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Shortly after Scott Partney, owner of Scott Partney Construction, the company that mothballed Oregon’s Cape Arago Lighthouse in 2013, realized that there was an opportunity to get the 4th order lens from the lighthouse and have it displayed at the Coos History Museum in Coos Bay, Oregon, he jumped at the prospect. Not only did Scott Partney have a special bond with the lighthouse because his company mothballed it, he had also built the new Coos History Museum.
The 4th order lens, manufactured by Barbier, Bernard, and Turenne, had originally been installed in the lantern of the 1909 Cape Arago light tower, which was the second lighthouse to have been built at the site. The lens was removed in 1934 and placed in the third lighthouse to be built on the island, which is the one that stands there today. In 1993, the Coast Guard removed the lens and placed it on display at the Coast Guard Air Station in North Bend, Oregon.
When the lens became available for loan from the Coast Guard, Scott Partney approached the museum with the offer to not only move the lens to the museum, but to build a full-size replica of one quarter of the lantern for its display, which would include some of the original 1930s curved glass that was originally in the Cape Arago lantern. Also, Mike Strachen, an employee of Scott Partney Construction, would paint a mural behind the glass as if viewers to the museum were looking west.
Once the details were worked out between the museum and the Coast Guard, the project got underway. However, first Scott Partney was required to get a $400,000 insurance policy to move the lens in a specially constructed crate the short four miles from the USCG Air Station to the museum.
Today the 4th order lens from the Cape Arago Lighthouse can be viewed at the Coos History Museum, 1210 N. Front St., Coos Bay, Oregon.
This story appeared in the
Mar/Apr 2019 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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