Terrible Tilly

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, Oregon, USA was completed in 1881. Tillamook Head, is a 1,000 foot high headland 20 miles south of the Columbia River. It took 525 days to finish building the lighthouse. The isolation, constant storms, and blaring foghorns at “Terrible Tilly” proved a challenge for even the most seasoned keeper. A few went insane. Terrible Tilly shone her light for 77 years before being decommissioned. Oswald Allik, who manned the light for two decades, turned off the light for the last time on September 1, 1957. The final, accompanying entry penned by Allik:

An era has ended. With this final entry, and not without sentiment, I return thee to the elements. You, one of the most notorious and yet fascinating of the sea-swept sentinels in the world; long the friend of the tempest-tossed mariner. Through howling gale, thick fog and driving rain your beacon has been a star of hope and your foghorn a voice of encouragement. May the elements of nature be kind to you. For 77 years you have beamed your light across desolate acres of ocean. Keepers have come and gone; men lived and died; but you were faithful to the end. May your sunset years be good years. Your purpose is now only a symbol, but the lives you have saved and the service you have rendered are worthy of the highest respect.