**The Heceta Head lighthouse is shining again after Welch’s Machine Works of Eugene made new carriage wheels that allow the 10-foot-tall Fresnel lens to rotate.** (Oregon State Parks photo)

By DANA TIMS/Lincoln Chronicle

After nearly five months of darkness due to mechanical repairs, the Heceta Head lighthouse south of Yachats is again shining its light for locals, visitors and ships at sea.

**The light in the Heceta Head lighthouse was turned on again Thursday after repairs to gears that rotate its 10-foot-tall lens.** (Lincoln Chronicle file photo)

What is normally the brightest among Oregon’s coastal lighthouses turned its powerful light back on Thursday following repairs and replacement to the complex gears that help rotate its antique lamp works.

“Everything is fully restored and it all looks beautiful,” said Hylah Furnish, park manager for the state-managed property that includes the 132-year-old lighthouse. “We’re all really excited.”

Specialists from Welch’s Machine Works in Eugene finished work this week on the huge carriage wheels that allow the lighthouse’s 10-foot-tall lens to rotate. The old wheels, which lasted 13 years, were replaced with bronze versions. Repairs also included resurfacing the metal base upon which the wheels traveled, Furnish said. The cost of the project was $35,000.

The lighthouse stands 205 feet above the Pacific Ocean and is located just off U.S. Highway 101 between Yachats and Florence. Its lighting mechanism – known as a first-order Fresnel lens, designed by a French physicist and ordered in 1893 from a British company – was first lit on March 30, 1894,

The light, housed atop the 56-foot-tall lighthouse tower, shines a beam so powerful it can be seen 21 nautical miles out to sea. The lighthouse still serves as a beacon to passing ships, as indicated by its Class 2 private aide to navigation permit issued by the U.S. Coast Guard, Furnish said.

**The new Heceta Head lighthouse wheels that allow the lens to rotate are made of bronze.** (Oregon State Parks photo)

“But it’s probably a far bigger deal to the thousands of people who stop by every year to see it,” she added. “People traveling from out of town probably had no idea it had been closed that long, but local residents have definitely reached out to ask when it will be back on. Among the local community, there’s a big passion for the lighthouse.”

Although the lighthouse’s tower has been closed to the public for some time due to safety concerns, the ground floor of the lighthouse is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, depending on the weather and staff availability.