Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, Oregon: The “Haunted Light” and the 1899 Story Behind It

Haunted Lighthouses in the Northwestern US
The white wooden Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport, Oregon, with its square tower rising from the attached keeper's dwelling

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport, Oregon, is known as “the Haunted Light.” Its reputation rests on an unusual foundation: a short story published in 1899 about a young woman who walked into the empty building and vanished. The lighthouse itself is real, wooden and still standing, and its history, a short working life followed by decades of neglect and a close brush with demolition, is well documented. The ghost story is a different matter, and the best sources say so plainly.

What the record shows

The Oregon Encyclopedia says the Oregon legislature asked the U.S. Senate for a lighthouse at the mouth of Yaquina Bay in 1869, and that construction began on May 1, 1871. The U.S. Lighthouse Society says Congress appropriated $20,000 and that supplies were landed by ship and hauled to the site by oxen. The light, an oil lantern inside a fifth-order Fresnel lens, shone for the first time on November 3, 1871, under its first and only keeper, a Civil War veteran who lived in the attached dwelling with his wife and children.

Its time as a working light was short. A larger lighthouse at Yaquina Head, less than four miles to the north, entered service in 1873, and keeping both lit was a poor use of public money. The Yaquina Bay light was discontinued on October 1, 1874, after a little over three years. A federal attempt to sell the building in 1877 failed because the offers were too low.

The building then stood empty for years. The Oregon Encyclopedia says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used it as a dwelling for the engineer directing the north jetty from 1888 to 1896, and the Lighthouse Society adds that lightning struck the building during a thunderstorm while the engineer’s family was inside; everyone escaped. A Life-Saving Service crew was quartered there from 1906, and the Coast Guard used it for crew quarters until 1933, when it was abandoned again. The state took over the site for a park in 1934.

In the 1940s the state scheduled the building for demolition. The Lincoln County Historical Society tried to save it, and the Oregon Encyclopedia credits an Ohio industrialist raised in Oregon with leading a campaign for national recognition. In 1955 the state leased it to the historical society, which ran it as a museum. Oregon State Parks restored it in the 1970s, and a fixed white light was relit on December 7, 1996. The Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses call it the only wooden lighthouse still standing in Oregon and the only one in the state with living quarters attached.

The legend

The haunting traces to a piece of fiction. In 1899 a writer named Lischen M. Miller published “The Haunted Light” in the Pacific Monthly magazine, which she subtitled “At Newport by the Sea.” (The Oregon Encyclopedia gives the title as “The Haunted Lighthouse.”) It opens with an atmospheric claim: when afternoon fog wraps the empty building, “it is the loneliest place in the world,” and passersby hear a moaning like “the cry of one in pain.”

In the story, a young woman named Muriel Trevenard is left in Newport by her father, a ship’s captain, because she is a poor sailor. She joins a party of campers who tour the abandoned lighthouse on a Sunday afternoon. They find a hidden iron panel behind wainscoting in a closet on the stair landing, leading into a dark shaft. On leaving, she goes back alone for a dropped handkerchief. A scream follows. The party finds a pool of warm blood, blood drops on the stairs and a stained handkerchief, and never finds her. The story ends: “to this day it is said the blood-stains are dark upon the floor in that upper chamber.”

A second, much thinner tale is also told. The U.S. Lighthouse Society says that a hitchhiker who slept inside in the 1970s reported seeing a ghostly woman floating outside a window. No other detail about the account is given.

What the record does not support

The Lighthouse Society states that the story “is believed to be the work of Ms. Miller’s imagination,” and the Oregon Encyclopedia calls it a fictional story. No source reviewed documents a real disappearance, murder or death at the lighthouse. Muriel Trevenard is a character in a magazine tale, not a historical person. Visitors still ask to see the bloodstains, according to the Lighthouse Society, but the story, as published, only says that the stains are said to exist.

The 1970s hitchhiker account is a single anecdote without a named source. This post does not attribute any ghost sightings to staff or volunteers, because the sources reviewed do not report any.

The Oregon Encyclopedia suggests the gothic tale “may have contributed” to the building’s preservation, which means the legend may have helped save the lighthouse. That is a modest claim, and it is the encyclopedia’s own.

Some details differ by source. The Lighthouse Society places the demolition threat in 1948, Wikipedia in 1946, and the Oregon Encyclopedia says the commission scheduled demolition in 1946 and that preparations were underway in 1951. The lease to the historical society is dated 1955 by the Oregon Encyclopedia and 1956 by the Lighthouse Society. The National Register listing is 1970 in Wikipedia and 1974 in the Oregon Encyclopedia. This post therefore says only “the 1940s” for the demolition threat, and uses the Oregon Encyclopedia’s 1955 for the lease.

Visiting

The lighthouse sits in Yaquina Bay State Park at the north end of Yaquina Bay in Newport. The Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses say it is reached by paved trails and a walkway to the top of the hill, with a large parking lot behind it that they recommend for visitors who need easier access. Inside, two flights of stairs lead to the watch room. The building has been restored and furnished with period items, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia.

Hours, tour availability and fees are not given here, because they change by season and were not confirmed from an official page for this post. Check Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and the Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses before traveling. The Friends also point out nearby sites, including the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, which holds the taller lighthouse that replaced this one.

Frequently asked questions

Is Yaquina Bay Lighthouse haunted?

It is said to be, but the best-known story comes from a fictional 1899 magazine tale. Sources reviewed report no documented death or disappearance there.

Who was Muriel Trevenard?

A character in Lischen M. Miller’s story. She is not a documented historical person.

Why was the lighthouse only used for three years?

A larger lighthouse at Yaquina Head, less than four miles north, went into service in 1873, and the bay light was discontinued in 1874.

Is it the only wooden lighthouse in Oregon?

According to the Oregon Encyclopedia and the Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses, it is the only wooden lighthouse still standing in the state.

More haunted lighthouses: Heceta Head Lighthouse (OR) and Owls Head Lighthouse (ME).

Sources

Top image: Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, 2022, Rickymouser45, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons