Located on the West Coast, this isolated lighthouse has a beautiful story to share.
July 2011
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Mary Pesonen was only six months away from a brand new life, but even that short amount of time seemed too long for the pain and hopeless that had engulfed her. Early one morning, she decided to bring an end to everything by hurling herself off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean. Did she have second thoughts and regrets as she made her fatal plunge? Perhaps, for her ghost is believed to haunt the grounds where she lived and died, at the North Head Lighthouse near the fishing port of Ilwaco, Washington.
The life and tragic death of Mary Watson Pesonen in 1923 caught my attention during a summer trip to the southwest Washington Coast with my sister, Linda, and brother-in-law, Ted. Ilwaco lies near the base of a long spit of land on the north side of the immense mouth of the Columbia River, which forms the border between Washington and Oregon. The coastal waters are treacherous and the bar has dangerous currents and sand bars. The area is known as “the graveyard of the Read the rest of this entry »
