Surprisingly, One Man Connects Oregon Coast Lighthouses at Heceta Head, Horrible Tilly

Printed 05/24/22 at 12:35 AM PST
By Oregon Coast Seaside Connection workers

(Florence, Oregon) – Two lighthouses alongside the Oregon coast are identified to be among the many most photographed on the planet: Tillamook Rock between Seaside and Cannon Seaside, and Heceta Head close to Florence. But there’s one other moderately poignant connection between them. One man, named Oswald Allik, served on each lighthouses as a head lightkeeper till their finish, closing out each of them as they shut down in a technique or one other. (Photograph Oregon Coast Seaside Connection)

Within the case of Horrible Tilly, that outdated sentinel was changed by an automatic mild elsewhere. Within the case of Heceta Head Lighthouse, it not had a necessity for individuals to run it because it turned automated inside.

Allik, a local of Estonia, was there for 2 very historic moments within the lengthy tales of Oregon coast lighthouses – and people tales are usually not over but.

Many do not know that he served aboard each lighthouses.

Allik is most well-known for his logbook entry on the ultimate working day of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, that distant, distant mild offshore from Tillamook Head that also cajoles the general public to this present day by tickling their imaginations. He’s greatest identified for being the final man on that foreboding chunk of land, together with famed Oregon historical past creator James Gibbs.

Courtesy Keepers of the Heceta Head Lighthouse

Gibbs additionally served within the US Coast Guard with Allik about that point – and there’s surprisingly a Florence-area reference to him as nicely. However that is coming.

Allik penned this entry on September 1, 1957:

“Farewell, Tillamook Rock Mild Station. An period has ended. With this last entry, and never with out sentiment, I return thee to the weather.”

Allik began on Tillamook Rock again in 1939 and served varied ranks there, together with leaving for a short time. He missed one of many massive landmark occasions of the spooky place, the storm of October 21, 1934, that just about wrecked it.

His last entry famous a lot sorrow in leaving, in seeing it deserted. He mentioned “Might your sundown years be good years. Your function is now solely an emblem, however the lives you may have saved and the service you may have rendered are worthy of the very best respect.”

Nevertheless, he was shortly reassigned to a different well-known spot on the Oregon coast, down in direction of Florence, to the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

There, issues weren’t as tempestuous or as harmful. His log entries of Tilly be aware loads of ravenous storms, waves lashing the tiny rocky spot in the course of the ocean and thick fog surrounding them in any respect sides. Right here near Florence, there have been keepers quarters on dry land.

One severe journey, nevertheless, concerned an enormous landslide attributable to heavy rain that got here down the hill and snapped {the electrical} wires that fed the station and its electrical mild. It was February 12, 1961. Allik and two different assistants needed to go up prime, insert a fuel lamp the place the sunshine is and switch the lens spherical and spherical by hand, which meant everybody taking turns and strolling around the lens room. This they did for hours, till about 7:30 within the morning.

This was the one time throughout its service the sunshine was interrupted.

One newspaper report from the interval talks about Allik and an “Orwellian black field” that sits within the lens room, with an space on it that is delicate to mild. If the primary bulb goes out, then one other is routinely popped as much as substitute it. If each exit, the little black field notes that no mild is being shone and it sends a warning to the station on the keeper’s quarters.

Tillamook Rock Lighthouse was inbuilt 1880 and served till 1957, some 77 years. Heceta Head Lighthouse began development in 1892 and was switched on two years later.

Allik was there in 1961 when it closed right down to human beings, solely serving 4 years, however permitting him to retire in glory. He had seen the tip of each well-known lights.

Gibbs was one other mate beneath his command aboard the Seaside / Cannon Seaside mild. Gibbs went on to jot down quite a few books in regards to the Oregon coast and the complete west coast, and gave intensive interviews about his experiences aboard Horrible Tilly till his demise. He ultimately settled simply south of Yachats, under Cape Perpetua, and his house featured an precise working lighthouse. He referred to as it Cleft of the Rock.

The truth is, for a time, he lent his mild to the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport.

Cleft of the Rock was seen for miles out at sea throughout these trendy instances, till Gibbs handed away within the 2010s. It wasn’t needed today, with all lighthouse-like capabilities for mariners going to digital and satellite tv for pc coordinates. However ships passing within the space mentioned they appreciated the sight.

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