Lighthouse Digest Magazine featured GayLyn Bradley as a "Beacon of Light" in their magazine in 2005. I was honored to be asked to write the article (below).
http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_digest.asp?action=get_article&sk=2383
GayLyn Bradley’s hands are blotched with white paint and she’s starting to droop a little with fatigue, but her indomitable spirit shines through as she speaks about her most recent project, restoring the windows in the Umpqua River Lighthouse to their original design.
This project, which GayLyn hopes to have completed by the end of the month, has taken almost two years and a lot of determination to accomplish. Disappointment after disappointment made it seem for awhile that the lighthouse window project would never be completed. Then a northwest company that manufacturers doors and windows, Jeld-Wen, offered to provide, free of charge, all the windows for the project if GayLyn would find the funding for installation.
Funding and windows in hand, all that now remains is to paint all ten windows white and call in the team from Constructor Services to install them. A dedication will be held in early May of 2006, during Preservation Month.
Window replacement is just one of the many tasks GayLyn has accomplished since she became the volunteer Lighthouse Keeper at Umpqua River three years ago. When she isn’t busy mowing the lawn or training new volunteers to staff the museum and guide tours of the lighthouse, she manages to keep busy with the day-to-day routine of maintaining the lighthouse, museum and grounds. One day she might be found on her knees scraping old paint from the floor of the upper levels of the museum building, another will find her sorting through old documents for new treasures to hang on the walls for visitors to enjoy.
GayLyn’s great love of the Umpqua River Lighthouse is apparent to anyone who listens to her speak of the old sentinel-of-the-sea or hears her future plans for renovation of the lighthouse and surrounding grounds. Her caring extends to all those who have served the Lighthouse, her young “coasties” of the present, retired Coast Guardsmen who talk to her about their memories of having spent time in service at station Umpqua River, and former keepers, their families and friends.
GayLyn’s next project is to redesign the museum building, dividing it into sections that showcase the history of the area and the Coast Guard. Planned for public viewing in the upper floor of the museum will be an historically accurate display showing the living quarters of the coastguard men who served here.
While the US Coast Guard owns the Lighthouse, Douglas County leases the sentinel and is searching for funding to complete this project in the next few years. Their lighthouse keeper has been attending meetings of service organizations around the area to show drawings that envision the finished project.
This past summer Douglas County added GayLyn to their paid staff, a move she strongly resisted. She’s more likely to spend money on the projects she loves, than to accept money for fulfilling what she sees as the promise of what the Lighthouse compound could become in the next few years.
Umpqua River Lighthouse has a first order Fresnel lens with 616 glass prisms and it’s beams of white, white, and red, shining out to sea for those who seek the entrance jetties leading to Salmon Harbor and Winchester Bay.
Thank you, GayLyn Bradley, for your care and keeping of our Lighthouse. Those of us who know of the countless hours you volunteer to keep the light burning appreciate and salute you.
More information about Umpqua River Lighthouse may be found at http://www.umpqualighthouse.org
Written by Jamie Swafford
November 2005