The Desdemona Sands are shoal sands off of Point Adams. They were named after the bark Desdemona who, while inbound to Astoria, grounded there in December 1856. In 1902 the Desdemona Sands Lighthouse was built.

"... On a case-by-case basis Congress appropriated funds for design and construction of important facilities. These included lighthouses: Cape Arago (1866), Cape Blanco (1870), Yaquina Bay (1872), Cape Foulweather (1873), Point Adams (1875), Tillamook Rock (1881), Warrior Rock (1888) at the mouth of the Willamette River, Cape Meares (1890), Umpqua River, Heceta Head, Coquille River (all 1894), and Desdemona Sands (1905 [error ???, 1902, see below]). The goal was to create a system of stations with interlocking lights. On a clear night at sea, a mariner might expect to sight at any point a distinctive beacon on shore to pinpoint the location. Fog signals powered by steam engines blasted warnings from a number of the stations to tell captains to drop anchor or beat a retreat until the mists cleared. ..." [Oregon State "BlueBook" Website, 2006]

The U.S. Coast Guard Website (2006) states:

"... One of the last wooden straight-pile lighthouses built was the Desdemona Sands Lighthouse, Columbia River, Oregon. It was completed in 1902 and dismantled shortly after World War II. ..."

The Desdemona Sands Lighthouse is described in the 1903 U.S. Coast Survey as being a fixed white, 4th order light, located 46 1/2 feet above mean high water and visible for 12 miles. The structure is a "White, octagonal, one-and-one-half-story dwelling, with gray trimmings, rising from a rectangular platform, on piles, and having a bronze-colored pyramidal roof, surmounted by a gray cylindrical lantern with bronze-colored roof. A small one-story projection, for the fog signal, is on the westerly side, and a one-story annex on the easterly side of the dwelling." The fog signal was a 3rd-class Daboll trumpet which blasts 3 seconds with silent intervals of 3 and 23 seconds. The 1909 U.S. "Coast Survey" lists the colors as gray-green.

The 1942 U.S. Coast Pilot give the following description of the Desdemona Sands Light:

"... Desdemona Sands Light is shown from a white pyramidal tower on white piles on the western end of the shoal. The light is 36 feet above water, and visible 11 miles. A fog signal is sounded on an air diaphragm horn. ..."

The Desdemona Sands Lighthouse was de-activated in 1934 and dismantled in 1945. The Desdemona Sands Lighthouse had a fourth-order bulls-eye Fresnel lens which now resides in the museum at the Mukilteo Light Station in Puget Sound. Since October 1997 CORIE (a pilot environmental observation and forecasting system run by the OGI School of Science and Engineering of the Oregon Health & Science University) maintains a fixed light called "Desdemona Sands Light" off the Point Adams coast.