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The Oregon Coast has been the site of shipwrecks even before Lewis and Clark's arrival in 1805. Even as the population grew, the federal government let the Oregon Coast go unguarded by lighthouses and lifesavers for decades. Economic and political pressures finally forced the government to build the first Oregon lighthouse in 1857 at the Umpqua River. The LifeSaving Service followed in 1878 with a station at the mouth of Coos Bay. Eventually, most of the harbor entrances and headlands were protected by both the Lighthouse Service and the LifeSaving Service, the precursor to today's Coast Guard. Lighthouses and Lifesaving on the Oregon Coast commemorates the true heroes who served to warn, protect, and rescue those who went to sea.

Washington's storm-ridden outer coast stretches from Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River, to Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a distance of about 150 miles. Historians have labeled these waters "the Graveyard of the Pacific" and "the Unforgiving Coast." Despite their hazards, sea routes to, from, and along the coast have been busy. Maritime fur traders and explorers, warships, Gold Rush shipping, passenger vessels, lumber carriers, break-bulk freighters, container ships, and tankers have plied these waters. Concurrently, fisheries developed along the coast, adding to the number of vessels at risk. To assist mariners sailing these waters, the United States built its first lighthouse on the Washington coast at Cape Disappointment in 1856. Additional lighthouses, lightships, and lifesaving stations soon followed. With more than 180 images from archives throughout the Pacific Northwest, this collection documents their history.