Friday, December 21, 2018 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
A TRIP TO ‘TERRIBLE TILLY’
By Brenna Visser
Seaside Signal
Scott Rekate remembers
a lot about visiting the Til-
lamook Rock Lighthouse.
It was dark. Even a little
spooky.
But perhaps what was
most memorable was the
smell.
“It’s a popular rest place
for birds. The guano there
... the ammonia there would
gag you,” he said. “To start
out to the top you’d have to
take a deep breath and then
run up the stairs.”
In the late 1970s, Rekate
was one of the many dory
fi shermen
circling
the
famous lighthouse in search
of a good Chinook salmon
run. He was one of a hand-
ful who made it into “Ter-
rible Tilly” after it was
decommissioned and before
it became a columbarium in
1980.
Other than a few pho-
tos, the experience mostly
fell out of his memory until
a few weeks ago, when he
read a story about a man
who discovered copies of
the original schematics for
the lighthouse in his War-
renton home.
Rekate, a retired Can-
non Beach contractor, now
plans to offer his photos
to the Cannon Beach His-
tory Center and Museum to
help piece together the light-
house’s history.
“When I read that arti-
cle, I thought, ‘Hey, maybe
they could use these, too,’”
he said.
Local lore
Lots of local lore exists
about fi shermen taking trips
into the lighthouse, but pho-
tos documenting the inte-
rior or taken from the per-
spective of being on the
lighthouse are uncommon,
according to the history
center.
While the abandoned
lighthouse was always in the
background, it wasn’t espe-
cially common for fi sher-
men to get onto the sea stack,
Rekate recalled. There is no
good way to dock a boat,
and the area is known for its
tumultuous conditions.
But one day, when fi shing
was unusually slow and the
water was strangely placid,
Rekate and a few other fi sh-
ermen decided to take a look
inside.
Getting there, however,
was still a challenge. Rekate
and his partners took turns
jumping onto the island
while the others would put-
ter around.
“Even though it was
calm, there was still a swell,
so you’d have to time it,”
he said. “You’d move in
with the swell and the per-
son going would jump, then
you’d have to hit reverse and
back out.”
When he fi rst arrived
at the lighthouse, the front
door was fl ung open and the
insides were in disarray.
The building was incred-
ibly dark, Rekate remem-
bered, illuminated only
by the light from the front
Scott Rekate/The Daily Astorian
Rare photos of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse have recently
been released by a fi sherman who visited the site before it
was closed off .
door and from the light-
house above. Some chairs
and a table remained —
even a 1950s newspaper
from Tampa, Florida. Inside
where the Fresnel lens used
to live, little holes from
small rocks carried by large
waves punctured the glass.
What impressed him
the most, however, was the
staircase.
“The catwalks were
very unique,” Rekate said.
“Light from the lighthouse
would hit down on dia-
mond-shaped Fresnel pieces
on the staircase and illu-
minate the whole staircase
without any lights. I thought
that was pretty cool.”
Still curious
Rekate remains curious
Scott Rekate/The Daily Astorian
Scott Rekate at the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
about the state of the light-
house almost 40 years later,
and of the other fi shermen
who made the journey.
“If there was any kind
of major swell, you’d bash
into the rocks,” he said. “So
I can’t imagine it happened
a lot.”
John Gorka
in Concert
DECEMBER 24
8:30 pm - Carol Sing
9 pm - Holy Eucharist
503 N. Holladay, Dr. • Seaside, OR
been blown apart across the
country by now,” he said.
powered by
Calvary
Episcopal Church
DECEMBER 25
10 am - Holy Eucharist
Many who remember
Terrible Tilly have “likely
January 17, 2019 • 7:30pm
Astoria’s Performing Arts Center
music fi rst
Tickets Liberty box office &
online at LibertyAstoria.org
coastradio.org
I’m so glad I found you – and that the
folks at Providence knew how to get
you gone. These days, the view from
here is lovely.
Darn lucky and blessed,
Penny
Ever wanted
to raise an
animal and
take it to fair?
Seaside Signal
The Barnyard and Com-
pany 4-H Club in Seaside
is looking for new mem-
bers. There focus will be
on teaching youth how to
care for and feed their ani-
mal; how to meet indus-
try standards; animal prod-
ucts for retail, nutritional
value, breeds identifi cation,
and more. Education will be
primarily for animals in the
swine and sheep species.
This club is for members
ages 9 to 19. For more infor-
mation or to sign up, call
Jennifer Biamont at 503-
440-2730 or Sandra Carlson
at Clatsop County Extension
at 503-325-8573.
prov idenceoregon . o rg / d e a rnorthcoa s t