
The the original accommodations for the keepers and the assistants are no longer standing. Near the lighthouse, however, is a small building with two stone slabs against it and a small information sign. TO LOG THIS CACHE, message me the full date, not just the year, on the sign above the words "Longitude and Latitude Stone." To keep it fair for all, DO NOT include the answer in your log or include it in a picture.
There are tours available to take the 135 stairs to the top for a small fee. And though the lighthouse is not open every day, the cache can be found at anytime. Ownership of the lighthouse is now with the Westport-South Beach Historical Society, which conducts the tours with the aid of volunteers. Enjoy the virtual, and smooth seas.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.
Congrats to jcaw118 for the FTF