Oregonians hoping to spend Halloween night listening to ghost stories beneath the beam of Heceta Head Lighthouse will have to make other plans this year.
The Heceta Head Halloween Haunt scheduled for October 31, 2026, has been cancelled due to ongoing preservation work at the historic Keeper’s House. The cancellation comes just days after we reported on the planned event here at That Oregon Life, which had generated plenty of excitement among readers looking for one of the more unusual ways to celebrate Halloween on the Oregon Coast.
Our original story, published August 10, highlighted plans for an evening of local history, lighthouse lore and ghost stories at one of Oregon’s most famously atmospheric coastal landmarks. The event was expected to take place at Heceta Head Lighthouse north of Florence, where generations of stories have grown around the historic light station and the supposed resident spirit often called Rue.
Unfortunately, the timing of a much-needed historic preservation project has changed those plans.
The U.S. Forest Service, which owns the historic Keeper’s House, is scheduled to begin significant restoration work on October 5. According to Heceta Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast, the project includes replacement of the entire roof and front porch of the 1894 home and is expected to take approximately four to six weeks. Scaffolding will surround portions of the building, and access to the front porch will be restricted during parts of the project.
That timeline puts construction directly across Halloween weekend, making this year’s Haunt impractical.
It is certainly disappointing news for anyone who had already circled October 31 on the calendar. Heceta Head is almost unfairly perfect for Halloween, with an old lighthouse high above the Pacific, a historic keeper’s residence tucked against the forest and more than a century of local folklore attached to the property.
At the same time, the reason for the cancellation is an important one. Heceta Head’s historic structures have survived more than 130 years of Oregon Coast rain, wind and salt air, and preservation projects like this are necessary if future generations are going to be able to experience them.
The Assistant Lightkeeper’s House, now home to the Heceta Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast, dates to the early 1890s and remains one of the most recognizable historic buildings on the Oregon Coast. The lighthouse itself first illuminated in 1894 and continues to shine above the Pacific today. Oregon State Parks describes Heceta Head as one of the most photographed locations on the coast.
One thing visitors should be aware of is that older information about the Halloween event may still be circulating online. As of August 14, Travel Lane County’s event page still lists the Halloween Haunt for October 31 and says reservations are required. Anyone who saw that listing, or our original story about the event, should consider the newly announced cancellation the latest information.
We know this one is going to disappoint quite a few people. Judging by the response when we first shared the event, spending Halloween at a supposedly haunted Oregon lighthouse sounded like an easy addition to a lot of fall bucket lists.
Hopefully this is simply a one-year interruption. Once the restoration work is finished and the historic Keeper’s House is ready for another century of Oregon Coast weather, we would love to see the Halloween Haunt return.
After all, Heceta Head will still have the lighthouse, the crashing Pacific, the dark coastal forest and all those old ghost stories.
Rue probably isn’t going anywhere either.
