In 1878, the United States Congress appropriated $50,000 for a lighthouse to facilitate navigation on the northern coast of Oregon. After officials determined that a lighthouse on Tillamook Head would not provide good visibility for mariners, the location was changed to Tillamook Rock, a small basaltic island located 1.2 miles due west. From 1879 to 1880, quarry workers used dynamite to create a level surface on the island's top, and on June 22, 1880, the cornerstone for the lighthouse was laid. The facility began operations on January 21, 1881.

Duty at the Tillamook Rock Light Station, also known as Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, was hazardous and isolating, as the island was frequently battered by storms. In October 1934, a storm produced waves high enough to surge over the tower and shatter the lighthouse's Fresnel lens. This storm also severed the telegraph cable and washed away the landing gear. The lighthouse keepers eventually made contact with the mainland by using a transmitter that keeper Henry Jenkins had constructed from spare parts.

Among the lighthouse's head keepers were William Dahlgren from 1901 to 1909, Robert Gerloff from 1903 to 1928, George Wheeler from 1929 to 1952, and Oswald Allik from the late 1930s to 1957. The U.S. Coast Guard closed the lighthouse on September 1, 1957. By that time, it was the nation's most expensive lighthouse to maintain and radar had made it obsolete.

Since its closure, the lighthouse has been sold several times. In the 1980s and 1990s, it operated as the Eternity at Sea Columbarium, where clients could pay between $1,000 and $5,000 to have their ashes interred. Tillamook Rock is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and the lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Source: "Tillamook Rock Lighthouse" by Cameron La Follette and Douglas Deur, Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/tillamook_rock_lighthouse/