Locals take stint as volunteer

Dick and Barb Strevy of Colfax have found the perfect way to spend a month at the beach.

The couple volunteers as hosts for a month at Cape Disappointment State Park on the southwest Washington shore. Barb greeted visitors at the North Head Lighthouse, and Dick gave visitors little snippets of history about the lighthouse and the region while enjoying sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, Long Beach Peninsula, the Columbia River Bar and the northern Oregon coast.

“It’s so much fun,” Barb said.

“We meet people from all over the world, even some on their honeymoon,” she said.

A majority of visitors come from the East Coast and Europe, but guests also come from all along the West Coast, especially Portland and Seattle.

“What a beautiful place to spend a month,” she said.

Strevy said they went camping and RVing before their children were born.

“Even after we had kids, we went camping and just brought the kids,” she said.

The Strevys have had a motorhome since 1997. Now they travel in a 2006 38-foot motorhome with four slides.

“It’s like a mini-apartment,” Strevy said. “It’s probably bigger than a New York City apartment. We’re just really comfortable in it.”

Their dream was to travel the United States.

“The first year, we traveled the whole country,” Strevy said.

During their travels, the Strevys talked to campground hosts and decided they wanted to try being hosts in Washington’s state parks. They signed up, went through background checks and put their names in for state parks along the Washington coast. A ranger called, and they were hosts last year.

“We love lighthouses,” Strevy said. “We visit them whenever we travel. It is the perfect location for us.” Strevy said that since they traveled to every state, it’s easy to strike up a conversation as hosts once they find out where their guests are from.

She said one of their most interesting guests was a man whose uncle served as a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper in the 1950s.

The couple worked four-hour shifts for 15 days during July.

“They wouldn’t be operating without the volunteers,” Strevy said. “They rely on volunteers.”

Three other couples shared duties with the Strevys.

The North Head Lighthouse is the only lighthouse open to the public in that area. It was built for ships coming from the north that wanted to enter the Columbia River.

Two miles from North Head is Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, built in 1854, and is still an active lighthouse manned by the U.S. Coast Guard. It is not open to the public. It is the oldest lighthouse in the state and was built to assist ships getting into the Columbia River. Strevy said about 200 sunken ships are at the mouth of the Columbia River, known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific.”

“It’s such an interesting area,” Strevy said.

Besides knowing lighthouse history, Strevy said she directed guests to other historical sites. Ilwaco, Long Beach and Oysterville are some of Washington’s oldest settlements. Long Beach also had its annual sandcastle festival during the Strevy’s stay. Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Oregon side, is one of Oregon’s oldest cities.

Strevy also said visitors can see lookouts and concrete gun stations from World War II on the cliffs around the lighthouse.

The 69-foot tall North Head Lighthouse is shorter than some, but Strevy explained that it sits on a 194-foot cliff, making it one of the most visible lighthouses on the West Coast. It was built in 1898 and was owned by the Coast Guard until the state bought it and is now refurbishing it.

Strevy said on a clear day, they could see Long Beach to the north and Tillamook Rock to the south. They had no rain the entire time they were there, she said.

Between 200 to 250 visitors per day came to the lighthouse, Strevy said.

“Many of them thanked us for volunteering,” she said. “They know with the budget cuts that the state parks need camping hosts.”

The last keeper assigned to the lighthouse was in 1966 when the light became automated.

The North Head Lighthouse is open for tours from May through September, Strevy said.

The Strevys are looking forward to next year.

“The ocean is one of my favorite places,” she said. “We decided this is something we like to do.”