The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-11-30

bruised.
LoNELIEsT OF LIGHTHOUSES.
Tillamook Rock, on the Coast of Ore
gon, and Its Keeper.
From the Topeka (Kan) Capital.
The highest point used by the light
house department Of the United States
government as u signal station is a
precipitous rock in the northwestern
part Of Oregon called Tillamook Rock.
IT'S great height and perlous situation
tend to make the rock the most avoid
ed one % the government list, and it
is only after a long and careful search
that men are found who are willing to
go as keepers to the station.
I'illamook Rock light station is in the
thirteenth lighthouse district, which
includes the coast and rivers of Ore
gon, Washington and Alaska. 1t is sit
uated in the midst Of the surging Pa
cific, with ninety feet depth Of water
on all sides, at the great storm center
off Tillamook Head.
1t is eighteen miles south Of the en-
trance to the Columbia river, and one
mile southwest by half a mile west
coast. The water near Tillamook has
such strong and uncertain current
that vessels unacquainted with the
coast are warned not to attempt the
passage. The rock, which has a sum-
nit Of eighty feet above the sea level,
is an irregular column of basalt ap-
parently separated from Tillamook
Head, on the mainland, by untold CEN
turies Of erosion prior to the days when
the sea was receding on the Pacific and
encroaching upon the land on the At
lantic.
The reason for the difficulty in secur
ing keepers for Tillamook is said to be
that man not only risks his life in ac-
cepting the position, but his reason. At
present keeper and four assistants
are provided for the double purpose of
dividing the watches and mitigating
the awful isolation that tends toward
unseating the same face (of a man, of
course,) day in and day out for months
and years, amid the same wild scene
and in the same narrow treadmill of
labor, is irritating. 1t begets dislike
by it's very annoyance of monotony. 1t
is so different when the face is that Of
a WOman-a wife.
But the wife is not permitted to live
there. The keeper and his assistants
are cut off from all social ties. The
wild waste OF water and fierce storms
of Tillamook forbid a womans residing
on the rock.
Upon the east side Tillamook's sum-
NIT is forty feet wide, narrowing to its
west side for Il distance of sixty feet,
and from that point extending forty
feet further in Il sharp and abrupt
ledge, where it is only forty feet in
width. The rock is precipitous on all
sides, except the east, where it slopes
up at an angle Of twenty degrees. The
summit. except the sharp ledge on the
west side, is inclosed all around it's
ledge by Il strong iron railing. The
dwelling house is in the center of the
summit. 1t faces to the east. 1t is a
stone and cement structure, held down
by great iron bolts. The stone tower
rests on the rock and shoots up from
the center of the dwelling. The inclos-
ure for this wild sea-girt house con-
tains some 1000 square feet, or less
than two acres in area. The focal
plate of the light is 1856 feet above sea
level. Yet this Pacific ocean. when in
it's angriest mood, ofttimes dashes it's
waves against the plate glass inclosing
the light and hurls gigantic rocks high
above and drops them upon the home
of those faithful but helpless guardians
of the storm tossed mariner
The keepers dwelling is square,
one STORY building of stone for outer
walls and brick. iron and wood for in
terror, with rectangular extension for
the duplicate siren apparatus. The
light was first shown on February |,
1881. the building having been begun
October u, 1879, and completed under
OF the greatest peril
On the northweSterly side of the
rock, upon sloping ledge. n wide, lev
el platform OF landing place has been
constructed for transferring freight
and passengers, The cage is four ana
one-half feet square and two feet deep,
made of wooden Stats closely put to-
gether. Ropes strongly bind each cor
ner, into which iron bolts with eyebalis
are inserted for attachment to The der
rick.
The derrick raises The cage some for
~ feet, and when the station boat is
used the cage Is omitted and the entire |
Quit is derrlcked up to the plat form.
From platform to crest the ascent is
ut an angle of twenty-five degrees and
the distance is forty-eight feet
A tramway with tramcar takes up
the freight. Three tanks, with l4,i51
gallons capacity, ana one cistern. 1887
gallons capacity, supply the station
with water, that in the tanks being
used for the fog signals ana that in the |
cisterns being for the dwelling house. |
Once Il miniature garden six feet |
square enliVened the scene with mem-
ories of home and furnished summer |
lrs soil, six inches in |
depth, was brought from Tongue Point, |
on Astoria peninsula.
During the winter this soil was boxed |
up and slowed away in safe place. |
For Two summers this idyllic status |
lasted, but the great tornado OF 1894 |
washed the boxes into the sea.
The redeeming feature OF Tillamook |
station is its elysian zephyr, known as |
the chinook wind, flowing with peren- |
MIA delight from the northwest in |
and imparting unequal long |
avity and coming in at winter from the |
healing on it's wings.
Scholarships.
The combined scholarship Ga contract |
emitting the holder to both complete |
now offered by the Scranton
Business College for 300 is so libera /