Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Life & Death of Bayocean, Oregon

"Bayocean Sandspit Broken and Shore Resort Periled," Oregonian, Jan. 15, 1939, p. 12.
I came across the Oregonian article recently while researching other things. I've been out to a vacation house at Cape Meares a few times over the past couple of years, but it wasn't until the most recent visit that I realized that we drove right past the former site of Bayocean as we drove west on the aptly named Bayocean Road.

From the article:
    "The tremendous seas which hammered at the Oregon coast early this month have spelled the doom of the Bayocean peninsula . . . . What remained of the Bayocean natatorium was swept away. Seas poured into the town of Bayocean, flooding homes and streets."
    "Construction of the north jetty in 1914, designed to deepen the channel of Tillamook bay, is blamed for the gradual tearing away of the Bayocean peninsula. Since that time, as the jetty has changed the direction of the sea's sweep, the high sand walls of the peninsula have crumbled away."
Read more about Bayocean on the Oregon Encyclopedia!

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2 comments:

  1. HeidiJuly 17, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    I actually wrote a paper on Bayocean in a Pacific Northwest History class as an undergrad. I even interviewed my grandfather on the subject who grew up in the Tillamook area and remembered some of the happenings at Bayocean. It was a fun project.

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  2. James V. HillegasJuly 17, 2011 at 12:27 PM

    Groovy. When it finally struck me that I had been driving past the former site of Bayocean, I was also surprised to learn from the author of that OE entry (and one of the OE Editors-in-Chief) Rick Hardt that there isn't a trace of the town left.

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