Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
Posted by: 
cachegame
N 45° 56.240 W 124° 01.153
10T E 420990 N 5087589
The light is gone, but many stories remain from this amazing lighhouse
NW 668.5 km from your present location
Waymark Code: WMT6P
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 10/03/2006
Views: 70
Located 1.2 miles seaward off Tillamook Head south of Seaside Tillamook Rock Lighthouse stands 133 feet above sea level with 62-foot-high tower on basalt rock islet. Due to the lighthouse’s location you can't visit it like the other Oregon lighthouses.
As its name implies, the lighthouse is on a rock. It is situated about twenty miles south of the Columbia River on less than an acre of basalt. It guided ships safely along one of Oregon's most hazardous sections of coastline and directed them into the Columbia River shipping lanes.
Exposure to storm waves let to nickname “Terrible Tilly.”
One of the toughest parts of life one the Rock lighthouse was when keepers left or returned to the Rock. They were placed in sling-type rigging called a breeches buoy that was tethered to a derrick. If the person was lucky, the sea was calm. Many times the conditions were too dangerous to offload crew or supplies. More than once a person lost his life. One killed on "Tilly" was a master mason trying to survey the rock prior to construction.
Through the years, the Rock was assaulted by violent storms with damaging winds and huge waves. More than once storms proved to be too much, flooding the tower with a torrent of water with debris large enough to smash the windows of the lantern room over 130 feet above sea level. In 1934, one of the most damaging storms to hit the Rock destroyed the original lens. Chunks of concrete leveled parts of the tower railing and ripped up the landing platform. The lighthouse was left without a means to communicate with the outside world. One of the keepers managed to put together a makeshift radio to deliver an urgent message to officials requesting assistance and notifying them of the storm damage.
It was commissioned in 1881 to help guide ships entering the Columbia River and was replaced by whistle buoy in 1957. The only privately owned Oregon coast lighthouse on National Register of Historic Places; it is now used as a columbarium, a storage place for ashes of the deceased and offers no public access.
Oregon coast trail on Tillamook Head between Ecola State Park and Seaside offers closest views; also visible from park’s Indian Beach parking lot. Day-use fee: $3.00 per vehicle or park permit.
Lighthouse Facts:
Facts: Tower 62'
Focal Plane 133'
Visibility: 18 miles
Signal: Flash White, 5 Seconds
Latitude: 45 56.3 N
Longitude: 124 01.1 W
1st Order Lens French Lens by:
National Register of Historic Places #81000480 Listed December 9, 1981
For more information on this lighthouse please try:
The More about the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse