Cape Blanco combines history with ample natural attributes. Halfway along the Cape Blanco Highway take a right to the Hughes House, a freshly restored 1898 Eastlake Victorian open for tours from spring to fall. The family patriarch, an Irishman named Patrick Hughes, came to Cape Blanco just before the Civil War. The 2,000-acre ranch he developed was occupied by the Hughes family for 111 years, until it became Cape Blanco State Park. At the end of the highway towers the 1870 Cape Blanco Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in Oregon. The headland offers sweeping views of the sea, and trails lead down to tide pools and a driftwood-littered beach.