Tillamook Light: A True Account of Oregon's Tillamook Rock Lighthouse

by James A. Gibbs

Overview

The lighthouse keeper has gone the way of the iceman and blacksmith, but in the case of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, the story remains—a complete history of “Terrible Tilly,” seasoned with salty drama and some hilarious adventure. Gibbs, a former Coastguardsman stationed at the infamous rock off Oregon’s north-west shores, knows that wild crag from the inside out, and he has supplemented his account with what happened before he arrived on the scene, and since closure of the light in 1957.

Since 1881, Tillamook Rock Lighthouse had been a major factor in marine navigation, from commercial sailing-vessel days down to the age of nuclear-propelled ships. Rightfully famous, the rock has rarely been visited because of its inaccessibility, but countless thousands have gazed at this awesome monolith from shore-side, or shipboard, especially during stormy weather when breakers beat unmercifully against its encrusted crags, and a raging, roiling sea appears determined to break the rock in half....

Of all the lighthouses that dot the shores of the world, few can match the heroic setting of Tillamook Rock, or the turbulent and colorful history of its lighthouse.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787202542
Publisher:	Golden Springs Publishing
Publication date:	11/11/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	145
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

James A. “Jim” Gibbs (January 17, 1922 - April 30, 2010) was an American author, lighthouse keeper, and maritime historian.

He put in four years with the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, including offshore anti-submarine patrol duty and a stint as a lighthouse keeper at Tillamook Rock for a year beginning in 1945. In 1948 Gibbs was one of the five founders of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.

Gibbs was the editor of “Marine Digest,” a Seattle maritime trade weekly, for twenty-four years, until 1972. His writing credits include Pacific Graveyard: A Narrative of the Ships Lost Where the Columbia River Meets the Pacific Ocean (1950), West Coast Windjammers in Story and Pictures (1968), Disaster Log of Ships: A Pictorial Account of Shipwrecks, California to Alaska (1971), and Lighthouses of the Pacific (1986).

Among his writing achievements are twelve “Anchor Awards,” presented annually by the Port of Seattle for excellence in journalism and writing in the maritime field.

Gibbs built and lived in Cleft of the Rock Light near Yachats, Oregon, the first privately owned working lighthouse in Oregon. He died there at the age of 88 in 2010.