The waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to Portland is formed by the Columbia River and its major tributary, the Willamette River. Ships entering from the ocean must first cross the Columbia River Bar, a turbulent, shifting sandbar where the force of the Pacific collides with the river’s strong current. This crossing—known since the nineteenth century as the “Graveyard of the Pacific”—was one of the most dangerous on the West Coast. Once past the bar, vessels navigated up the Columbia’s broad, tidal lower reaches before turning south at its confluence with the Willamette, about a hundred miles inland. From there, ships followed the winding Willamette River through lowland marshes until they reached the deepwater docks of Portland, which emerged in the mid-1800s as a major inland port linking the Pacific trade routes to Oregon’s interior.

Willamette River Lighthouse being moved to shore in 1946 Photograph courtesy Daily News

In the early years of navigation, before modern dredging and engineering, this waterway posed immense challenges. Shifting sandbanks, unpredictable currents, and seasonal flooding made passage difficult even for experienced pilots. Mariners relied on landmarks, lead lines, and local knowledge to guide their vessels, often anchoring overnight to await better conditions.

The U.S. government began improving navigation along this waterway in the mid-nineteenth century, constructing lighthouses at Cape Disappointment and Point Adams to mark the entrance to the Columbia River and placing eleven unlighted buoys in the river. The Lighthouse Service eventually added more aids to help mariners navigate the 115 miles from the river’s mouth to Portland. By 1892, there were thirty-eight river lights, and the Lighthouse Board noted their usefulness in its annual report for that year: “The post lights in the Columbia and Willamette Rivers…are a great benefit to navigation, and night boats now run regularly on the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. They are of much use during fog, as the lights can be seen, except in very dense fogs, at a distance of 100 yards or more, and the pilots rely on the lights for a new departure. Without their aid, night boats could not run regularly.”

The Lighthouse Board also noted in its 1892 annual report the need for a lighthouse to mark the important junction of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers:

The channel at the entrance to the Willamette River from the Columbia River is quite narrow, and vessels coming up or down the Columbia River bound into the Willamette River have at times in foggy weather great difficulty in locating the entrance. This causes much delay and great inconvenience to the regular passenger and freight steamers. A light and fog signal at the mouth of the Willamette River would be of great service to the commerce of that river. It is estimated that these could be placed for not exceeding $6,000, and it is recommended that an appropriation of this amount be made therefor.

An act approved on August 18, 1894, finally provided the desired $6,000. German-born architect Carl W. Leick, employed in the district offices of the Lighthouse Service in Portland, drew up the designs for Willamette River Light Station that were sent to the Lighthouse Board in February 1895.

Twenty-three bids were submitted in response to an advertisement for proposals to construct the station, ranging from $2,675 to $6,500. Richard Hoyt’s high bid of $6,500 was nearly $2,000 more than the second-highest bid. A newspaper article noted that Hoyt’s bid “was evidently prepared while he was suffering from the mental aberration which rendered it necessary to send him to the asylum.” The contract was awarded to Thomas Wilson, the lowest bidder by just $14, and required that the work be completed within four months.

Willamette River Lighthouse serving as a ship reporting station Photograph courtesy U.S. Lighthouse Society

The contractor finished the project on October 30, 1895. The fog-signal machinery was then installed, and the station was placed into commission on December 31, 1895. The following Notice to Mariners advertised the establishment of the new navigational aids:

Willamette River Light Station—Notice is hereby given that, on or about December 31, 1895, a fixed red lens-lantern light will be established on the platform projecting from the N. corner of the structure recently erected in the water off the N. point of Nigger Tom Island, E. side of the mouth of the Willamette River, at its junction with the Columbia River. The focal plane of the light will be about 31 feet above mean (tidal) high water, or 16 feet above average summer high water. The structure is a one-and-one-half-story frame house, painted white, with lead-colored trimmings and red roof, supported on a platform of piles. … During thick or foggy weather, a bell will be struck by machinery, a single blow every 10 seconds.

The one-and-a-half-story, octagonal structure featured a kitchen, workroom, and a room for the fog bell machinery on the main level, and a bedroom and storeroom in the upper story. The flat roof was surrounded by a balustrade and could have supported a lantern room, but the light was instead displayed from a lower platform closer to the water. Numerous wooden piles were driven into the river bottom to support the main structure and a detached woodshed/oil room located near the boat davit. Carl W. Leick modified and enlarged this design a few years later for the Desdemona Sands and Semiahmoo Lighthouses.

Joseph Burchall, previously an assistant keeper at Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, was appointed the first keeper of Willamette River Lighthouse. He resigned after five years and was succeeded by Daniel R. Hurlburt, also transferred from Tillamook Rock. John Dunphy replaced Hurlburt in 1906 and served until his death on September 15, 1908. Mary Dunphy, his widow, maintained the light and fog bell for just over a month before Thomas E. Stanfield was appointed keeper.

The longest-serving keeper was Hermann G. Halkett, who oversaw the station from 1912 until his retirement for physical disability in 1928. Keeper Halkett entered the Lighthouse Service in 1893 as Hermann Grossheim. He served under this name as a steward aboard the tender Manzanita and as assistant keeper at Cape Disappointment, North Head, and Cape Meares. In 1902, Hermann Grossheim had his name changed to Hermann G. Halkett and then accepted a transfer to Five Finger Island Lighthouse in Alaska. While serving as head keeper there, he was charged in 1903 with “improper assumption of authority” and “using threatening language towards the assistant keepers.” The service considered dismissing Halkett but decided instead to transfer him to the position of watchman at Tongue Point Depot in Astoria and reduce his annual salary from $900 to $600. Halkett served at the depot until being appointed keeper of Willamette River Lighthouse nearly a decade later. Halkett was known for proudly pacing the widow’s walk atop the Willamette River Lighthouse in his keeper’s uniform.

Edgar P. Skinner was brought in from Tillamook Rock, where he was serving as head keeper, to replace Keeper Halkett at the close of 1928. Skinner served until the station was automated in 1933. The station was discontinued in 1935, after minor navigational aids were established nearby.

The Portland Merchants Exchange purchased the abandoned lighthouse from the government and hired a barge crane to relocate the structure to pilings on a beach on nearby Kelley Point in 1946. Workers in the repurposed lighthouse would report incoming vessels so linesmen and stevedores could be ready for them in Portland.

The Merchants Exchange built a new ship reporting station just downstream on Sauvie Island in 1957, and the old lighthouse was once again abandoned. A fire claimed the lighthouse on June 13, 1958.

Keepers: Joseph Burchall (1895 – 1900), Daniel R. Hurlbut (1900 – 1906), John Dunphy (1906 – 1908), Mary Dunphy (1908), Thomas E. Stanfield (1908 – 1912), Christian Bang (1912), Hermann G. Halkett (1912 – 1928), Edgar P. Skinner (1929 – 1933).

References:

1. Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
2. Umbrella Guide to Oregon Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1994.
3. “Blaze Levels River House," The Sunday Oregonian, June 14, 1959
4. “Woman Ignores Floor Water Level in House Located at Willamette Mouth,” The Oregonian, May 27, 1956.

A modern light is located off Kelley Point today.

The modern tower is owned by the Coast Guard.

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