Yaquina Head Lighthouse is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

In August, Newport’s Yaquina Head Lighthouse was ceremonially relit as it entered its 150th year, having guided ships since keeper Fayette Crosby walked up 114 steps to shine its first light in 1873.

The seacoast lighthouse, Oregon’s tallest at 93 feet, is a few hours’ drive south of the Columbia River. There, it sits at the edge of a basalt headland about a mile west of U.S. Highway 101.

Once a crucial landmark for ships — seacoast lighthouses along the Oregon Coast were positioned no more than 40 miles apart, so that one ahead or behind would always be visible — the tower is now a traveler’s landmark, a place to reflect on the past.

Early records initially named the lighthouse for Cape Foulweather a few miles north. As one lightkeeper was told, when parts of the lighthouse were shipped from France, such difficulty was found in unloading them that it was moved to its present location instead. Still, others have noted that Cape Foulweather was an early name for both locations.

Yaquina Head’s last lighthouse keeper left in 1969, three years after the light was automated. In the years since, the site has been transformed into the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, a 100-acre park with trails, tide pools and an interpretive center — one that I’ve been fortunate to visit a handful of times and is well worth exploring, even on a tight road trip schedule.

If you only see the light from a distance, though, count the seconds of its signature pattern, one that’s remained the same since 1939 — two seconds on, two seconds off, two seconds on, 14 seconds off.