This pole has been standing guard overlooking the entrance to Tilllamook Bay from the ocean since 1941. In earlier days it was a much busier pole. It was one of many poles installed by the United States Coast Guard just before WW 2 for the 450 mile defense telephone line (DBR) that hugged the coast from from Crescent City, California to Port Angeles, Washington. Originally it had 3 crossarms and the top one was just for communication for the railroad (hidden below by bushes) which had 3 wires, 2 being a pair for telephone and one wire for a grounded telegraph line. The second arm was the defense line which had 4 open wire pairs on clear glass insulators, thought to be Hemingray 45's. The third arm was local and long distance telephone open wire to serve the towns along the north coast in the county. It used the general run of double petticoat glass and an occasional purple Whitall-Tatum No. 1 could be seen.

By sometime in the 1970's the defense line was removed, the telephone line was replaced with cable and only the railroad line remained. I am not sure when the railroad line was no longer used but it remained on the poles afterward until the wires sagged or were broken. Finally the wires were pulled out and several crossarms remained with insulators but no wires. Finally even the insulators disappeared. After this, the few remaining poles left, including this one stood like lonely sentinals along the coast. This particular pole is in the best shape of the bunch and this photo was taken from up on Hwy. 101, but don't let it fool you, it's not as short of a pole as it looks, since the base is down over a cliff!

In September of this year, I couldn't stand looking at the empty pins when driving by so I grabbed a friend to watch me as I climbed the old sentinal and placed 3 train smoked Hemingray 42 (CD 154's) on the pins. It looks better already! The pole was much sturdier than I thought but it is the last one I will ever climb! I am pushing 70, I could feel muscles hurting I never knew I had! To see a sign I placed on it down lower, click NEXT!