Camera-toting tourists are drawn to lighthouses like moths to a flame. Why this phenomenon occurs is a matter for conjecture, but perhaps it is a combination of attractions.

Perhaps it is the romance of the sea. Visualize a lonely mariner adrift on the vast ocean with nothing but a compass and sextant to guide him. How reassuring it must be for that sailor to look out to the horizon and spot that beacon that tells him exactly where he is.

Perhaps it is the scenery and the salt air. Visitors to lighthouses are often treated to an invigorating hike to arrive at a rocky bluff offering a magnificent view of spectacular shoreline and ocean.

Perhaps it is the history of the place. Before the advent of modern technology, lighthouses were generally manned around the clock by lightkeepers who lived on site and whose duty it was to keep the light burning in all kinds of weather. Imagine these hardy souls toting five-gallon buckets of kerosene up the spiral staircase every day to replenish the oil-burning lamps that kept the light visible to ships as far as 20 miles out to sea.

Many things have changed since lighthouses came on the scene. Mariners no longer have to depend on compass and sextant to tell them their location.

Modern devices such as the Global Positioning System will tell them where they are anywhere on the face of the earth with an error of no more than a few feet. Lighthouses have been mechanized and electrified so that lightkeepers are no longer needed except for an occasional visit to check on the automated systems. Yet lighthouses still have a place in the scheme of things and their lure is as strong as ever for visitors to our coastlines.

Visitors to the mouth of the Columbia River are afforded the rare opportunity to see two lighthouses located within two miles of each other. A single visit to Fort Canby State Park will get them up close and personal with the North Head Lighthouse and the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.

At North Head, during summer, you may even have the opportunity to climb the spiral staircase and listen to an informative talk by a park ranger.

When the mighty Columbia River meets the implacable Pacific Ocean you have the classic clash of the titans. Columbia River waters carry sediments that are deposited across a wide reach of brackish water called the Columbia Bar. Here the forces of tides, wind, waves and currents mixed with the clash of fresh and salt water create a mariner’s nightmare.

These swirling waters are so dangerous that the Columbia River Bar has become known as the ‘graveyard of the Pacific.’ The ranger at the North Head lighthouse told us that more than 2,000 ships have met their demise in these waters.

Credit for discovery of the Columbia River goes to Capt. Robert Gray, commander of the ship Columbia Rediviva, after which the river is named. On May 11, 1792, Gray crossed the bar and became the first European-American to view the banks of the river.

Other noted explorers had also been searching for this fabled Northwest Passage. Among them was British sea captain George Vancouver, who narrowly missed being the first to find the river. He passed the river mouth on April 27, 1792. Although he noted the water entering the ocean at that point, he elected not to explore it further, dismissing it as too small a waterway to support ocean-going vessels.

Later, in October 1792, Vancouver sent a member of his expedition, Lt. William Broughton, in the ship Chatham to explore the river and take possession of the land through which it flowed. One of the earliest descriptions of the Columbia River Bar was recorded by a ship’s clerk in his journal: “The Channel was narrow, the water very Shoal and the Tide running against the Wind raised a Surf that broke entirely around us, and I am confident that in going in, we were not twice the Ship’s length from Breakers, that had we struck on, we must inevitably have gone to pieces.”

The Columbia River Bar poses such a danger to mariners that even today seasoned captains of ocean-going merchant ships are not permitted to engage this passage. As they approach the bar their ships are met by an elite cadre of bar pilots who take control of the massive ships and guide them safely through the narrow channels and shoals. Once past the bar the huge ocean-going vessels are piloted by another select group of river pilots who see the ships on upriver to Portland.

Little wonder then that lighthouses were seen early on as an aid to navigation at the Columbia River Bar. The first of these lighthouses, the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, was erected in 1856 to help abate the continuing loss of life occurring at this dangerous intersection.

Unfortunately, it later became apparent that many sailors coming down the coast from the North could not see the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse until it was too late to avoid trouble. As a result, a second lighthouse, the North Head Lighthouse, was established in 1898 to aid these sailors in their journey. It was this combination of circumstances that resulted in the uncommon juxtaposition of two lighthouses within two miles of each other. Both of these lighthouses still remain in service, operated by the U.S. Coast Guard.

To reach Fort Canby State Park follow U.S. Highway 101 north out of Astoria, across the Astoria-Megler Bridge to the little town of Ilwaco, Wash. Here you will see the entrance to Fort Canby. Follow the signs to the two lighthouses.

A bonus attraction along the way is McGowan, Wash., the place where Lewis and Clark first caught sight of the Pacific Ocean with their Corps of Discovery. Don’t blink as you travel north on 101 from the Astoria-Megler bridge. The little spot where Lewis and Clark camped is not even marked on most maps, but is marked with a little roadside park featuring a wooden statue of Lewis and Clark. Nearby is the tiny chapel of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, offering mass at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

It is rather surprising that so little marks the spot where such a monumental occasion in American history occurred.

Camping and other attractions are available at Fort Canby State Park. At North Head the Lighthouse Keepers Residence is offered as a vacation rental through Fort Canby State Park, 1-800-452-5687. Volunteers conduct tours of the lighthouse on a limited basis. For information call 1-360-642-3078.

Additional information is available at the Washington State Parks Web site, www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.