Built: 1856

Type: Conical attached to oil house

Height: 53 ft

Elevation: 220 ft

Status: Active

Location: Ilwaco

Deactivated: 

Signal: Removed/orig. bell

Lens: First Order Fresnel / Current Fourth Order Barbier & Bernard

Keepers: John Boyd 1856-1865 / Joel Munson 1865-1877

Notes:  On September 18, 1853 the bark Oriole, was bringing the building materials wrecked directly below the Cape.  Two years later construction finally got underway, but was delayed.  When it was discovered that the upper diameter of the tower was not large enough to accommodate the lantern room for the four ton, First order Fresnel lens.  The entire tower had to be dismantled brick by brick and rebuilt.
It was first lit on October 15, 1856.  Its black horizontal stripe was added later to distinguish it from North Head lighthouse located just two miles north.
The first-order Fresnel lens was transferred to North Head in 1898 and replaced with a fourth-order lens.  The original lens was used in at least three lighthouses and then put on display at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive center at Cape Disappointment state park.  The Fourth order lens is still operational today.
Captain J. W. "Joel" Munson the most famous of  Cape Disappointment keepers, because there were no lifesaving boats at the lighthouse Joel Munson had salvaged and raised money for repairing a boat.  In 1866 when W. B. Stanton was wrecked on the bar Munson's boat was used to assist in the rescuing the crew.  The government recognized the Munson efforts and established a Life saving station at Cape Disappointment later that year. 
The lighthouse was electrified in 1937.  The light was automated in 1973.  The grounds are open to the public via Cape Disappointment state park.