



The first order light was lit in 1881 and the storms that raged over the lighthouse were legendary. Walls of green water and rocks frequently washed over the tower and crushed roofs and glass. In 1894, thirteen panels of the lens were smashed, making Tillamook Rock the most costly station ever to build or to maintain. Keepers were isolated to the point of starvation on several occasions when the angry sea kept tenders at bay. No women or children were permitted to live there. The lonely lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957. No longer a state property, the rock and lighthouse have been sold three times and the present owners turned it into an unofficial columbarium—a resting place for the ashes of the dead. Access now is made only by helicopter, weather permitting.
We had also read that in January 1806 William Clark traversed the trail, along with an Indian guide, during the winter they camped at Fort Clatsop. They searched for a beached whale near present day Cannon Beach. Seeking a new source of food, they hoped to return to their fort campsite with a plentiful supply of whale blubber and oil. Many of Lewis’s journal entries describing the forests have inspired development of the Clatsop Trail. Most of the trails in Ecola State Park follow routes established by the Clatsop and Tillamook tribes. They used the trails primarily in the winter when canoe travel was unsafe.

Clark and his party of explorers scaled the northern face of Tillamook Head, which Clark described as “The Steepest worst and highest mountain I ever assended…” As we walked back down the narrow trail to our waiting Jeep, I looked through tall trees at the beautiful ocean waves crashing the shoreline. I wondered how Clark and his Indian guide ever climbed back up that mountain carrying 300 pounds of blubber and several gallons of oil. Fortunately, we could skip the whale blubber and have an early dinner at Pig n’ Pancake House in Cannon Beach.
Traveling in their motorhome several months each year, Arline and her photographer husband, Lee Smith, make their permanent home in Heber Springs, Arkansas. She currently is a presenter for Workamper Rendezvous, sponsored by Workamper News. Arline has dozens of magazine articles published, as well as five books: “Road Work: The Ultimate RVing Adventure” (now available on Kindle); “Road Work II: The RVer’s Ultimate Income Resource Guide”; “Truly Zula; When Heads & Hearts Collide”; and “The Heart of Branson”, a history of the families who started the entertainment town and those who sustain it today. Visit Arline’s personal blog at ArlineChandler.Blogspot.com
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