Although the characters in FOREVER MINE lived entirely in my imagination, everything mentioned about Judge Owen Denny and his efforts to establish Chinese ringneck pheasants in Oregon is true. Today, thanks to Judge Denny and breeding farms established in 1911 near Corvallis and Hermiston, Oregon, Chinese ringnecks can be found in nearly every state of the nation, as American as Bartholomew's favorite apple pie.
The Cape Meares Lighthouse was lit for the first time on January 1, 1890. In 1895 a much-needed, heated workroom was erected between the light-tower and the sloping rise of the upper bluff. That same year, the slippery wooden stairway was replaced by one made of steel. The light was replaced by an incandescent oil-vapor lamp in 1910, and electrified in 1934. On April 1, 1963, an automatic light was installed and the old light forever retired.
Today, the barn, houses, oil storage buildings and original workroom are gone. Only the ghosts of a colorful past, which will never be known again, inhabit the windy bluff and the whitewashed tower of the Cape Meares Lighthouse—except in the minds of those imaginative enough to hear the old voices, and to sense the passions that might once have stirred within.
I have been asked about the rock thrown through the lighthouse by the waves. Yes, the ocean truly can toss rocks two hundred feet into the air to smash into the light. I acquired a number of tales about the light from the son of one of its last keepers, and used a few in the book. “Ol Hig,” as he called himself, would have enjoyed that. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the book released.