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Rod and Judy Prestegard are a retired couple living on Puget Island, Washington. They love living on the shore of the Columbia River and are avid collectors of nautical and lighthouse items. Rod, a lifelong resident of Puget Island and a skilled carpenter, built a lighthouse mailbox a few years back. Somehow the mailbox wasn’t all that satisfying, so he set his sights higher. Much higher, as it turned out.

Beginning in the fall of 2000, using the wood from trees and logs he salvaged as they floated by on the river, Prestegard spent several months constructing a 21-foot lighthouse tower. The door is made from an especially beautiful piece of salvaged wood from a tree estimated at more than 85 years old. Rod’s 85-year old father, Kenneth made the ship’s wheel that adorns the door. The Prestegards’ daughter Arlita gave Rod the pelican weathervane a few years ago. He told her he had to have a special place to put it, so it sat in the box for a couple of years before the lighthouse was built. A friend and neighbor contributed the porthole.

The Presterards’ lighthouse was finished in January 2001. Rod and several friends moved it from the construction site across the road to the couple’s back yard. The deck that surrounds the tower is built of wood from an old bridge from Puget Island to Cathlamet that was replaced 15 years ago.

Of course a lighthouse needs a light, and the Prestegards’ lighthouse has a revolving beacon. The light was ordered from the Lighthouse Depot catalog.

The lighthouse has become quite an attraction for family members. The Prestegards’ 17 grandchildren and two great grandchildren love it. Judy says that during this past summer the lighthouse became a storage place for the kids’ toys, and Rod is considering putting bunk beds in the tower so the kids can sleep there.

This past August a double wedding ceremony was held next to the lighthouse with over 100 guests. One of the brides was the Prestegards’ niece from Texas, and one of the grooms was a nephew from Illinois.

The most amazing part of all is that Rod Prestegard built the lighthouse using no plans. “He just built it out of his head,” says Judy. And he got it exactly right on his first try.

This story appeared in the November 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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