Port Orford Lifeboat Station

The weather was beautiful today, perfect for a day of exploring. First, we made our way to the Lifeboat Station.

The Oregon coast is known as being a treacherous one, and frequent shipwrecks led not only to the construction of lighthouses, but also prompted the Coast Guard to build a lifesaving station at Port Orford Heads. Coast Guard "Surfmen" kept watch over this stretch of Oregon coast from 1934 until 1970. There was an observation tower, now gone, a boathouse, which burned down, and, more than 500 steps above the boathouse site, a compound. There were quarters for the crew, a residence for the officer in charge, a storage building, a pump house, and a garage, all still surviving. This diorama shows the station as it used to be.

 The station's 36-foot self-baling unsinkable lifeboat was legendary.

One is on display up at the compound.

Inside the museum, you can see one of the ship's wheels.

Other displays tell visitors more about these amazing boats.

There was originally also another boat.

Crew lived at the station, ever ready.

The dangers the Surfmen faced for the sake of others were staggering. I won't soon forget the slogan posted outside: "You have to go out. You don't have to come back."

Upstairs there is a room in which you can watch videos (several hours of video are available, although I only watched a few minutes). The one I watched had old black-and-white footage of the boats in heavy seas. I cringed each time a wave completely engulfed the lifeboat, but each time it emerged, somehow, safe and sound.

There are several short trails around the head. We were able to see Nellie's Cove, where the boathouse used to be,

and the site of the 37-foot tower, which once was manned 24/7.

We went out to the head, hoping to see migrating whales. This is a good time to see them, and a couple we passed said they had seen some, but we had left the binoculars in the truck and didn't see any whales, but then, we don't really know what to look for.

We could see, up the coast in the distance, Cape Blanco Lighthouse, which I'll tell you about next time,

and to the south, Humbug Mountain, which we passed on our way to Port Orford.