Tillamook Rock is located just off of Tillamook Head, between Cannon Beach and Seaside. Congress appropriated $50,000 for a lighthouse on Tillamook Head in 1878. However, preliminary surveys of the area ruled out Tillamook Head - at 1,000 feet above sea level, the light would be obscured by fog. A lower site was needed. The only viable location was nearby Tillamook Rock.

The rock itself was extremely treacherous to approach. The 100-foot basalt island was bounded on three sides by steep cliffs. The south side was a slope with a fissure which threw water upward during heavy seas.

It was under these circumstances that Superintendent H. S. Wheeler took the revenue cutter Thomas Corwin for a preliminary survey of the rock. The first attempt was unsuccessful - a landing would be difficult, if not nearly impossible. Wheeler returned to the rock shortly afterwards with orders not to return to port until the rock had been surveyed. Finally, Wheeler succeeded in scrambling onto the rock. When surveying equipment could not be transported to the rock, Wheeler made due with a tape line. His preliminary survey in 1879 indicated that considerable blasting work would be needed to smooth the top of the rock before a lighthouse foundation could be laid. The lighthouse would prove to be far more expensive and difficult than anticipated.

In September 1879, a crew was sent to Tillamook Rock to perform a complete survey. The survey was to be led by John Trewavas, whose resume included Wolf Rock lighthouse in England. Tragically, Trewavas was swept into the sea when attempting to land on the rock. His body was never recovered.

News of the accident led to a pubic uproar over the light. Many felt it was foolhardy to attempt to build the lighthouse at all. Trewavas' replacement, Charles A. Ballantyne, had difficulty enlisting workmen - he eventually found quarrymen who were unfamiliar with Trewavas' death. Wishing to isolate the workers from the gossip in Astoria, Ballantyne sequestered the workers first on board ship, and later at Cape Disappointment, until work could proceed.

In October 1879, the first four workmen finally landed on the rock with supplies and a temporary shelter. The remaining supplies and personnel were transported to the rock by means of a line run from the mast of the Corwin to the rock. A breeches buoy - essentially a pair of pants within a life ring - was used to transport men to and from the rock across the line. This worked well as long as the line remained taut - if the seas caused the ship to pitch, the slack line could deposit the occupant of the breeches buoy into the ocean.

Amidst miserable working conditions, the workers succeeded in blasting the top of the rock by May 1880. A large derrick was built for transporting men, supplies and building materials, including the stone for constructing the lighthouse.

The importance of the lighthouse struck home three weeks before the light was lit. On January 2, 1881, the lighthouse was nearly complete but not yet lit. Workers on the rock observed a vessel approaching the rock. They hurriedly lit bonfires to warn the approaching ship. The ship veered off and disappeared into the night. The next morning, the workers spotted the wreck of the British bark Lupatia - the ship had missed Tillamook Rock but drove directly into Tillamook Head. All sixteen of her crew perished - only the ship's dog survived.

The tower was first lit on January 21, 1881. The lighthouse cost $125,000. The 62-foot tower displayed a first-order Fresnel lens 133 feet above sea level. The keepers were housed in the large square base of the tower. The station was also equipped with a fog signal. Four keepers were assigned to the station.

Duty at Tillamook was difficult at best. The station had four head keepers in the first two years. The keepers were completely isolated on the rock, yet could see the lights of the nearby towns offshore. Storms pounded the lighthouse. An 1897 storm cut a newly installed telephone cable to the lighthouse. 100 tons of rock was shorn off the western end of the rock in a 1912 storm. Windows were gradually cemented over, replaced by small portholes.

In October 1934, the lighthouse was seriously damaged by a severe storm. Winds reached 109 miles per hour. Huge boulders were thrust into the lighthouse, smashing the lantern room and the lens. Water poured into the station. The derrick was destroyed. The keepers eventually managed to install a temporary light. Keeper Henry Jenkins built a makeshift radio from parts from the fog signal room and the dead telephone. The station survived, but repairs cost $12,000 and was not repaired until February 1935. The Fresnel lens was replaced by an aerobeacon, and a metal mesh placed around the lantern room to protect the tower from large boulders.

In 1945, James Gibbs arrived at Tillamook Rock and served as keeper for a year. In his excellent book "Tillamook Rock" he described his experiences aboard the station. He describes being hoisted onto the rock by derrick and breeches buoy. "I ascended from the depths like a hooked fish - up, up, dangling some 75 feet above the swirling waters boiling against the defiant precipice below." His book describes, among other things, his experiences with the "ghost"of the lighthouse, his life with the three veteran lighthouse keepers, his unsuccessful efforts at Thanksgiving Dinner, and his battle with kelp flies while attempting to paint the lighthouse. When his tour of duty was complete, he wrote, "I somehow knew I was going to miss the natural surroundings; the untamed, changing seascape and the moods of weather. Above all, I would miss the ocean, a capricious destroyer yet a thing of beauty." Gibbs' lighthouse legacy lives on through his numerous books on Oregon lighthouses and shipwrecks. He also built a private navigational aid at his home in Cape Perpetua - Cleft of the Rock Lighthouse.

Tillamook Rock was extremely expensive to maintain. When the Coast Guard began automating stations, Tillamook Light was replaced by a buoy offshore. The last keeper, Oswald Allik, switched off the light in 1957. Allik would move to Heceta Head, where he would serve as its last keeper as well.

The lighthouse was eventually sold to private interests. The rock passed through the hands of several different owners, none of whom could restore the rapidly decaying station. Finally, in 1980, the lighthouse was converted into the Eternity at Sea Columbarium.

References (see links)

Tillamook Light, Gibbs pp. 8, 39, 57-58, 61-64, 112, 145
Oregon's Seacoast Lighthouses, Gibbs pp. 173, 175, 177-181, 184-185, 188, 193
Umbrella Guide to Oregon Lighthouses, Nelson p. 63-64, 68
Lighthouses of the Oregon Coast (video)