Yaquina Lighthouse Gets $10,000 Grant
By Sue Clark on Dec 19, 2007 in The Light Side 
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The Oregon State Historic Preservation Office has announced a matching $10,000 dollar grant to be used to replace the crumbling spiral stairway in Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Even after undergoing a million dollar renovation, which restored or replaced corroded exterior metalwork, the interior stairs are getting more brittle as they age. According to a story in the Newport News-Times, four of the steps have cracked, two of them within the last two years.
Special brackets have been built by St. Petersburg, Florida, metal smith Alex Klahm to prevent the cracked steps from breaking. Klahm has designed these supports, which help prevent the cracking and breaking, for other lighthouses, most notably Cape Hatteras and Currituck Beach Lights.
Yaquina Head has 114 steps on five flights of stairs, and about 90,000 visitors make the climb to the top every year. That’s a lot of traffic, but just think how it must have been for the keepers of old, who had to make that climb several times a night to tend the light.
Photo Credit: Yaquina Head Lighthouse by Chuqui on Flickr (Creative Commons)
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