“Beacon in Storm” is Horace Sykes’ title for this successful example of Light House photography, a genre that is about as popular for the maritime as sad clowns are for big tops.   Sykes made several tries at posing the Cape Disappointment Light before he came away with this Kodachrome.  Cape Disappointment, 192 feet above mean tide, was first lit in the fall of 1856.  Its neighbor 2 miles to the northwest, North Head light was commissioned in 1898 during the military boon period connected with the Spanish-American War.  The building of the “security state” never stopped but continued  thereafter as the USA assumed the role of  policemen of the world.  But the two lights are most peaceful and inviting friends for those sailing in these peculiarly treacherous waters between the Columbia River Bar and (for those off-shore) the nearly hidden Long Beach peninsula.    Together, the bar and the peninsula make the  “Graveyard of the Pacific.”   (Click your Mouse to Enlarge Sykes Slide)