Cape Blanco Lookout

This is the view from the point at Cape Blanco Oregon looking south. It was named so by spanish explorer Martin de Aguilar in 1603 for the somewhat white cliffs. In the near distance is Needle Rock and in the far distance is Humbug Mountain. To the right (and out of this photo) are the Blanco reefs. This day was a mild blustery day. However, this headland is extremely windy during the winter months with speeds consistently registering 100+ mph. Behind me in this photo is the Cape Blanco Lighthouse currently maintained and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. Coast Guard Station Port Orford is less than 6 miles away to the north, as the crow flies.

Geologically, the area consists of marine sediment and the flat ground where I stood for this photo is about 250 feet above sea level. It is estimated by the US Geological Survey (USGS) that this headland is rising about 1" per year due to the ocean plates pressing under the coastline of Oregon.

During WW II this headland point played a pivotal role in the only Japanese bombing of the U.S. mainland during the war. Seaman Second-Class Ezra Ross, from the Port Orford Coast Guard Station, happened to be here manning the lighthouse station when in the early morning daylight hours of September 9, 1942 he spotted a small two-seat reconnaissance float plane, known to the Allies as "Glen", launched from a surfaced Japanese Imperial Navy B1-Type class submarine. The submarine was the I-25, commissioned from Japan on 21 November 1941 and had participated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Here off the coast of Oregon, the float plane flew from the submarine with two incendiary bombs, and using the Cape Blanco Lightouse as a reference point, dropped these bombs on the forestlands of southern Oregon near Brookings in an attempt to start uncontrollable wild fires. Fortunately, it had been a very wet season with low winds and the fires were quickly brought under control. The attack was known as "The Lookout Air Raid". A U.S. Army A-29 Hudson had been dispatched from McChord near Tacoma, Washington with 300 pound general demolition bombs but was unsuccessful in destroying the submarine that day. The I-25 was sunk off the New Hebrides Islands on 25 August 1943 by the destroyer USS Patterson with its entire crew lost at sea.

This photo was taken with a Nikon D800 with tripod, 26mm lens set at f/20 aperture and shutter speed 1/40s with +0.3EV exposure compensation, vivid color exposure setting, and ISO 125.