North Head Lighthouse

Located near Long Beach, Washington, the century-old North Head Lighthouse, completed in 1898, guides mariners approaching from the north. Tours are available.

The lighthouses of the Peninsula, favorite visitor stops both winter and summer, are two of 750 guarding the shores of the United States. Completed in 1856, the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse guides sailors into the mouth of the Columbia River. The century-old North Head Lighthouse, completed in 1898, guides mariners approaching from the north. Both lighthouses were taken under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939.

Before there were lighthouses on the Peninsula, ships bound for Portland and Astoria navigated their way through the high waves and shifting sandbars, focusing on fluttering white flags and notched trees along the shoreline by day and flickering signal fires by night. These methods were crude at best and, despite heroic efforts, the sea offshore the Long Beach Peninsula became known as ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’.