Feb 21: Terrible Tillie
aka the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
I mentioned the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse in an email a couple of weeks ago and said it was one of my Oregon favorites. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time; Terrible Tillie is actually one of the most godforsaken places I’ve ever seen, so awful that I can’t turn away from it. (I compared it to a train wreck in my earlier email.) It’s about a mile offshore and was in operation from 1881 until 1957.
The only place from which I’ve ever been able to see Terrible Tillie is Ecola State Park, a small and often crowded gem on the northern Oregon coast, which features both forest trails and a small beach. The photo above was taken from one of those trails and the photo below from the beach. Allow me to emphasize that, as bleak as both might look, they were taken on calm days.
I cannot imagine what it must’ve been like for the lighthouse keepers, who originally worked three months on with just two weeks off, to be on that tiny rock outcropping during violent storms.1 “After conditions proved extremely harsh on both the physical and mental stability of the keepers,” their work requirements were adjusted: only six weeks on with three weeks off.2
A group called Nickel Creek wrote and performed a ballad called “The Lighthouse’s Tale” around 20 years ago.3 It’s a story that’s told from the lighthouse’s point of view, and it doesn’t have a happy ending.4 Every time I hear it, I imagine Tillamook Rock Lighthouse as the location.
At a more benign level, the photo above is part of the Clatsop Loop Trail in Ecola State Park. I shot it on the day I had a 5:30 flight out of Portland. As soon as I finished the hike, I wrapped my muddy gaiters in plastic, threw them in my suitcase, and raced to the airport.
It was only once I was on the plane that I realized my pants were spattered with mud and that I smelled rather … ripe. As it happened, I was flying Southwest (with unassigned seating) and the combination apparently dissuaded everyone else from sitting next to me. Win-win.
Click or tap here to watch a fascinating 10-minute PBS video about Terrible Tillie, which includes an interview with a guy who was actually posted there. He said the worst thing about being there was the boredom … oh, except for that time when he nearly fell into the sea, which was kinda scary.
Fascinating and a real treat to learn about Tillie.