Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, offshore from Tillamook Head, Clatsop County, Oregon
Built in 1881.
TILLAMOOK ROCK LIGHT
Location: OFF TILLAMOOK HEAD
Station Established: 1881
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1881
Operational? NO
Automated? YES
Deactivated: 1957
Foundation Materials: CONCRETE
Construction Materials: BASALT MASONRY/BRICK/IRON
Tower Shape: ROUND LANTERN ON SQUARE TOWER
Markings/Pattern: WHITE
Relationship to Other Structure: INTEGRAL
Original Lens: FIRST ORDER, FRESNEL 1881
HISTORICAL INFORMATION:
Tillamook Rock, one of the most exposed stations on the Pacific coast, has received many batterings by violent storms. Although the lantern is 133 feet above the level of the sea, the protective glass has on more than one occasion been shattered by stones hurled by giant waves. During the building of the station a lighthouse engineer lost his life during an attempted landing on the rock. While extensive repairs were being made to the lighthouse following a disastrous storm, a keeper and a workman were taken seriously ill as the result of exposure. A lighthouse tender attempted to remove them from the rock, but after several efforts to send a boat to the rock it was necessary to remove the men by means of a breeches buoy. Other men were landed on the rock in the same manner to take the place of those who were ill. In 1957 the light was discontinued and the island sold.