The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-08
LIFE ON TILLAMOOK ROCK
WHERE MEN WOULD GO MAD BE-
 CAUSE OF THE SOLITUDE.

CA USE OF THE SOLITUDE.
 Called the Highest School of the Light"
 house Department-The Rock Held
 Together by a NOn-Corrosive Metallic
 Band-N0 Women Allowcd to Live ai
 the Station.
 The light station on Tillamook rock,
 Oregon, is the highest school of the lighthouse department on the Pacific coast. When a man has served five years on that lone rock, the rules of the department entitle him. by way of reward, to promotion as keeper of de- Sirable station elsewhere. It is the graduating school of the best keepers. It is perilous post. A man in that place risks his life and his reason. He is cut off from all social ties. His wife is not permitted to live there Neither is any woman allowed to reside amid that wild waste of water and fierce storms Tt has been found by experi- ence that their presence gives rise to jealousy and trouble among the inen," explains a recent writer, who describes the isolation of Minot's. ledge lighthouse off Boston harbor.
 A keeper and four assistants are pro- vided for the double purpose of divid- ing the watches and mitigating the aw- ful isolation that tends toward unseat- ing the reason. The mere monotony of seeing the same face (of man, of course) day in and day out for months and years, amidst the same wild scene and in the same narrow treadmill of labor, is irritating. It begets dislike by its very annoyance of monotony. It is so different when the face is that of a woman-a wife. No doubt the poets dream of the joy of a dwelling on a desert isle with ones true love, with a woman of his choice, is well imagined. Not so with the other sex. The mono tony has to be relieved to keep the mind balanced under such circumstances of isolation.
 The items of relief are: CD A monthly visit of the lighthouse tender, with news, letters and supplies; CD months vacation after every four months ser vice; (S) piano and other Instruments for music; (4) scrubbing and other t WOlh h, NOJ ldlSCI pIdCtlCC, NO( ulF iulll5 the night into three watches instead of two, as elsewhere; CD literature for willing away the time or for education as each keeper may prefer.
 With all these diversions, the ten- dency is to peevishness and aversion for ones male fellows-a feeling that grows into crankiness and pushes the limit of insanity in some eases. One Keeper, named Zauer, an old soldier, be- came crazed in 1890 after three years of service on this lone rock, and died in the insane asylum at Salem, Ore Another man, an assistant keeper, be- came gloomy and jealous hearted. One summer day he imagined his young wife was on Clatsop Beach, hard by the lighthouse, flirting with summer tour ists He took the lighthouse boat, donn- ed his bathing suit, and, rowing near the beach, leaped into the surf and, reached the summer resort. But his lonesome wife was not being consoled at the beach, and he hurried to Port land. Ore, where he reported to the lighthouse inspector, who gently repri- manded him and sent him back
 With summer seas the passage to the
  another diversion, besides giving fresh vegetables, fruits, milk and butter from the farmhouses. An Indian, now a her init at Elk Creek, tells of the habit of the ancient Clatsop Indian in frequent ing Tillamook rock to capture seals and sea lions for their oil It is interesting to note just here the difference between seals and sea lions, both of which are important denizens of Tillamook rock, and features of the life of that place. A seal is spotted gray and small, while the sea lion is brown and larger. They are not hostile to each other. In fact, the sea lions could not catch the small seals if they wished. A singular fact about both of these kinds of animals is that they climb up on Tillamook rock, their place of birth, to die. Keeper Peson, who graduated after eight years service to be keeper of North Head Light, the best on the coast, tells pathetic story of noble sea lion, scarr- ed and bloody and dying from some submarine conflict, who crawled up on his birth rock to die. It is a heaven born inspiration to ascend toward the other, or is it the love of native land, of home, of birth spot, that is so dear to the human heart? Other diversions for those lonely keepers consist in the visits of tourist parties with ladies, who are permitted to ascend to the rocky l1ame in the basket or cage. Mrs Kate Hobson, of Astoria, was the first lady who ever visited the lighthouse via the basket car. Lighthouse Inspector Se- bree took his bride there on their we'd ding tour in 1888. One keeper is said to have had his wife at the lighthouse one entire summer month, she coming in by small boat, which was derricked up alongside,
 Yet, with all these diversions and vo- cations the keepers life is no lonely one on Tillamook Rock, which is situated in the midst of the surging ocean, with ninety feet depth of water on all sides at the great storm centre of Tillamook Head. This lone island rock is located IS miles south of the entrance to the | Columbia River, and one mile $. w. by | w. 1a w. from Tillamook Head on the | Oregon coast. Columbia River Light ship is N. w. A w. 16 miles distant; Point Adams Light, (now abandoned) | is N. by w. 2-3 w., 15 miles distant; | Cape Disappointment (Fort Cauby) 1 Light, is N. W. A w. 20 miles away. | Some ten-and-a-quarter miles S. S. D. T Iyo1