On January 1,1857 the bark Desdemona entered the Columbia River, Captain Francis Williams commanding, without a pilot, and promptly ran aground on a shoal off Astoria, OR. At the time the shoal was not named, but after Captain Williams' vessel became stranded and was eventually a total loss (including cargo) it was forever more called Desdemona Sands. Captain Williams complained, to avail, that a navigational buoy was off position and the cause of his stranding. The long Desdemona Sands shoal went unmarked until 1902 when the Lighthouse Service constructed the Desdemona Sands Lighthouse. The 1 1/2 story octagonal structure was placed on a platform supported by many piles and similar in design to the Willamette River fog signal station, up river, and the Semiamhoo Lighthouse near the Canadian border.
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