- Tillamook Rock Light
Infobox Lighthouse
caption = Tillamook Rock Light
location = OffTillamook Head
coordinates =
yearlit = 1881
automated =
yeardeactivated = 1957
foundation = Concrete
construction = Basalt masonry, brick, iron
shape = Round lantern on square tower
height = 62 ft
lens = First orderFresnel lens (removed)
range = 18 miles
characteristic =Tillamook Rock Light is a
lighthouse on theOregon Coast of theUnited States , located one mile offshore fromTillamook Head . It is visible from Seaside, Cannon Beach andEcola State Park . Nicknamed "Terrible Tilly" (or Tillie), for its situation in the stormyPacific Ocean , this decommissioned lighthouse was built in 1881. The structure has attached keeper's quarters and a 62-foot tower that originally housed a first-orderfresnel lens 133 feet above sea level. The light was visible 18 miles out to sea. [ [http://www.discoveroregonlighthouses.com/tillamook.html Discover Oregon Lighthouses: Tillamook] ]Storms continually damaged the structure, and once smashed the glass windows in the tower, damaging the lens. The lighthouse was shut down in 1957 and replaced with a whistle
buoy , having become the most expensive U.S. lighthouse to operate. [ [http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050501/LIFE/505010305/1051May 1 2005 , Statesman-Journal article on Tillamook Rock Lighthouse] ]The structure was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1981citeweb|title=Oregon National Register List|url= http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/HCD/NATREG/docs/oregon_nr_list.pdf |accessdate=2007-08-31] and is part of theOregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge .In 1980 the lighthouse was purchased by a group of investors and converted to a private
columbarium . Access to the site is severely limited, with a helicopter landing the only way to access the rock, and is off limits even to the owners during the nesting season. After interring about 30 urns, the license was pulled in 1999 by the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board and was rejected upon reapplication in 2005. The board says the owners have not kept accurate records and, because urns sit on boards and concrete blocks and not in niches, the lighthouse does not even qualify as a columbarium. [ cite web
url = http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/us/24tillie.html
title = Terrible Tillie, Where the Departed Rest Not Quite in Peace
author = William Yardley
publisher = New York Times
date =October 24 2007
accessdate = 2008-02-04 ]References
See also
*
List of lighthouses on the Oregon Coast External links
* [http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=135 Tillamook Rock Lighthouse entry at Lighthouse Friends.com]
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/light/tilla.htm Tillamook Rock Lighthouse entry in National Park Service inventory of historic lighthouses]
* [http://www.fws.gov/oregoncoast/oregonislands/index.htm Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge]
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