![]() ![]() Reports of the loss of the crew had been “freely and cruelly circulated,” but the work party “was found safe and cheerful, though much in want of fresh provisions.” The traveler line was set up again, this time using a kite to help transport it to the rock, and food, supplies, and clothing were carried over to the workers.īy May 31, 1880, 224 days into construction, the hump of the rock had been leveled, allowing construction of the lighthouse to begin. The lighthouse tender was finally able to cross the Columbia River bar and approach the rock sixteen days after the storm began. Hungry, soaked, and with no place to go, the men hunkered down in their shelter, the safest place on the rock. ![]() Next, the water tank, the traveler line, and the roof of the blacksmith shop were ripped away. The perilous storm pounded the rock, sweeping away a storehouse along with precious tools and provisions. Rocks flew as breakers tore off chunks of the rock and tossed them at will. The seas crashed above the crest of the rock. On January 2, 1880, a dying Nor’easter struck. With shelter in place, the men leveled a site for a derrick, and then commenced chipping, chiseling, and blasting away the upper thirty feet of the rock to create a site for the lighthouse at a height of ninety feet above the sea. A shallow niche was excavated in the northeast side of the rock, and in it was placed a strongly built timber shanty that was securely bolted to the rock and covered in canvas. Barren of caves, overhangs, or ledges, the rock could not even provide minimal shelter. The first ten days found the crew totally exposed to the elements. With the cutter rolling and pitching in the swells, the line was never taut, and the fellow being transported was often drug through the icy water. Revenue Cutter Thomas Corwin to a ring-bolt in the rock and then using pulleys to move a traveler along the line with a suspended sling or breeches buoy. Landing men and supplies on the rock entailed stringing a four-and-a-half-inch line from the U.S. The first four laborers were put on the rock on October 21, 1879, and the remaining five members of the crew followed five days later. Ballantyne, who replaced Trewavas, was forced to hire men unfamiliar with the area and then sequester them in the old keeper’s quarters at Cape Disappointment until construction could begin so locals wouldn’t scare them away. Locals felt the endeavor was foolhardy and refused to work on the project. Cherry, who dove in to rescue Trewavas, was pulled from the water by the men aboard the surfboat, but the body of Trewavas was never recovered. On September 18, 1879, Trewavas and a sailor named Cherry were transported to the rock in a surfboat, but in attempting to step on the rock, Trewavas slipped and was swept into the churning sea. ![]() Trewavas of Portland, who had a major role in the construction of a similar lighthouse on Wolf Rock off Land’s End, England, was tasked with surveying the rock and selecting the sites for the lighthouse, derricks, and engines. The Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board carried the following forecast for the project: “Though the execution of the work will be a task of labor and difficulty, accompanied by great expense, yet the benefit which the commerce seeking the mouth of the Columbia River will derive from a light and fog-signal located there, will warrant all the labor and expense involved.” After a careful inspection, he decided the rock could be conquered. Heavy seas initially made landing impossible, but after several attempts, Wheeler was able to clamber up the rock. Wheeler boated out to the rock to determine if a lighthouse would be feasible there. Originally, it was hoped that a lighthouse could be built at Tillamook Head, a 1,000-foot-high headland twenty miles south of the Columbia River, however, the top of the headland was often shrouded in fog, and as its sheer face offered no acceptable alternative, Tillamook Rock was considered instead. Tillamook Rock Lighthouse in 1891, before roof was raisedĪn intriguing and powerful testament of the will and determination of the human spirit, the story of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse began in 1878 when Congress appropriated $50,000 for a lighthouse to mark this section of the Oregon Coast. Where clinging to the top, fighting off the gripping hands of the sea, stands a lighthouse – a symbol of the precarious line between human endeavor and the forces of nature. Where sheer cliffs drop straight into the sea to depths of 96 to 240 feet. Where Indians believed under ocean tunnels inhabited by spirits came to the surface. Shaped like a sea monster, it is where old Nor’easters go to die. One mile west of Tillamook Head, a rock rises from the ocean. ![]()
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