United States Light-House Establishment · 12th District
Beacon Point Light Station
Daily Log of Weather & Incident · Oregon Coast
H. Alder, Principal Keeper · J. Voss, First Assistant
View from the cliff path at first light. Tower trimmed white, lantern brass, 87 feet above mean high water.
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For the use of the keeper or his assistant. Entries are bound into the book in the order received.
Beacon Point — 4 February 1893
My dearest Mae,
The mail tender goes out Tuesday and I am writing by the lantern's reflected glow so that this may reach you by the month's end. Tell the children their father thinks of them at the turning of every watch.
The work suits me, Mae. I will not pretend otherwise. There is a rightness in being the one whose lamp stands between a crew and the rocks, in trimming the wick at the exact hour, in setting down the pressure and the wind so that ten years from now some inspector at Astoria may know what the sky did on a Thursday at Beacon Point. I take this seriously. I want you to know I do.
But I would be a poor husband if I pretended I did not also count the days. The fog this winter has been long and the assistant is a quiet man. When the beam swings out across the water I think of the kitchen lamp at home, and how you used to leave it lit for me when I came in late from the cannery, and I think these two lamps are not so different — both of them say, someone is keeping watch for you, come home safe.
Kiss the children. Tell Tom the brass on the third-order lens is the brightest thing I have ever polished, and I will show him when I am next ashore. I love you with the whole of my heart.
