Park's display still burns bright.

Byline: HOLIDAY LIGHTS By Mark Baker The Register-Guard

They strung a few lights together 19 years ago - and now look at the place. Shore Acres State Park southwest of Coos Bay has enough lights each holiday season to make Clark Griswold (the watt-obsessed dad in "Christmas Vacation") envious.

What began as about 6,000 lights is now more than a quarter-million strong as the park's 20th annual "Holiday Lights" display kicked off Thursday. It runs daily through New Year's Day.

It's like walking "into a land of enchantment," says Shirley Bridgham, who organizes the dazzling annual event with her husband, David Bridgham. "It's just an audible gasp," she says of those who see it for the first time. "They can't believe their eyes."

It began in 1987 when the Friends of Shore Acres decided to string some lights to draw visitors to the park. That first season, it was those 6,000 miniature lights, a tree and a decorated garden house. About 9,000 people showed up between Thanksgiving and New Year's that year. Now, some 40,000 to 60,000 visitors come to the rugged coastal spot that was once the home of North Bend timber baron Louis

Simpson, who built his dramatic mansion in 1906 as a surprise for his wife.

The mansion is no longer, but 40-foot winter waves still explode off the nearby cliffs. In the magnificent gardens of tulips, rhododendrons, roses and dahlias, light displays form life-sized orca and spouting gray whales, herons, pelicans, jellyfish, sea horses, octopus, urchins, anemones, crab and diving sea lions. There's also an undersea garden, a leaping frog in the pond and, this year, an animated otter.

There are choirs and carolers and bands performing daily in the park's performance pavilion, along with volunteers serving hot cider, punch, coffee and cookies.

It takes about 30 volunteers and five weekends to form the full spectrum of 250,000 blinking, flashing and multicolored bulbs, which now include more low-energy lights, Shirley Bridgham says.

"We never imagined it would turn into what it's turned into. It's just a passion.

`We love the park."

HOLIDAY LIGHTS What: Coastal display of more than a quarter-million lights When: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1 Where: Shore Acres State Park southwest of Coos Bay/North Bend Directions: South on Highway 101 from Reedsport; in North Bend, heed the signs to the ocean beaches and Charleston, following Cape Arago Highway until you see signs for Shore Acres Cost: $3 for parking or state parks annual pass Information: [phone]; www .shoreacres.net