North Head is a rocky promontory with a summit elevation of 300 feet (91 m) and the site of a historic lighthouse at Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River between Baker Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It lies about 14 miles (23 km) north-west of Astoria and 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Ilwaco, Washington. Cape Disappointment was named in 1788 by John Meares, a British fur trader, who entered the river mouth seeking shelter but turned around when his ship’s lookout spotted breaking waves across the entire entrance. The cape lies along the western edge of the Willapa Hills and Oregon Coast Range and consists of a forearc basin that developed between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs (or about 50 million to 40 million years ago). It is part of the larger grouping known as the Pacific Coast Ranges, which extends over much of the western edge of North America from California to Alaska. The central part of the cape is composed of siltstone from the middle to late Eocene, and the North Head portion represents the Crescent Formation, which consists of erosion-resistant basalt.

The Cape Disappointment area, including the shores of the Columbia River and Shoalwater Bay (now called Willapa Bay), was historically inhabited by the Chinookan peoples. The Cape Disappointment Chinooks were encountered by Captain Robert Gray in 1792 on the ship Columbia Rediviva and by Captain George Vancouver on HMS Discovery later that year. In 1841, USS Peacock, which had joined the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838, struck the bar at the mouth of the Columbia River and sank. The sand peninsula extending south from North Head to the north jetty is now called Peacock Spit. In 1849 Elijah White, a doctor, staked a Donation Land Claim on Baker Bay and started a settlement called Pacific City. He was soon joined by John Holman, who built a prefabricated hotel shipped from New York. In 1852 President Millard Fillmore authorized a military reservation of 640 acres (259 ha) called Fort Canby at the site of Pacific City. Some of the original settlers moved their land claims farther east to a site inhabited by the family of Elowahka Jim, son-in-law of the hereditary Chinook chief Comcomly. Elowahka Jim (or Ilwaco) had many slaves, and the new settlers hired them to build homes. The new settlement was initially called Unity, celebrating the conclusion of the civil war, but the town plat filed in 1876 used the name Ilwaco.

The lighthouse at North Head was built in 1897 because mariners approaching the Columbia River from the north could not see the Cape Disappointment light until they had nearly reached the river mouth. This need was underscored by the many shipwrecks along the Long Beach Peninsula, just north of the Columbia River. The North Head Light was designed by Carl W. Leick and consists of a brick masonry tower built atop a sandstone foundation and finished with a cement plaster overlay. Sixty-nine steps lead to the lantern room, which is 65 feet (20 m) from the ground and 194 feet (59 m) above sea level. The Louis Sautter & Company first-order Fresnel lens was transferred from the Cape Disappointment lighthouse. It was lit for the first time on May 16th 1898 and can be seen for 19 miles (30 km). The facility is now the most intact light station on the Pacific north-west coast. All the original buildings remain standing, including the tower, two oil houses, two residences, a barn, a chicken coop and garages. In 2012 the Coast Guard turned over ownership of the light station to Washington State Parks. Repair and restoration efforts are being undertaken by the state and an independent preservation group called the Keepers of the North Head Lighthouse, an arm of the non-profit Friends of the Columbia River Gateway. Read more here and here. Explore more of North Head and Ilwaco here: