About the Area



Bayocean, en route to Cape Meare's, was built on a sand dune on a spit between the Pacific Ocean and the fresh water of Tillamook Bay. There were grand plans for the new coastal resort, heralded as "The Playground of the Pacific Northwest", but many of the plans never came to fruition. There were three Hotels and boarding houses, a School, a General Store, a Bakery and several other businesses. The Amusements consisted of a Trap Shoot Range, a Bowling Alley and Tennis Courts. Bayocean had a Cannery, a Tin Shop, Machine Shop and a Texaco gas station. The Town had a sophisticated water system, a telephone system and a power plant with a diesel engine that provided electricity. A Grand Opening for the Beach Resort was held on June 20, 1912 complete with a parade and marching band. The Natatorium at Bayocean which also housed a 1000 seat movie theater. The 50 X 160 foot pool, which varied from 1 foot to 11 and 1/2 feet in depth, was heated and it was known for its wave machine. The building housed dressing rooms, tub and shower baths, boilers, pumping and heating machinery, a laundry and an electric light plant.

A road from Tillamook was finally completed in 1928 and a school opened in 1932. The school doubled as a house of worship. Eventually, more than 2,000 sandy lots were sold and about 60 homes were built. The town boasted four miles of paved streets. Potter used his Bay Ocean Railroad, which was known as "The Dinky" to haul in gravel from the rock crusher, as well as concrete from the batch plant and other building supplies. With portable tracks, Potter could move the railroad as needed. Until Bayocean’s new residents could purchase a tract of land or build a house, many of them stayed in the Tent City. Each tent had a wood stove and some of the tents were equipped with lights and electricity. Some Cottages at Bayocean were built by Portland’s Poulson Lumber family The Natatorium pool was popular in the daytime and the Rustic Pavilion was popular on Wednesday and Saturday nights when the Hotel Orchestra provided the music. By the time the road opened, erosion had begun to take a toll as several buildings washed into the sea, and the Dance Hall had burned down. The town had about 50 year-round residents, but in the summer, the crowds would swell to several thousand inhabitants. A Rose Festival Float was used to promote Bayocean in 1909. By 1932, the ocean had taken a tole on the Natatorium. It was no longer safe to swim there. As the ocean washed away the sand and under footings, the walls of the Natatorium began to sag and the roof collapsed in 1936. It had totally disappeared by 1939. The Post Office closed on March 31, 1953 as most of the resort town’s residents had moved away. Mr. Mitchell was the last resident to leave. By 1954, the spit washed out, making Bayocean an island. It became known as the town that fell into the sea. The last house fell into the ocean in 1960. Several of the original buildings from Bayocean were moved to Cape Meares, including the School House, which is now a Community Center.

Tillamook The city is named for the Tillamook people, A Native American tribe speaking a Salishan language" who lived in this area until the early nineteenth century. Tillamook is known for it's farmland, lumber industry, and of course the wonderful creamery, especially cheese. Built in 1890, Cape Meares Light served as the light station for Tillamook Bay. When it was built, the lighthouse complex included two keeper's houses, two oil houses, and two cisterns, and was connected to the light by a 1,000 feet boardwalk. The lighthouse is on the "National Register of Historic Places" The Octopus Tree is a massive Sitka spruce with branches growing like giant tentacles from its 50-foot base. It is situated approximately 600 feet from the scenic viewpoint. The trees odd shape, according to local historians and Tillamook tribal descendants, comes not from the ravages of wind, as some have said, but from its function as a ceremonial site, shaped to hold cedar canoes and other ritual objects. In addition to the replicated Fort Clatsop, a popular point of interest is the Astoria Column, a tower 125 feet high, built atop Coxcomb Hill above the town, with an inner circular staircase allowing visitors to climb to see a panoramic view of the town, the surrounding lands, and the Columbia flowing into the Pacific. The column was built by the Astor family in 1926 to commemorate the region's early history.

Munson Falls is home to ancient western red cedar and Sitka spruce. An important salmon spawning ground, Munson Creek Falls tumbles 319', making it thetallest waterfall in the Coast Range. A trail system winds through the hills to the waterfall. The turn off to Munson is located approx. 7 miles south of Tillamook onHwy. 101. This is a no fee park, but no turn-a-round for R.V's.

