Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse


What men cleaved to
Dirt, rock, grass
To build up tall and strong
A house of stone, light, and glass

Waves, in anger
Against man’s incursion
For Poseidon's attack
Intending submersion

A watery grave
Nature intends
Against man’s encroachment
Nature defends

The light house was built
With the best of intention
Industry providing for
Sea vessels’ protection

The light house has
Been named, Terrible Tilly
For the attacking surf logs
Knocking the rock silly

In service long ago
In the year 1881
The fearsome construction
On the rock, was finally done

Rocks and driftwood
Were often thrown
Through the windows of the
House, at four men  all alone

Long time it’s been rumored
That the lighthouse is haunted
Crew after crew stayed
Through decades undaunted

The first surveyor on the
The rock it is said
Turned an ankle and splashed,
Drowned until he was dead

One “keeper” through
Months of isolation
Went mad it is rumored
A mental damnation

Evil spirits did inhabit
So local tribes did purport
Many disastrous endings
That tales did support

The Lupatia did miss
The rock in one fog
Lost on Tillamook head
All hands dead, all but the dog

Many years the rock
Now vacant I read
For years, it has housed
The ashes of the dead

Ken Goree

Seriously, The lighthouse was bought in the 1980s by a company that turned it into a columbarium, a place for ashes of the dead.  The company’s name?  Eternity at Sea.  Early purchasers, of these final resting places, were offered free satellite TV for life.  The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957.

The lighthouse is a beauty to look at, a mile out to sea.  I’ve been enjoying the storm powered waves exploding up its sides all day.