The Oregon State Parks Division purchased nearly 2,000 acres from the Joseph N. Hughes Estate in 1971 and turned it into the Cape Blanco State Park. The park offers tours of the lighthouse and the historic Patrick Hughes house from April through October. The lighthouse is Oregon’s southernmost, and Cape Blanco, named by a Spanish explorer in 1603, is the state’s most westernmost point.
Irishman Patrick Hughes settled near Port Orford in 1860 and developed a large dairy farm that spread into bottom land along the Sixes River on the north side of the cape. He had a family house built in 1898 overlooking the Sixes estuary, about eight miles northwest of Port Orford on the Cape Blanco Road. The builder was P.J. Lindberg, a Swedish settler who built other structures in the area, including three stately homes. The 3,000-square-foot, 11-room Hughes house has been described as an ornate, authentically restored Queen-Ann Victorian style home and a fine example of 19th century architecture. It was constructed of Port Orford cedar at a cost of $3,000.
The house has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980, along with four other early Curry County structures.
Sources: Stebbins, Jane. "Port Orford home listed as historic landmark." Curry Coastal Pilot 7 May 2009 [Brookings, Ore.] : 1. Web. 22 Oct. 2015. http://www.currypilot.com/News/Local-News/Port-Orford-home-listed-as-historic-landmark; http://traveloregon.com/see-do/attractions/museums-interpretive-centers/hughes-house/; Cape Blanco State Park." Oregon State Parks. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, 2015. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.