Tillamook Air Museum is an aviation museum located south of Tillamook, Oregon at Tillamook Airport . The museum is housed in a former military blimp hangarcalled "Hangar B", which is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world. Tillamook Air Museum has been described as "one of the country's top private World War II aircraft collections". It was constructed by the Navy in 1942 during World War II for Naval Air Station Tillamook, the hangar building housing the aircraft is 1,072 feet long and 296 feet (90 m) wide, giving it over 6 acres (24,000 m2) of area. It stands at 192 feet (59 m) tall. The doors weigh 30 tons each and are 120 feet (37 m) tall. A portion of the blimp hangar is now leased by the American Blimp Corporation which is the largest manufacturer of blimps in the United States.

Tillamook Cheese Factory Be sure to visit the cheese factory located on Hwy 101 just north of Tillamook. You can take a tour, and get the best ice cream in the world, at least that's what we folks around here think. In 2010, Tillamook Medium Cheddar cheese won the gold medal in the 2010 World Cheese Championship Cheese Contest. In 1854, several farmers from the county built a schooner named the Morning Star to transport butter to Portland, Oregon; the schooner is now featured as part of the co-op's logo, and a replica is on display at The Tillamook Cheese Factory.

The community of Rockaway, which was named after Rockaway Beach on Long Island was established as a seaside resort in 1909 by the Rockaway Beach company.Rockaway was connected by train to Portland in 1912. The name of the city was changed to Rockaway Beach in 1987. Rockaway Beach has a good variety of antiques shops, a surplus store, lots of restaurants, and Flamingo Jims which is always a fun place to browse. There is ice cream, an arcade, and a large oceanfront wayside with plenty of parking. The summer months provide more events, and the kite festival in May is a great time to come to the beach.

Stop by Karla's smoked Fish house just north of town, The black cod is amazing! The Pronto Pup, a brand of corn dog, was invented at Rockaway in the late 1930s. Jetty fishery and Brighton Marina Hungry for some crab? Clams? Head on down to one of these marinas and the guys will fix you up Catch it yourself if you like. They cook crab, you can sit around thier fire pit, crack it and eat it there. Both Marinas are off of Hwy 101 between Nehalem and Rockaway Beach. You may camp there too.

The Nehalem estuary has a great assortments of aquatic wildlife. The estuary serves as home, hideout, nursery, and supermarket for a variety of shrimps, clams, and oysters. Some, such as the Dungeness crab and Pacific oyster are valuable commercial species. The North fork of the Nehalem River is one of the only places left where people are permitted to catch the endangered Coho Salmon. Wild Coho must be released, but Coho raised in the hatchery are allowed to be caught and kept. Fishing for Hatchery Coho is only allowed on the lower river and north fork of the Nehalem. The Nehalem River is also one of the few places with a run of summer Chinook. The entirity of the Nehalem river is 119 miles long.

Nehalen Bay Winery, located on Hwy 53, approx 1 mile from hwy 101, is a great stop to make if you're in the mood for some wine tasting. Originally a Creamery, the building was transformed into todays winery and hosts some great music and food festivals throughout the year. Try the rubarb wine. Nehalem Bay State Park is on the south end of Manzanita.. The park extends to the tip of the spit enclosing Nehalem Bay and features large campgrounds, yurts, a horse camp with corrals, air strip with fly-in camping, and a hiker-biker camp. You can Rent Horses here and go for a beach ride.

Manzanita is sandwiched between two beautiful state parks - Oswald West to the north and Nehalem Bay State Park on the southwhich stretches for seven miles between Neahkahnie Mountain and the Nehalem Jetty where Nehalem Bay and Nehalem River meet the Pacific Ocean. If you feel up for a good walk, head south on Manzanita Beach and walk to the jetty which is usually covered with seals lounging on the rocks or fishing in the water, along with heron and egrets standing on one foot in the surf. People enjoy strolling around Manzanita too, with it's many shops and eateries.

Neahkahnie Mountain is north of Manzanita in Oswald West State Park overlooking U.S. Route 101. The peak is part of the Oregon Coast Range.. Neah-Kah-Nie in the Tillamook language can be translated as "the place of the supreme deity." A legend, dating back to the mid-1800s and the first Hudson's Bay Co. employees to arrive in the area, claims the mountain conceals a lost treasure, hidden by Spanish sailors in the late 16th century. There are various versions of the legend, but the most common ones involve a group of sailors carrying a chest up the hillside, then digging a hole and lowering the treasure inside. As the story goes, one of the sailors then plunges his sword into one of the men with them, apparently an African slave, and his body was then thrown in on top of the treasure; the idea being, Native Americans would not disturb a man's grave, so keeping the treasure under a dead man would prevent the Native Americans—who, in most versions of the story were watching the activity closely from nearby—from digging it up. The views are breathtaking from this mountain.

Oswald West State Park, located between Manzanita and Cannon Beach on highway 101, offers year-round recreation opportunities. The park has majestic views of sights including Cape Falcon, Neahkahnie Mountain, Arch Cape, and Smuggler’s Cove. The beach is accessed from the main parking lot via a short hike through lush rain forests. Hiking , beach combing, tidepools, and a favorite surfing spot.

What was to become Cannon Beach was first recorded by of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in early 1806. The expedition was wintering at ort Clatsop, roughly 20 miles to the north near the mouth of the Columbia River. In December 1805, two members of the expedition returned to camp with blubber from a whale that had beached several miles south, near the mouth of Ecola Creek. Clark later explored the region himself. From a spot near the western cliffs of the headland he saw "...the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in front of a boundless Ocean..." That viewpoint, later dubbed "Clark's Point of View," can be accessed by a hiking trail from Indian Beach in Ecola State Park. Clark and several of his companions, including Sacagawea, completed a three day journey on January 10, 1806 to the site of the beached whale. They encountered a group of Native Americans from the Tillamook tribe who were boiling blubber for storage.

Clark and his party met with them and successfully bartered for 300 pounds of whale blubberand oil before returning to Fort Clatsop. There is wooden whale sculpture commemorating the encounter between Clark's group and the Tillamooks in a small park at the northern end of Hemlock Street. In 1846, a cannon from the US Navy schooner Shark washed ashore just north of Arch Cape, a few miles to the south of the community. The schooner hit land while attempting to cross the Columbia Bar, also known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific." The cannon, rediscovered in 1898, eventually inspired a name change for the growing community. In 1922, Elk Creek was redubbed Cannon Beach (after the name of the beach that extends south of Ecola creek for eight miles, ending at Arch Cape.


Seaside, is named for a Historic Summer Resort, built in the 1870's by a railroad magnate. In 1806 a group of men from the Lewis and Clark expedition built a salt cairn in Seaside where it remains today. The city was incorporated in 1899. Native American name for Clatsop is "Ne-co-tat".

The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel Barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River" It wasabandoned on Clatsop Spit" near Fort Stevens at"Warrenton, Oregon" about four miles south of the Columbia River channel. On September 26, 1906, the redale left Salina Cruz, Mexico, bound for Portland, where it was to pick up a cargo of wheat for the United Kingdom. Despite encountering heavy fog, they managed to safely reach the mouth of the Columbia River early in the morning of October 25. The Iredale ran aground at Clatsop Beach, hitting so hard that three of her masts snapped from the impact.. Fortunately, none of the crew were seriously injured. One of the lifesavers who helped Captain Lawrence ashore, remembered that the red-bearded captain stood stiffly at attention, saluted his ship, and said "May God bless you and may your bones bleach in these sands." He then turned and addressed his men with a bottle of whisky in his hand. "Boys," he said, "have a drink The wrecked bark became an immediate tourist attraction, and still is.

Astoria was founded over 200 yers ago by John Jacob Astor of the Pacific Fur Company. The first U.S Post Office west of the Rocky Mountains, was founded in Astoria. The Astoria column on Coxcomb Hill, which has served as a beacon for 80 years. is 600 feet above sea level, and if you are in the mood to climb the 164 steps to the top, the view is phenomenal, especially if the weather cooperates.

Boat Launches: John Day Ramp, E. Columbia river Hwy, Astoria

Nehalem Landing County Boat Launch - Nehalem River and Bay, Oregon Coast Hwy just south of Nehalem,

Jetty fishery Hwy 101 North of Rockaway

Port of Garibaldi, Garibaldi, Or

Sollie Smith 901 Wilson River loop

Mills Bridge 12520 Wilson River Hwy

Memaloose Point, Bay Ocean Rd., enroute to Cape Meare's